James brown biography.com
James Brown
American musician (–)
This article is about the American singer. For other people named James Brown, see James Brown (disambiguation).
James Joseph Brown (May 3, – December 25, ) was an American singer, dancer, and musician. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century music, he is referred to by various nicknames, among them "Mr.
Dynamite", "the Hardest-Working Man in Show Business", "Minister of New Super Heavy Funk", "Godfather of Soul", "King of Soul", and "Soul Brother No. 1".[1] In a career that lasted more than 50 years, he influenced the development of several music genres.[2] Brown was one of the first ten inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on January 23, His music has been heavily sampled by hip-hop musicians and other artists.[3]
Brown began his career as a gospel singer in Toccoa, Georgia.[4] He rose to prominence in the mids as the lead singer of the Famous Flames, a rhythm and blues vocal group founded by Bobby Byrd.[5][6] With the hit ballads "Please, Please, Please" and "Try Me", Brown built a reputation as a dynamic live performer with the Famous Flames and his backing band, sometimes known as the James Brown Band or the James Brown Orchestra.
His success peaked in the s with the live album Live at the Apollo and hit singles such as "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag", "I Got You (I Feel Good)" and "It's a Man's Man's Man's World".
James brown biography.com The Death of Elvis Presley. More to explore. Hot Pants Polydor, He served 26 months in prison for leading police on a high speed chase in Georgia inDuring the late s, Brown moved from a continuum of blues and gospel-based forms and styles to a new approach to music-making, emphasizing stripped-down interlocking rhythms that influenced the development of funk music.[7] By the early s, Brown had fully established the funk sound after the formation of the J.B.s with records such as "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine" and "The Payback".
He also became noted for songs of social commentary, including the hit "Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud". Brown continued to perform and record until his death from pneumonia in
Brown recorded and released 17 singles that reached No. 1 on the Billboard R&B charts.[8] He also holds the record for the most singles listed on the Billboard Hot chart that did not reach No.
1.[10][11] Brown was posthumously inducted into the first class of the Rhythm & Blues Music Hall of Fame in as an artist and then in as a songwriter. He received honors from several other institutions, including inductions into the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame[12] and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.[13] In Joel Whitburn's analysis of the Billboard R&B charts from to , Brown is ranked No.
1 in the Top Artists. He is ranked seventh on Rolling Stone's list of the Greatest Artists of All Time,[15] and at No. 44 on their list of the Greatest Singers of All Time.
Early life
James Joseph Brown was born on May 3, , in Barnwell, South Carolina, to year-old Susie (née Behling; –) and year-old Joseph Gardner Brown (–) in a small wooden shack.[16] Brown's name was supposed to have been Joseph James Brown, but his first and middle names were mistakenly reversed on his birth certificate.[17][18]
The Brown family lived in poverty in Elko, South Carolina, which was an impoverished town in [10] They moved to Augusta, Georgia, when James was four or five.
His family first settled at one of his aunts' brothels. They later moved into a house shared with another aunt. Brown's mother eventually left the family after a contentious and abusive marriage and moved to New York.
He began singing in talent shows as a young child, first appearing at Augusta's Lenox Theater in , winning the show after singing the ballad "So Long".
While in Augusta, Brown performed buck dances for change to entertain troops from Camp Gordon at the start of World War II as their convoys traveled over a canal bridge near his aunt's home. This is where he first heard the legendary blues musician Howlin' Wolf play guitar.[23] He learned to play the piano, guitar, and harmonica during this period.
He became inspired to become an entertainer after hearing "Caldonia" by Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five.[24] In his teen years, Brown briefly had a career as a boxer.
At the age of 16, he was convicted of robbery and sent to a juvenile detention center in Toccoa. There, he formed a gospel quartet with four cellmates, including Johnny Terry.
Brown met singer Bobby Byrd when the two played against each other in a baseball game outside the detention center. Byrd discovered that Brown could sing after hearing of "a guy called Music Box", which was Brown's nickname at the prison. Byrd has since said he and his family helped to secure an early release, which led to Brown promising the court he would "sing for the Lord".
Brown was released on a work sponsorship with Toccoa business owner S.
C. Lawson. Lawson was impressed with Brown's work ethic and secured his release with a promise to keep him employed for two years. Brown was paroled on June 14, Brown went on to work with both of Lawson's sons, and came back to visit the family from time to time throughout his career. Shortly after being paroled he joined the gospel group the Ever-Ready Gospel Singers, featuring Byrd's sister Sarah.
Music career
– The Famous Flames
Main article: The Famous Flames
Brown joined Bobby Byrd's group in The group had evolved from the Gospel Starlighters, an a cappella gospel group, to an R&B group with the name the Avons.
He reputedly joined the band after one of its members, Troy Collins, died in a car crash.[30] Along with Brown and Byrd, the group consisted of Sylvester Keels, Doyle Oglesby, Fred Pulliam, Nash Knox and Nafloyd Scott. Influenced by R&B groups such as Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, the Orioles and Billy Ward and his Dominoes, the group changed its name, first to the Toccoa Band and then to the Flames.[30] Nafloyd's brother Baroy later joined the group on bass guitar.
Brown, Byrd and Keels switched lead positions and instruments, often playing drums and piano. Johnny Terry later joined, by which time Pulliam and Oglesby had long left.
Berry Trimier became the group's first manager, booking them at parties near college campuses in Georgia and South Carolina. The group had already gained a reputation as a good live act when they renamed themselves the Famous Flames.
In , the group contacted Little Richard while performing in Macon.[35] Richard convinced the group to get in contact with his manager at the time, Clint Brantley, at his nightclub. Brantley agreed to manage them after seeing the group audition. He then sent them to a local radio station to record a demo session, where they performed their own composition "Please, Please, Please", which was inspired when Little Richard wrote the words of the title on a napkin and Brown was determined to make a song out of it.[38][39]
The Famous Flames eventually signed with King Records' Federal subsidiary in Cincinnati, Ohio, and issued a re-recorded version of "Please, Please, Please" in March The song became the group's first R&B hit, selling over a million copies.[40] None of their follow-ups gained similar success.
