Every so often in a field or endeavor, someone comes along and revolutionizes standards or reshape the rules of the game. Such people are considered innovators and revolutionary. Then you have a chance element that defies convention and requires new language be created to encapsulate new shapes and new boundaries. James Brown is the chance element in American music that defies description. Consequently, what James Brown contributed to American music is "the James Brown." James singing and stage show defied convention to a degree that everyone agrees that what he was doing is "The James Brown." James Brown changed the way American music was played and understood. II Michael Jackson is the premier singer entertainer of the 20th Century. Mr. Jackson does not defy description, and to this very day one can chart the evolution of his "sound" from his Motown experience. Van Halen's screaming guitar on "Beat It," has its expression in the Jackson Five's "I Am Love." Mr. Jackson's dance form - minstrel show if you will, mirrors such artists as Gene Kelly and Bob Fosse. James Brown performances were snatched from the ether of history and made flesh. To witness Brown’s performance is to spend moments with ones mouth open. James Brown did what he felt and was never content to do only what he or anyone else understood. James altered our sensory perception and collective experience with the space time continuum. James Brown made the world dance different. Where Motown was male masculinity recreating the male barroom singers in the Sinartra mode, and a certain "Northern snobbiness," James Brown was raw male sexuality cutting across national boundaries and national cultures. James Brown wore tight pants in a period where no self respecting Yankee (Motown) would have ever, been caught in public without their Northern gloss. James apologized profusely about his impact on other cultures, seeking only to uplift the human spirit. James was a "mans man!" James Brown fought the police. James Brown never sold out. James was too big for Motown. James Brown was a balladeer extraordinary. His performance of "This is a Man’s World" at the London Palladium in the mid 1980’s (offered on video by Sony and on U Tube) is a tour de force. His words are replaced by vocal notes/pitches and moans, only for one to collapse unto and into the other. Defying history James Brown leaped outside every musical convention that constituted American music. Most would agree that American music is defined as a peculiar mixture of European harmonic structure and African Rhythm gestation in the bowels of American slavery. Gordy amplified European harmonic structure and stabilized African rhythm as a "time keeping mechanism," while demanding the guitar also "keep time." ""Your Precious Love" by Marvin Gaye and Tammy Terrell, witness the time keeping role of the guitar as well as the Miracles. "I Like It Like That." Motown made one clap their hands and pat "yo" feet. James Brown did the impossible. James Brown forces harmonic structure within and into rhythm, forever altering convention. To carry out this bold act, American music’s time frame (reference) had to be changed. James knew what he was doing. "Night train" conforms to traditional American music. It has a one, two, three, stop, repeat beat. James Brown did . . . . and it is mind boggling, . . . He . . . . changed the time frame and shifted our bodily relations in the space time continuum. The transitional song indicating a radical shift in space/time was "Outta Sight." "Papas Got A Brand New Bag" was proof positive of a new musical form and essence that was timed to a one, two, three, four, stop, repeat beat. James Brown record label refused to put and distribute "Outta Sight," stating that the music made no sense. Several versions of "Papa Got A Brand New Bag" exist with the early version in mono, rather than stereo. The owners of the record label did not understand the music and James had to personally put his music on the market. This new articulation of European harmonic structure and African Rhythm was birthed with no name. Having no name has a hideous connotation in American/Negro culture. One should consult James Baldwin on this matter. When asked what he called his music James would say, "it sho (sure) is funky." The music was being defined by a different sense perception organ - smell, rather than hearing. James Brown created "funk," in the same way another generation would create "phat" (fat) and New Jack swing. The Brown revolution split the ranks of "The Detroit Sound," now re-mastered as the "Motown Sound." Leading the rebellion was the Parliaments, a "Temptation" clone quintet. The Parliaments morphed into the Funkadelics and "I Want To Testify" (their early hit) shifted to "Good Old Funky Music." A decade later the Isley Brothers would emerge as a premier self contained funk group. James Brown "I Don’t Want Nobody, To Give Me Nothing" (Just open up the door, I’ll Get it myself) is a powerful mature funk composition. His lyrics are profound. "We got talent We can usssse All over town. Lets get our heads together Bring it up from the groud. When some of us make money We forget about ar peoples. forget about honey for a whole lotta money." Here is one to listen to. Count the "beats" from the first note; one, two three, four, stop repeat. George Clinton’s Funkadelics would later honor James with a tune called "Everything is on the One," on their "Clones of Dr. Funkenstien" album. "Children of Production" also bears witness to Master Brown. "We are children of production, Produced in conjunction With the urgency Of our Doctor Funk-en-stien." George Clinton was a clinical psychologist welding music as therapy. His "Placebo Syndrome and Flash Light" are dissertations on beat location and how to find the beat. Smokey Robinson as song writer inherited the legacy of "Tin Pan Alley." James Brown did something else. James Brown was a different kind of song writer extraordinaire. Brown wrote and screamed out screams, because of the tension between words and instruments. James Brown invented "give the drummer some." Previously the drummer had to fight his way into moments of solitary player. James Brown, being a man of emancipation, demanded that the drummer be given some. James Brown demolished moral standards and 200 years of moral courtesy. Brown would fall on his knee’s and beg in a manner devoid of genuflecting. James held convention in contempt. His “Prisoner of Love” and its performance, is . . . . .pure James Brown.
James Brown was the hardest working man in show business. WL. In a message dated 1/14/2009 7:40:17 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, _jann...@gmail.com_ (mailto:jann...@gmail.com) writes: Not to take anything away from Motown, but I often wondered why James Brown (one of the true, true, true geniuses of American popular music and culture) stayed away from them. So I did a bit of reading and learned a lot (for me anyway, since I knew so little when I started) about the music business of the 50s and 60s in the process. Motown was great, but the music industry has turned into total shit now (not that it was ever all good or anything but it's so bad now it makes me long for the 70s and disco even). Interestingly, Brown is early on associated with hillbilly/country labels in Cincinnati owned by Syd Nathan. _http://revcom.us/a/076/jamesbrown-en.html_ (http://revcom.us/a/076/jamesbrown-en.html) James Brown and Motown Berry Gordy, who was the owner of Motown, wanted James Brown to join his label. James was playing for a smaller label and could have gotten more exposure and probably made more money by signing with Motown. But he refused because, as he said, Gordy's "…acts were a little too soft for me: too much pop, not enough soul. I was way too raw for the kind of polished music they were willing to do. For instance, they had their choreography, which was great, but it was too rehearsed, down to the last toe-step. Mine was different, spontaneous, and no two nights the same. Mine didn't come from a rehearsal hall—it came from my heart and soul, and there was no way I was ever going to change that, for Motown or anywhere else." Another thing that did not sit well with James was that Gordy took the bass out of all of his singles. "…To me, the bass was like the heartbeat, the essence of the rhythm, the place where the flow of any song comes from… I could never be part of what they were in to. Under Mr. Gordy's strict, hands on direction, the Motown show and catalogue were shaped around pop, and their acts were made like minstrels. They were like the caviar of Black music, while I, on the other hand, was strictly soul food." (Quotes from James Brown in this article are from I Feel Good: A Memoir of a Life of Soul, by James Brown with an introduction by Marc Eliot.) This is what he was aiming for. To make everybody to take it as it really is…funky. _http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syd_Nathan_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syd_Nathan) This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from _http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm_ (http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm) **************A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy steps! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100000075x1215855013x1201028747/aol?redir=http://www.freecreditreport.com/pm/default.aspx?sc=668072%26hmpgID=62%26bcd=De cemailfooterNO62) _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
