merry christmasand mr brown YOU WILL BE MISSED
On 12/25/06, Said Kakese Dibinga <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Legendary singer James Brown dies at 73
>
> By GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press Writer 20 minutes ago
>
>
>
> James Brown, the dynamic, pompadoured "Godfather of Soul," whose rasping
> vocals and revolutionary rhythms made him a founder of rap, funk and disco
> as well, died early Monday, his agent said. He was 73.
>
> Brown was hospitalized with pneumonia at Emory Crawford Long Hospital on
> Sunday and died around 1:45 a.m. Monday, said his agent, Frank Copsidas of
> Intrigue Music. Longtime friend Charles Bobbit was by his side, he said.
>
> Copsidas said the cause of death was uncertain. "We really don't know at
> this point what he died of," he said.
>
> Pete Allman, a radio personality in Las Vegas who had been friends with
> Brown for 15 years, credited Brown with jump-starting his career and
> motivating him personally and professionally.
>
> "He was a very positive person. There was no question he was the hardest
> working man in show business," Allman said. "I remember Mr. Brown as someone
> who always motivated me, got me reading the Bible."
>
> Along with Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan and a handful of others, Brown was one
> of the major musical influences of the past 50 years. At least one
> generation idolized him, and sometimes openly copied him. His rapid-footed
> dancing inspired Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson among others. Songs such as
> David Bowie's "Fame," Prince's "Kiss," George Clinton's "Atomic Dog" and Sly
> and the Family Stone's "Sing a Simple Song" were clearly based on Brown's
> rhythms and vocal style.
>
> If Brown's claim to the invention of soul can be challenged by fans of Ray
> Charles and Sam Cooke, then his rights to the genres of rap, disco and funk
> are beyond question. He was to rhythm and dance music what Dylan was to
> lyrics: the unchallenged popular innovator.
>
> "James presented obviously the best grooves," rapper Chuck D of Public
> Enemy once told The Associated Press. "To this day, there has been no one
> near as funky. No one's coming even close."
>
> His hit singles include such classics as "Out of Sight," "(Get Up I Feel
> Like Being a) Sex Machine," "I Got You (I Feel Good)" and "Say It Out Loud
> I'm Black and I'm Proud," a landmark 1968 statement of racial pride.
>
> "I clearly remember we were calling ourselves colored, and after the song,
> we were calling ourselves black," Brown said in a 2003 Associated Press
> interview. "The song showed even people to that day that lyrics and music
> and a song can change society."
>
> He won a Grammy award for lifetime achievement in 1992, as well as Grammys
> in 1965 for "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" (best R&B recording) and for
> "Living In America" in 1987 (best R&B vocal performance, male.) He was one
> of the initial artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986,
> along with Presley, Chuck Berry and other founding fathers.
>
> He triumphed despite an often unhappy personal life. Brown, who lived in
> Beech Island near the Georgia line, spent more than two years in a South
> Carolina prison for aggravated assault and failing to stop for a police
> officer. After his release on in 1991, Brown said he wanted to "try to
> straighten out" rock music.
>
> From the 1950s, when Brown had his first R&B hit, "Please, Please, Please"
> in 1956, through the mid-1970s, Brown went on a frenzy of cross-country
> tours, concerts and new songs. He earned the nickname "The Hardest Working
> Man in Show Business."
>
> With his tight pants, shimmering feet, eye makeup and outrageous hair,
> Brown set the stage for younger stars such as Michael Jackson and Prince.
>
> In 1986, he was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And rap stars
> of recent years overwhelmingly have borrowed his lyrics with a digital
> technique called sampling.
>
> Brown's work has been replayed by the Fat Boys, Ice-T, Public Enemy and a
> host of other rappers. "The music out there is only as good as my last
> record," Brown joked in a 1989 interview with Rolling Stone magazine.
>
> "Disco is James Brown, hip-hop is James Brown, rap is James Brown; you
> know what I'm saying? You hear all the rappers, 90 percent of their music is
> me," he told the AP in 2003.
>
> Born in poverty in Barnwell, S.C., in 1933, he was abandoned as a
> 4-year-old to the care of relatives and friends and grew up on the streets
> of Augusta, Ga., in an "ill-repute area," as he once called it. There he
> learned to wheel and deal. "I wanted to be somebody," Brown said. By the
> eighth grade in 1949, Brown had served 3 1/2 years in Alto Reform School
> near Toccoa, Ga., for breaking into cars. While there, he met Bobby Byrd,
> whose family took Brown into their home. Byrd also took Brown into his
> group, the Gospel Starlighters. Soon they changed their name to the Famous
> Flames and their style to hard R&B. In January 1956, King Records of
> Cincinnati signed the group, and four months later "Please, Please, Please"
> was in the R&B Top Ten. While most of Brown's life was glitz and glitter, he
> was plagued with charges of abusing drugs and alcohol and of hitting his
> third wife, Adrienne. In September 1988, Brown, high on PCP and carrying a
> shotgun, entered an insurance seminar next to his Augusta office. Police
> said he asked seminar participants if they were using his private restroom.
> Police chased Brown for a half-hour from Augusta into South Carolina and
> back to Georgia. The chase ended when police shot out the tires of his
> truck. Brown received a six-year prison sentence. He spent 15 months in a
> South Carolina prison and 10 months in a work release program before being
> paroled in February 1991. In 2003, the South Carolina parole board granted
> him a pardon for his crimes in that state. Soon after his release, Brown was
> on stage again with an audience that included millions of cable television
> viewers nationwide who watched the three-hour, pay-per-view concert at
> Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles. Adrienne Brown died in 1996 in Los Angeles
> at age 47. She took PCP and several prescription drugs while she had a bad
> heart and was weak from cosmetic surgery two days earlier, the coroner said.
>
> More recently, he married his fourth wife, Tomi Raye Hynie, one of his
> backup singers. The couple had a son, James Jr. Two years later, Brown spent
> a week in a private Columbia hospital, recovering from what his agent said
> was dependency on painkillers. Brown's attorney, Albert "Buddy" Dallas, said
> singer was exhausted from six years of road shows.
>
>
>
> Copyright (c) 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
>
> http://blog.thebayindogroup.com/
>
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
> http://mail.yahoo.com
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