In , Brown replaced Clint Brantley as manager and hired Ben Bart, chief of Universal Attractions Agency. In the original Flames broke up, after Bart changed the name of the group to "James Brown and His Famous Flames".
In October , Brown released the ballad "Try Me", which hit number one on the R&B chart in the beginning of , becoming the first of seventeen chart-topping R&B hits.[42] Shortly afterwards, he recruited his first band, led by J.
C. Davis, and reunited with Bobby Byrd who joined a revived Famous Flames lineup that included Eugene "Baby" Lloyd Stallworth and Bobby Bennett, with Johnny Terry sometimes coming in as the "fifth Flame". Brown, the Flames, and his entire band debuted at the Apollo Theater on April 24, , opening for Brown's idol, Little Willie John.[30]
Federal Records issued two albums credited to Brown and the Famous Flames.
Both contained previously released singles. In , Brown began multi-tasking in the recording studio involving himself, his singing group, the Famous Flames, and his band, a separate entity from the Flames, sometimes named the James Brown Orchestra or the James Brown Band. In , the band released the top ten R&B hit "(Do the) Mashed Potatoes" on Dade Records, owned by Henry Stone, billed under the pseudonym "Nat Kendrick & the Swans" due to label issues.[44] As a result of its success, King president Syd Nathan shifted Brown's contract from Federal to the parent label, King, which according to Brown in his autobiography meant "you got more support from the company".
While with King, Brown, under the Famous Flames lineup, released the hit-filled album Think! and in released two albums with the James Brown Band earning second billing. With the Famous Flames, Brown sang lead on several more hits, including "Bewildered", "I'll Go Crazy" and "Think", songs that hinted at his emerging style.[30]
– Mr.
Dynamite
In , Brown and his band scored a hit with their cover of the instrumental "Night Train", becoming a top five R&B single. That same year, the ballads "Lost Someone" and "Baby You're Right", the latter a Joe Tex composition, added to his repertoire and increased his reputation with R&B audiences. On October 24, , Brown financed a live recording of a performance at the Apollo and convinced Syd Nathan to release the album, despite Nathan's belief that no one would buy a live album due to the fact that Brown's singles had already been bought and that live albums were usually bad sellers.
Live at the Apollo was released in June and became an immediate hit, eventually reaching number two on the Top LPs chart and selling over a million copies, staying on the charts for 14 months.[45] In , Brown scored his first top 20 pop hit with his rendition of the standard "Prisoner of Love".
He launched his first label, Try Me Records, which included recordings by Tammy Montgomery, later to be famous as Tammi Terrell, Johnny & Bill (Famous Flames associates Johnny Terry and Bill Hollings) and the Poets, which was another name used for Brown's backing band.[30] During this time, Brown began an ill-fated two-year relationship with year-old Tammi Terrell when she sang in his revue.
Terrell ended their personal and professional relationship because of Brown's abusive behavior.[46]
In , seeking bigger commercial success, Brown and Bobby Byrd formed the production company, Fair Deal, linking the operation to the Mercury imprint, Smash Records.[30][47] King Records fought against this and was granted an injunction preventing Brown from releasing any recordings for the label.
Prior to the injunction, Brown had released three vocal singles, including the blues-oriented hit "Out of Sight", which further indicated the direction his music was going to take.[48] Touring throughout the year, Brown and the Famous Flames grabbed more national attention after delivering an explosive show-stopping performance on the live concert film The T.A.M.I.
Show. The Flames' dynamic gospel-tinged vocals, polished choreography and timing as well as Brown's energetic dance moves and high-octane singing upstaged the proposed closing act, the Rolling Stones.
Having signed a new deal with King, Brown released his song "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" in , which became his first top ten pop hit and won him his first Grammy Award.[49] Brown signed a production deal with Loma Records.[50] Later in , he issued "I Got You", which became his second single in a row to reach number-one on the R&B chart and top ten on the pop chart.
Brown followed that up with the ballad "It's a Man's Man's Man's World", a third Top 10 Pop hit (No. 1 R&B) which confirmed his stance as a top-ranking performer, especially with R&B audiences from that point on.[49]
– Soul Brother No. 1
By , Brown's emerging sound began to be defined as funk music.
That year he released what some critics cited as the first true funk song, "Cold Sweat", which hit number-one on the R&B chart (Top 10 Pop) and became one of his first recordings to contain a drum break and also the first that featured a harmony that was reduced to a single chord.[51][52] The instrumental arrangements on tracks such as "Give It Up or Turnit a Loose" and "Licking Stick-Licking Stick", both recorded in , and "Funky Drummer", recorded in , featured a more developed version of Brown's mids style, with the horn section, guitars, bass and drums meshed together in intricate rhythmic patterns based on multiple interlocking riffs.
(Note: It is very important to mention "I've Got Money" which features the first 'rhythmic' shift as one of the foundations of the Funk, played by Clayton Fillyau in recorded in , released in !)
Changes in Brown's style that started with "Cold Sweat" established the musical foundation for Brown's later hits, such as "I Got the Feelin'" () and "Mother Popcorn" ().
By this time Brown's vocals frequently took the form of a kind of rhythmic declamation, not quite sung but not quite spoken, that only intermittently featured traces of pitch or melody. This became a major influence on the techniques of rapping, which would come to maturity along with hip hop music in the coming decades. Brown's style of funk in the late s was based on interlocking syncopated parts: strutting bass lines, syncopated drum patterns, and iconic percussive guitar riffs.[53]
The main guitar ostinatos for 's "Ain't It Funky" and "Give It Up or Turnit a Loose", are examples of Brown's refinement of New Orleans funk; irresistibly danceable riffs, stripped down to their rhythmic essence.
