So reported The New York Times today. And an era has passed. Times writer Jon Pareles put it perfectly:
"His music was sweaty and complex, disciplined and wild, lusty and socially conscious. Beyond his dozens of hits, Mr. Brown forged an entire musical idiom that is now a foundation of pop worldwide."
In one man's life and genre-unto-itself is largely included the transition from soul to rock to rap – for reals. He showed – through his shake and shimmy – how good it was to "feel good."
His music also marked the pop cultural response to the Civil Rights Movement, not only preaching the message, but also making us all "Say it loud! I'm black and I'm proud!" Take a look while The Godfather's song sets the aural atmosphere.
For a bit of light humor, here's Eddie Murphy doing a hilarious homage to the Hardest Working Man in Show Business, and one of my generation's strongest corollary memories of the man.
His iconic scream was even used in the sound design of movies – as a home theater buff with an over-trained ear, let me suggest the two unlikely places you can find his voice: in the "bar" scene in Star Trek V, when the cat-like alien attacks Admiral Kirk, and a little less obscurely, when the alien ship blows up after our hero gives the alien mothership the "banana in the tailpipe" treatment at the end of Independence Day. The cry of humanity is indeed encapsulated in The Godfather's voice. I thought that was a pretty fresh way to sweeten up a truly orgasmic explosion.
And damn I'll be damned if James Brown being the "hardest working man in show business" ain't true. He recently died of heart failure after a bout with pneumonia, but according to the Times, was scheduled to perform in a New Year's Eve Concert; natch, the caption for the Times photo below reads: "At B.B. King's in Times Square, a promotional poster for Mr. Brown's scheduled New Year's Eve concert was changed into a memorial."
James Estrin/The New York Times
That's the way you go out – dancing and singing 'til you drop, baby. Sexy.
