WORLD / America
'Godfather of Soul' James Brown dies at 73
(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-12-26 06:52
ATLANTA: James Brown, the dynamic, pompadoured "Godfather of Soul," whose
rasping vocals and revolutionary rhythms made him a founder of rap, funk
and disco, died early yesterday in Atlanta, his agent said. He was 73.
Brown was hospitalized on Sunday at Emory Crawford Long Hospital with
pneumonia and died around 1:45 am (2:45 pm, Beijing time), said his
agent, Frank Copsidas, of Intrigue Music. Longtime friend Charles Bobbit
was by his side, Copsidas said.
The cause of death was uncertain, Copsidas 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."
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 Loud
I'm Black and I'm Proud," a landmark 1968 statement of racial pride.
"I clearly remember we were calling ourselves coloured, and after the
song, we were calling ourselves black," Brown said in a 2003 AP
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."
Born in poverty in Barnwell, South Carolina, 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, Georgia, 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 years in Alto Reform
School near Toccoa, Georgia, 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 programme before being
paroled in February 1991. In 2003, the South Carolina parole board
granted him a pardon for his crimes in that state.
More recently, he married his fourth wife, Tomi Raye Hynie, one of his
backup singers. The couple had a son, James Jr.
(China Daily 12/26/2006 page1)
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