On both recordings, the tonal structure is bare bones. The pattern of attack points is the emphasis, not the pattern of pitches as if the guitar were an African drum or idiophone. Alexander Stewart states that this popular feel was passed along from "New Orleans—through James Brown's music, to the popular music of the s".[54] Those same tracks were later resurrected by countless hip-hop musicians from the s onward.
As a result, James Brown remains to this day the world's most sampled recording artist. Two tracks that he wrote, are synonymous with modern dance, especially with house music, jungle music, and drum and bass music, which were sped up exponentially, in the latter two genres.
"Bring it Up" has an Afro-Cuban guajeo-like structure. All three of these guitar riffs are based on an onbeat/offbeat structure.
Stewart says that it "is different from a time line (such as clave and tresillo) in that it is not an exact pattern, but more of a loose organizing principle."[55]
It was around this time as the musician's popularity increased that he acquired the nickname "Soul Brother No. 1", after failing to win the title "King of Soul" from Solomon Burke during a Chicago gig two years prior.[56] Brown's recordings during this period influenced musicians across the industry, most notably groups such as Sly and the Family Stone, Funkadelic, Charles Wright & the Watts rd Street Rhythm Band, Booker T.
& the M.G.s as well as vocalists such as Edwin Starr, David Ruffin and Dennis Edwards from the Temptations, and Michael Jackson, who, throughout his career, cited Brown as his ultimate idol.[57]
Brown's band during this period employed musicians and arrangers who had come up through the jazz tradition.
He was noted for his ability as a bandleader and songwriter to blend the simplicity and drive of R&B with the rhythmic complexity and precision of jazz. Trumpeter Lewis Hamlin and saxophonist/keyboardist Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis, the successor to previous bandleader Nat Jones, led the band. Guitarist Jimmy Nolen provided percussive, deceptively simple riffs for each song, and Maceo Parker's prominent saxophone solos provided a focal point for many performances.
Other members of Brown's band included stalwart Famous Flames singer and sideman Bobby Byrd, trombonist Fred Wesley, drummers John "Jabo" Starks, Clyde Stubblefield and Melvin Parker, saxophonist St. Clair Pinckney, guitarist Alphonso "Country" Kellum and bassist Bernard Odum.
In addition to a torrent of singles and studio albums, Brown's output during this period included two more successful live albums, Live at the Garden () and Live at the Apollo, Volume II (), and a television special, James Brown: Man to Man.
His music empire expanded along with his influence on the music scene. As Brown's music empire grew, his desire for financial and artistic independence grew as well. Brown bought radio stations during the late s, including WRDW in his native Augusta, where he shined shoes as a boy.[49] In November , James Brown purchased radio station WGYW in Knoxville, Tennessee, for a reported $75,, according to the January 20, Record World magazine.
The call letters were changed to WJBE reflecting his initials. WJBE began on January 15, , and broadcast a Rhythm & Blues format. The station slogan was "WJBE Raw Soul". Brown bought WEBB in Baltimore in
Brown branched out to make several recordings with musicians outside his own band. In an attempt to appeal to the older, more affluent, and predominantly white adult contemporary audience, Brown recorded Gettin' Down To It () and Soul on Top ()—two albums consisting mostly of romantic ballads, jazz standards, and homologous reinterpretations of his earlier hits—with the Dee Felice Trio and the Louie Bellson Orchestra.
In , he recorded a number of funk-oriented tracks with the Dapps, a white Cincinnati band, including the hit "I Can't Stand Myself". He also released three albums of Christmas music with his own band.
– Godfather of Soul
Main article: The J.B.'s
In March , most of Brown's mid-to-late s road band walked out on him due to financial disputes, a development augured by the prior disbandment of the Famous Flames singing group for the same reason in Brown and erstwhile Famous Flames singer Bobby Byrd, who chose to remain in the band during this tumultuous period as co-frontman, effectively serving as a proto-hype man in live performances, recruited several members of the Pacemakers, a Cincinnati-based ensemble that included bassist Bootsy Collins and his brother, guitarist Phelps "Catfish" Collins; augmented by the remaining members of the s road band, including Fred Wesley, who rejoined Brown's outfit in December , and other newer musicians, they formed the nucleus of the J.B.'s, Brown's new backing ensemble.[58]
Shortly following their first performance together, the band entered the studio to record the Brown-Byrd composition, "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine".
The song —with its off the beat play Brown called "The One"—[58] and other contemporaneous singles further cemented Brown's influence in the nascent genre of funk music. This iteration of the J.B.'s dissolved after a March European tour (documented on the archival release Love Power Peace) due to additional money disputes and Bootsy Collins's use of LSD; a new lineup of the J.B.'s coalesced around Wesley, St.
Clair Pinckney and drummer John Starks.
In , Brown began recording for Polydor Records. Many of his sidemen and supporting players, including Fred Wesley & the J.B.'s, Bobby Byrd, Lyn Collins, Vicki Anderson and former rival Hank Ballard, released records on the People label.
During the presidential election, James Brown openly proclaimed his support of Richard Nixon for reelection to the presidency over Democratic candidate George McGovern.[59] The decision led to a boycott of his performances and, according to Brown, cost him a big portion of his black audience.
As a result, Brown's record sales and concerts in the United States were in a lull in , as he failed to land a number-one R&B single that year. In he also faced problems with the IRS for failure to pay back taxes, charging he hadn't paid upwards of $ million; five years earlier, the IRS had claimed he owed nearly $2 million.[61]
In , Brown provided the score for the blaxploitation film Black Caesar.
