Butane James, the Godfather of Soul is dead.

What's your favorite thing about James Brown ever?

Could be a song, or a moment or concert or a TV appearance.

I have an odd affection for his rare ballads like "It's a Man's World." Also love his odd collection of popcorn related dance hits in the mid sixties. My favorite James Brown was that brief year and half he had with the JBs including Bootsy. The live stuff from that era is unbelievably ferocious.

On Sesame Street they used to have a superbad animated James Brown doing letters of the alphabet. It was the early sixties edition of JB with his towering conk, and satin jacket and very tight pants.

Favorite song: "Out of Sight."

Best Title: "Funky President (People It's Bad)" - during the Watergate era, of course.

The thing he would do, where he'd sort of walk away from the audience, and a minion would cover him with a cloak, then JB would turn around and start being all bad and funky again.

All the odd vocalizations that Eddie Murphy made jokes about.

Jump back, I kiss myself, HAI!

Favorite song: I Feel Good.

My all time favorite thing about James Brown ever is actually a parody Celebrity Hot Tub on SNL but I also love him as Reverand Cleophus in The Blues Brothers. Favorite song: Sex Machine.

Here's a clip of the JBs doing Sex Machine: [link]

My favorite is Superbad.

I loved James Brown's cameo appearance in Undercover Brother which was pitch-perfect funny, especially his appalled expression in the limousine. He should have acted more!

He had a few cameos and bit parts over the years. He always did just fine. I think it would have been fun to see him act more, too.

Oh, thank you Theo for reminding me of the Undercover Brother cameo. He gave me many smiles through the years. If I name my favorite by the number of times I have imitated the man, I have to say

I feel good!

James Brown and the JBs were great stuff, but I think his earlier pre-funk material deserves more attention than it gets.

My favorite: Try Me.

I'm amazed at how hard he was performing up until he died. He just had a massive concert in Dublin in October, I think, that was sold out months and months before that. Just incredible.

"Superbad" is also my favorite JB track, and it's a stunner. It took me near forever to realize that the bulk of the track is played by a three-piece, with horn accents and the bridge, but almost everything else is on Bootsy and Catfish time.

Speaking of Bootsy and Catfish, my favorite JB album is Love Power Peace, the only live document of that version of the band, and maybe the best live album ever recorded.

My favorite JB thing was his tendency to come up with extremely odd shout-outs during songs, and the way that his band was so attuned to this that they could incorporate it into the music. For instance, I used to have a video of a live show from the mid-70s where JB somehow made reciting the zodiac into the centerpiece of "Sex Machine." I mean, the music was blazing, the momentum so powerful that JB could walk offstage for a full minute or two to switch to jumpsuit no. 4, and when he came back, he'd start this zodiac nonsense to a perfectly cued band: "Aries!" (horns: BLAT!) "TAURUS!" (horns: BLAAAAT!) "LEEEEEEOOOOO!" (horns: WAAAAABLAT!) SAGI-(music: stops on a dime) (pause pause pause) -TAAAAAAAAARIUS! (crazy sax solo). And this went on, and even though that tape is lost now, in my memory, it is still on of the most exciting things I ever saw.

Anyway, if I wasn't away from the drives holding my music collection back in Austin, I'd upload "Santa Claus, Go Straight To The Ghetto" for y'all. Merry Christmas, babies, sure do treat me nice.