In he returned to the No. 1 spot on the R&B charts with "The Payback", with the parent album reaching the same spot on the album charts. He reached No. 1 two more times in , with "My Thang" and "Papa Don't Take No Mess".[citation needed]
"Papa Don't Take No Mess" was his final single to reach the No. 1 spot on the R&B charts.
His other Top Ten R&B hits during this latter period included "Funky President" (R&B No. 4) and "Get Up Offa That Thing" (R&B No. 4).
Although his records were mainstays of the vanguard New York underground disco scene, exemplified by DJs such as David Mancuso and Francis Grasso, from onwards, Brown did not consciously yield to the trend until 's Sex Machine Today.
By , he was no longer a dominant force in R&B. After "Get Up Offa That Thing", thirteen of Brown's late s recordings for Polydor failed to reach the Top 10 of the R&B chart, with only "Bodyheat" in and the disco-oriented "It's Too Funky in Here" in reaching the R&B Top 15 and the ballad "Kiss in '77" reaching the Top
After 's "Bodyheat", he failed to appear on the Billboard Hot As a result, Brown's concert attendance began dropping and his reported disputes with the IRS caused his business empire to collapse.
In addition, several longtime bandmates, including Wesley and Maceo Parker, had gradually pivoted to Parliament-Funkadelic, which reached its critical and commercial apogee in the mid-to-late s. The emergence of disco forestalled Brown's success on the R&B charts, because its slicker, more commercial style had superseded his rawer, one-chord funk productions.
By the release of 's The Original Disco Man, Brown seldom contributed to the songwriting and production processes, leaving most of it to producer Brad Shapiro. This resulted in the song "It's Too Funky in Here" becoming Brown's most successful single in this period. After two more albums failed to chart, Brown left Polydor in It was around this time that Brown changed the name of his band from the J.B.'s to the Soul Generals, or Soul G's.
The band retained that name until his death.
Despite Brown's declining record sales, promoters Gary LoConti and Jim Rissmiller helped Brown sell out a string of residency shows at the Reseda Country Club in Los Angeles in early Brown's compromised commercial standing prevented him from charging a large fee. However, the great success of these shows marked a turning point for Brown's career, and soon he was back on top in Hollywood.
Movies followed, including appearances in Doctor Detroit () and Rocky IV (). He guest-starred in the Miami Vice episode "Missing Hours" (). Previously, Brown appeared alongside a litany of other Black musical luminaries in The Blues Brothers ().
In , he teamed with rap musician Afrika Bambaataa on the song "Unity".
A year later he signed with Scotti Brothers Records and issued the moderately successful album Gravity in with a popular song "How Do You Stop". It included Brown's final Top Ten pop hit, "Living in America", marking his first Top 40 entry since and his first Top Ten pop entry since Produced and written by Dan Hartman, it featured prominently on the Rocky IV film and soundtrack.
Brown performed the song in the film at Apollo Creed's final fight, shot in the Ziegfeld Room at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, and was credited in the film as the Godfather of Soul. also saw the publication of his autobiography, James Brown: The Godfather of Soul, co-written with Bruce Tucker. In , Brown won the Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for "Living in America".
In , Brown worked with the production team Full Force on the new jack swing-influenced I'm Real. It spawned his final two Top 10 R&B hits, "I'm Real" and "Static", which peaked at No. 2 and No. 5, respectively. Meanwhile, the drum break from the second version of the original hit "Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose", the recording included on the compilation album In the Jungle Groove, became so popular at hip hop dance parties, especially for breakdance, during the early s that hip hop pioneer Kurtis Blow called the song "the national anthem of hip hop".[62]
After his stint in prison during the late s, Brown met Larry Fridie and Thomas Hart who produced the first James Brown biopic, entitled James Brown: The Man, the Message, the Music, released in [63] He returned to music with the album Love Over-Due in It included the single "(So Tired of Standing Still We Got to) Move On", which peaked at No.
48 on the R&B chart. His former record label Polydor released the four-CD box set Star Time, spanning Brown's career to date. Brown's release from prison prompted his former record labels to reissue his albums on CD, featuring additional tracks and commentary by music critics and historians.
In , Brown appeared on rapper MC Hammer's video for "Too Legit to Quit".
Hammer had been noted, alongside Big Daddy Kane, for bringing Brown's unique stage shows and their own energetic dance moves to the hip-hop generation. Both listed Brown as their idol. Both musicians sampled his work, with Hammer having sampled the rhythms from "Super Bad" for his song "Here Comes the Hammer", from his best-selling album Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em.
Big Daddy Kane sampled many times. Before the year was over, Brown–who had immediately returned to work with his band following his release–organized a pay-per-view concert following a show at Los Angeles' Wiltern Theatre, that was well received.
James brown children Each of his concerts turned into a powerful show, where he, like a skilled preacher in a church, established an emotional connection with the audience. At the age of 16, he was arrested for stealing a car and sentenced to three years in prison. They released their first single that same year, "Please, Please, Please. If people wanted to know who James Brown is, all they have to do is listen to my music.On June 10, , James Brown and a star-filled line up performed before a crowd at the Wiltern Theatre for a live pay-per-view at-home audience. James Brown: Living in America – Live! was the brainchild of Indiana producer Danny Hubbard. It featured M.C. Hammer as well as Bell Biv Devoe, Heavy D & the Boys, En Vogue, C+C Music Factory, Quincy Jones, Sherman Hemsley and Keenen Ivory Wayans.
Ice-T, Tone Loc and Kool Moe Dee performed paying homage to Brown. This was Brown's first public performance since his parole from the South Carolina prison system in February. He had served two-and-a-half years of two concurrent six-year sentences for aggravated assault and other felonies.
Brown continued making recordings.
James brown songs As an escape from the harsh reality of growing up Black in the rural South during the Great Depression, Brown turned to religion and to music. James Brown Biography. Brown accepted, and with his overbearing talent and showmanship, he quickly came to dominate the group. Slaughter's Big Rip-Off Polydor,In his album Universal James was released. It included his final Billboard charting single, "Can't Get Any Harder", which peaked at No. 76 on the US R&B chart and reached No. 59 on the UK chart. Its brief charting in the UK was probably due to the success of a remixed version of "I Feel Good" featuring Dakeyne.
Brown released the singles "How Long" and "Georgia-Lina", which failed to chart.
James brown net worth at death Brown recorded 17 singles that reached No. We strive for accuracy and fairness. By Brown was managing his own career and even had his own record company. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us!In , Brown returned to the Apollo and recorded Live at the Apollo . It included a studio track titled "Respect Me", which was released as a single. Again, it failed to chart.
Brown's final studio albums, I'm Back and The Next Step, were released in and respectively. I'm Back featured the song "Funk on Ah Roll", which peaked at No.
40 in the UK but did not chart in his native US. The Next Step included Brown's final single, "Killing Is Out, School Is In". Both albums were produced by Derrick Monk. Brown's concert success remained unabated and he kept up with a grueling schedule throughout the remainder of his life, living up to his previous nickname, "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business", in spite of his advanced age.
In , Brown participated in the PBSAmerican Masters television documentary James Brown: Soul Survivor, which was directed by Jeremy Marre.
Brown performed in the Super Bowl XXXI halftime show in
Brown celebrated his status as an icon by appearing in a variety of entertainment and sports events, including an appearance on the WCW pay-per-view event, SuperBrawl X, where he danced alongside wrestler Ernest "the Cat" Miller, who based his character on Brown, during his in-ring skit with the Maestro.
Brown appeared in Tony Scott's short film Beat the Devil in He was featured alongside Clive Owen, Gary Oldman, Danny Trejo and Marilyn Manson. Brown made a cameo appearance in the Jackie Chan film The Tuxedo, in which Chan was required to finish Brown's act after having accidentally knocked out the singer. In , Brown appeared in Undercover Brother, playing himself.
In , Brown opened for the Red Hot Chili Peppers at several Hyde Park concerts in London.[64] The beginning of saw the publication of his second book, I Feel Good: A Memoir of a Life of Soul, written with Marc Eliot. In February and March , he participated in recording sessions for an intended studio album with Fred Wesley, Pee Wee Ellis, and other longtime collaborators.
Though he lost interest in the album, which remains unreleased, a track from the sessions, "Gut Bucket", appeared on a compilation CD included with the August issue of MOJO.[65]
He appeared at Edinburgh 50, – The Final Push, the final Live 8 concert on July 6, , where he performed a duet with British pop star Will Young on "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag".
In the Black Eyed Peas album "Monkey Business", Brown was featured on a track called "They Don't Want Music". The previous week he had performed a duet with another British pop star, Joss Stone, on the United Kingdom chat show Friday Night with Jonathan Ross. In , Brown continued his Seven Decades of Funk World Tour.
His final major U.S.
performance was in San Francisco on August 20, , as headliner at the Festival of the Golden Gate (Foggfest) on the Great Meadow at Fort Mason. The next day, he performed at an seat campus theatre at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California. His last shows were greeted with positive reviews, and one of his final concert appearances at the Irish Oxegen festival in Punchestown in included a record crowd of 80, people.
He played a full concert as part of the BBC's Electric Proms on October 27, , at The Roundhouse,[66] supported by the Zutons, with special appearances from Max Beasley and the Sugababes.
Brown's last televised appearance was at his induction into the UK Music Hall of Fame in November , before his death in December.
Before his death, Brown had been scheduled to perform a duet with singer Annie Lennox on the song "Vengeance" for her new album Venus, which was released in
Artistry
As a vocalist, Brown performed in a forceful shout style derived from gospel music. Meanwhile, "his rhythmic grunts and expressive shrieks harked back farther still to ring shouts, work songs, and field cries", according to the Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History (): "He reimported the rhythmic complexity from which rhythm and blues, under the dual pressure of rock 'n' roll and pop, had progressively fallen away since its birth from jazz and blues."[67]
For many years, Brown's touring show was one of the most extravagant productions in American popular music.
At the time of Brown's death, his band included three guitarists, two bass guitar players, two drummers, three horns and a percussionist.[68] The bands that he maintained during the late s and s were of comparable size, and the bands also included a three-piece amplified string section that played during the ballads.[69] Brown employed between 40 and 50 people for the James Brown Revue, and members of the revue traveled with him in a bus to cities and towns all over the country, performing upwards of shows a year with almost all of the shows as one-nighters.[70][71]
Concert style
Before James Brown appeared on stage, his personal MC gave him an elaborate introduction accompanied by drumrolls, as the MC worked in Brown's various sobriquets along with the names of many of his hit songs.
The introduction by Fats Gonder, captured on Brown's album Live at the Apollo is a representative example:
So now ladies and gentlemen it is "Star Time".
James brown football player James brown cbs Tomi rae hynie Are you ready for "Star Time?" Thank you and thank you very kindly. It is indeed a great pleasure to present to you at this particular time, national[ly] and international[ly] known as "The Hardest-Working Man in Show Business", the man that sings "I'll Go Crazy""Try Me""You've Got the Power""Think""If You Want Me""I Don't Mind""Bewildered" the million dollar seller, "Lost Someone" the very latest release, "Night Train" let's everybody "Shout and Shimmy" "Mr.
Dynamite", the amazing "Mr. Please Please" himself, the star of the show, James Brown and the Famous Flames!![72]
James Brown's performances were famous for their intensity and length. His own stated goal was to "give people more than what they came for&#;— make them tired, 'cause that's what they came for.'"[73] Brown's concert repertoire consisted mostly of his own hits and recent songs, with a few R&B covers mixed in.
Brown danced vigorously as he sang, working popular dance steps such as the Mashed Potato into his routine along with dramatic leaps, splits and slides. His horn players and singing group, The Famous Flames, typically performed choreographed dance routines, and later incarnations of the Revue included backup dancers. Male performers in the Revue were required to wear tuxedoes and cummerbunds long after more casual concert wear became the norm among the younger musical acts.
Brown's own extravagant outfits and his elaborate processed hairdo completed the visual impression.
A James Brown concert typically included a performance by a featured vocalist, such as Vicki Anderson or Marva Whitney, and an instrumental feature for the band, which sometimes served as the opening act for the show.
A trademark feature of Brown's stage shows, usually during the song "Please, Please, Please", involved Brown dropping to his knees while clutching the microphone stand in his hands, prompting the show's longtime MC, Danny Ray, to come out, drape a cape over Brown's shoulders and escort him off the stage after he had worked himself to exhaustion during his performance.
As Brown was escorted off the stage by the MC, Brown's vocal group, the Famous Flames, Bobby Byrd, Lloyd Stallworth, and Bobby Bennett, continued singing the background vocals "Please, please don't go-oh".[74] Brown would then shake off the cape and stagger back to the microphone to perform an encore. Brown's routine was inspired by a similar one used by the professional wrestlerGorgeous George, as well as Little Richard.[72][75][76]
In his autobiography I Feel Good: A Memoir in a Life of Soul, Brown, who was a fan of Gorgeous George, credited the wrestler as the inspiration for both his cape routine and concert attire, stating, "Seeing him on TV helped create the James Brown you see on stage".[77] Brown performs a version of the cape routine in the film of the T.A.M.I.
Show () in which he and the Famous Flames upstaged the Rolling Stones, and over the closing credits of the film Blues Brothers . The Police refer to "James Brown on the T.A.M.I. Show" in their song "When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around".
Band leadership
Brown demanded extreme discipline, perfection and precision from his musicians and dancers&#;– performers in his Revue showed up for rehearsals and members wore the right "uniform" or "costume" for concert performances.[78] During an interview conducted by Terry Gross during the NPR segment "Fresh Air" with Maceo Parker, a former saxophonist in Brown's band for most of the s and part of the s and s, Parker offered his experience with the discipline that Brown demanded of the band:
You gotta be on time.
You gotta have your uniform. Your stuff's got to be intact. You gotta have the bow tie. You got to have it. You can't come up without the bow tie. You cannot come up without a cummerbund [The] patent leather shoes we were wearing at the time gotta be greased. You just gotta have this stuff. This is what [Brown expected] [Brown] bought the costumes.
He bought the shoes. And if for some reason [the band member decided] to leave the group, [Brown told the person to] please leave my uniforms .
—&#;Maceo Parker[79]
Brown also had a practice of directing, correcting and assessing fines on members of his band who broke his rules, such as wearing unshined shoes, dancing out of sync or showing up late on stage.[80] During some of his concert performances, Brown danced in front of his band with his back to the audience as he slid across the floor, flashing hand signals and splaying his pulsating fingers to the beat of the music.
Although audiences thought Brown's dance routine was part of his act, this practice was actually his way of pointing to the offending member of his troupe who played or sang the wrong note or committed some other infraction. Brown used his splayed fingers and hand signals to alert the offending person of the fine that person must pay to him for breaking his rules.[81]
Brown's demands on his support acts could be harsh.
As Fred Wesley recalled of his time as musical director of the JBs, if Brown felt intimidated by a support act he would try to "undermine their performances by shortening their sets without notice, demanding that they not do certain showstopping songs, and even insisting on doing the unthinkable, playing drums on some of their songs. A sure set killer."[82]
Social activism
Education advocacy and humanitarianism
Brown's main social activism was in preserving the need for education among youths, influenced by his own troubled childhood and his being forced to drop out of the seventh grade for wearing "insufficient clothes".
Due to heavy dropout rates in the s, Brown released the pro-education song, "Don't Be a Drop-Out". Royalties of the song were donated to dropout-prevention charity programs. The success of this led to Brown meeting with President Lyndon B. Johnson at the White House. Johnson cited Brown for being a positive role model to the youth.
In James Brown endorsed Hubert Humphrey.[83] Later, Brown gained the confidence of President Richard Nixon, to whom he found he had to explain the plight of Black Americans.[84]
Throughout the remainder of his life, Brown made public speeches in schools and continued to advocate the importance of education in school.
Upon filing his will in , Brown advised that most of the money in his estate go into creating the I Feel Good, Inc. Trust to benefit disadvantaged children and provide scholarships for his grandchildren. His final single, "Killing Is Out, School Is In", advocated against murders of young children in the streets.
Brown often gave out money and other items to children while traveling to his childhood hometown of Augusta. A week before his death, while looking gravely ill, Brown gave out toys and turkeys to kids at an Atlanta orphanage, something he had done several times over the years.
Civil rights and self-reliance
Though Brown performed at benefit rallies for civil rights organizations in the mids, Brown often shied away from discussing civil rights in his songs in fear of alienating his crossover audience.
In , in response to a growing urge of anti-war advocacy during the Vietnam War, Brown recorded the song, "America Is My Home". In the song, Brown performed a rap, advocating patriotism and exhorting listeners to "stop pitying yoursel[ves] and get up and fight". At the time of the song's release, Brown had been performing for troops stationed in Vietnam.
The Boston Garden concert
On April 5, , a day after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee, Brown provided a free citywide televised concert at the Boston Garden to maintain public order and calm concerned Boston residents, over the objections of the police chief, who wanted to call off the concert, which he thought would incite violence.[49] The show was later released on DVD as Live at the Boston Garden: April 5, .
According to the documentary The Night James Brown Saved Boston, then-mayor Kevin White had strongly restrained the Boston police from cracking down on minor violence and protests after the assassination, while religious and community leaders worked to keep tempers from flaring.[85]
White arranged to have Brown's performance broadcast multiple times on Boston's public television station, WGBH, thus keeping potential rioters off the streets, watching the concert for free.[85] Angered by not being told of this, Brown demanded $60, for "gate" fees, money he thought would be lost from ticket sales on account of the concert being broadcast for free, and then threatened to go public about the secret arrangement when the city balked at paying up afterwards, news of which would have been a political death blow to White and spark riots of its own.[85] White eventually lobbied a behind-the-scenes power-brokering group known as "The Vault" to come up with money for Brown's gate fee and other social programs, contributing $, Brown received $15, from them via the city.
White also persuaded management at the Garden to give up their share of receipts to make up the differences.[85] Following this successful performance, Brown was counseled by President Johnson to urge cities ravaged from riots following King's assassination to not resort to violence, telling them to "cool it, there's another way".
Responding to pressure from black activists, including H.
Rap Brown, to take a bigger stance on their issues and from footage of black on black crime committed in inner cities, Brown wrote the lyrics to the song "Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud", which his bandleader Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis accompanied with a musical composition. Released late that summer, the song's lyrics helped to make it an anthem for the civil rights movement.
Brown only performed the song sporadically following its initial release, and later stated he had regrets about recording it, saying in , "Now 'Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud' has done more for the black race than any other record, but if I had my choice, I wouldn't have done it, because I don't like defining anyone by race. To teach race is to teach separatism." In his autobiography he stated:
The song is obsolete now But it was necessary to teach pride then, and I think the song did a lot of good for a lot of people People called "Black and Proud" militant and angry – maybe because of the line about dying on your feet instead of living on your knees.
But really, if you listen to it, it sounds like a children's song. That's why I had children in it, so children who heard it could grow up feeling pride The song cost me a lot of my crossover audience. The racial makeup at my concerts was mostly black after that. I don't regret it, though, even if it was misunderstood.
In , Brown recorded two more songs of social commentary, "World" and "I Don't Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing", the latter song pleading for equal opportunity and self-reliance rather than entitlement.
In , in response to some black leaders for not being outspoken enough, he recorded "Get Up, Get into It, Get Involved" and "Talkin' Loud and Sayin' Nothing". In , he began touring Africa, including Zambia and Nigeria. He was made "freeman of the city" in Lagos, Nigeria, by Oba Adeyinka Oyekan, for his "influence on black people all over the world".
With his company, James Brown Enterprises, Brown helped to provide jobs for blacks in business in the communities. As the s continued, Brown continued to record songs of social commentary, most prominently 's "King Heroin" and the two-part ballad "Public Enemy", which dealt with drug addiction.
Political views
During the presidential campaign, Brown endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey and appeared with Humphrey at political rallies.
Brown was labeled an "Uncle Tom" for supporting Humphrey and also for releasing the pro-American funk song, "America Is My Home", in which Brown had lambasted protesters of the Vietnam War as well as the politics of pro-black activists. Brown began supporting Republican president Richard Nixon after being invited to perform at Nixon's inaugural ball in January
Brown's endorsement of Nixon's campaign during the presidential election negatively impacted his career during that period with several national Black organizations boycotting his records and protesting at his concert shows; a November show in Cincinnati was picketed with signs saying, "James Brown: Nixon's Clown".
Brown initially was invited to perform at a Youth Concert following Nixon's inauguration in January but bailed out due to the backlash he suffered from supporting Nixon. Brown joined fellow black entertainer Sammy Davis Jr., who faced similar backlash, to back out of the concert. Brown blamed it on "fatigue".[92]
Brown later reversed his support of Nixon and composed the song, "You Can Have Watergate (Just Gimme Some Bucks And I'll Be Straight)" as a result.
After Nixon resigned from office, Brown composed the hit, "Funky President (People It's Bad)", right after Gerald Ford took Nixon's place. Brown later supported Democratic President Jimmy Carter, attending one of Carter's inaugural balls in [92] Brown openly supported President Ronald Reagan's reelection in [93]
Brown stated he was neither Democratic nor Republican despite his support of Republican presidents such as Nixon and Reagan as well as Democratic presidents John F.
Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Jimmy Carter.[94] In , when being interviewed by Rolling Stone, the magazine asked him to name a hero in the 20th century. Brown mentioned John F. Kennedy and thenyear-old U.S. Senator, and former Dixiecrat, Strom Thurmond, stating "when the young whippersnappers get out of line, whether Democratic or Republican, an old man can walk up and say 'Wait a minute, son, it goes this way.' And that's great for our country.
He's like a grandfather to me."[95]
In , Brown was the featured attraction of a Washington, D.C., fundraiser for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.[96] Following the deaths of Ronald Reagan and his friend Ray Charles, Brown said to CNN, "I'm kind of in an uproar. I love the country and I got – you know I've been around a long time, through many presidents and everything.
James brown football player: Former tour manager Alan Leeds told Rolling Stone that Brown would "make them suffer until they needed a James Brown record so badly that they'd take whatever he gave them. Black Caesar Polydor, I'm Real CBS, Nasiba Abdullaeva.
So after losing Mr. Reagan, who I knew very well, then Mr. Ray Charles, who I worked with and lived with like, all our life, we had a show together in Oakland many, many years ago and it's like you found the placard."[97] Despite his contrarian political views, Brown mentored black activist Rev. Al Sharpton during the s.[98]
Personal life
In , Tammi Terrell joined the James Brown Revue.
Brown became sexually involved with Terrell—even though she was only 17—in a relationship that continued until she escaped his physical abuse.[99]Bobby Bennett, former member of the Famous Flames, told Rolling Stone about the abuse he witnessed: "He beat Tammi Terrell terrible", said Bennett. "She was bleeding, shedding blood." Terrell, who died in , was Brown's girlfriend before she became famous as Marvin Gaye's singing partner in the mids.
"Tammi left him because she didn't want her butt whipped", said Bennett, who also claimed he saw Brown kick one pregnant girlfriend down a flight of stairs.[]
Marriages and children
Brown was married three times. His first marriage was to Velma Warren in They had one son together.[] Over a decade later, the couple had separated.
They divorced in They maintained a close friendship that lasted until Brown's death. Brown's second marriage was to Deidre "Deedee" Jenkins, on October 22, They had two daughters together. In , they separated after what his daughter describes as years of domestic abuse.[] They divorced on January 10,
His third marriage was to Adrienne Lois Rodriguez (March 9, – January 6, ) in It was a contentious marriage that made headlines due to domestic abuse complaints.[][] Rodriguez filed for divorce in , "citing years of cruelty treatment", but they reconciled.[] Rodriguez died in Less than a year later, Brown hired Tomi Rae Hynie to be a background singer for his band.
She later claimed that she was his fourth wife.[]
On December 23, , Brown, 69, and Hynie, 33, held a wedding ceremony that was officiated by the Rev. Larry Flyer. Following Brown's death, controversy surrounded the circumstances of the marriage. Brown's attorney, Albert "Buddy" Dallas, reported that the marriage was not valid.
Hynie was still married to Javed Ahmed, a man from Bangladesh. Hynie claimed Ahmed married her to obtain residency through a Green Card, and that the marriage was annulled, but the annulment did not occur until April [][] In an attempt to prove her marriage to Brown was valid, she provided a marriage certificate as proof of her marriage to Brown during an interview on CNN with Larry King, but she did not provide King with court records pointing to an annulment of her marriage to Brown or to Ahmed.[]
According to Dallas, Brown was angry and hurt that Hynie had concealed her prior marriage from him, and Brown moved to file for annulment from Hynie.[] Dallas added that though Hynie's marriage to Ahmed was annulled after she married Brown, the Brown–Hynie marriage was not valid under South Carolina law because Brown and Hynie did not remarry after the annulment.[][] In August , Brown took out a full-page public notice in Variety featuring Hynie, James II and himself on vacation at Disney World to announce that he and Hynie were going their separate ways.[][]
On January 27, , a judge ruled Hynie as Brown's legal widow and that she was now Brown's widow for the purpose of determining the distribution of Brown's estate.[][] The decision was based on the grounds that Hynie's previous marriage was invalid, and that James Brown had abandoned his efforts to annul his own marriage to Hynie.[] On June 17, , a South Carolina Supreme Court ruled that Hynie was not legally married to Brown due to her failure to annul her previous marriage.[][][] The court ruled that she had no right to any part of his estate.[][][][][]
Brown had numerous children.
He acknowledged 11 of them, including 5 sons—Teddy (–), Terry, Larry, Micheal Brown and James Joseph Brown Jr.—and 6 daughters: LaRhonda Petitt, Dr. Yamma Noyola Brown Lumar, Deanna Brown Thomas, Cinnamon Brown, Jeanette Bellinger and Venisha Brown (–).[] Brown had eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Brown's eldest son, Teddy, died in a car crash on June 14, []
According to an August , article in the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph, DNA tests indicate that Brown also fathered at least three extramarital children.
The first one of them to be identified is LaRhonda Pettit (born ), a retired flight attendant and teacher who lives in Houston.[] Another alleged son, Michael Deon Brown, was born in September to Mary Florence Brown. Despite pleading no contest to a paternity suit brought against him in , Brown never officially acknowledged Michael as his son.[] During contesting of Brown's will, another of the Brown family attorneys, Debra Opri, revealed to Larry King that James Brown wanted a DNA test performed after his death to confirm the paternity of James Brown Jr.
(born )—not for Brown Jr.'s sake but for the sake of the other family members.[] In April , Hynie selected a guardian ad litem whom she wanted the court to appoint to represent her son, James Brown Jr., in the paternity proceedings.[] James Brown Jr. was confirmed to be his biological son.[]
Drug abuse
For most of his career, Brown had a strict drug- and alcohol-free policy for any member in his entourage, including band members.
He would fire people who disobeyed orders, particularly those who used or abused drugs. Although early members of the Famous Flames were fired for using alcohol, Brown often served a highball consisting of Delaware Punch and moonshine at his St. Albans, Queens, house in the mids.[] Some of the original members of Brown's s band, the J.B.'s, including Catfish and Bootsy Collins, intentionally took LSD during a performance in , causing Brown to fire them after the show because he had suspected them of being on drugs all along.[]
Aide Bob Patton has asserted that he accidentally shared a PCP-laced cannabis joint with Brown in the mids and "hallucinated for hours", although Brown "talked about it as if it was only marijuana he was smoking".[] By the mids, it was widely alleged that Brown was using drugs, with Vicki Anderson confirming to journalist Barney Hoskyns that Brown's regular use of PCP, colloquially known as "angel dust", "began before ".[] After he met and later married Adrienne Rodriguez in , she and Brown began using PCP together.[]
This drug usage often resulted in violent outbursts from him, and he was arrested several times for domestic violence against Rodriguez while high on the drug.[] By January , Brown faced four criminal charges within a month span relating to driving, PCP, and gun possession.[] After an April arrest for domestic abuse, Brown went on the CNN program Sonia Live in L.A. with host Sonia Friedman.
The interview became notorious for Brown's irreverent demeanor, with some asserting that Brown was high.[]
One of Brown's former mistresses recalled in a GQ magazine article about Brown, some years after his death, that Brown would smoke PCP, "until that got hard to find", and cocaine, mixed with tobacco in Kool cigarettes.
He engaged in the off-label use of sildenafil, maintaining that it gave him "extra energy".[]