Coolest Thing James Brown Ever Did?

Titling a song, "Funky President (People It's Bad)" during Watergate.

...or possibly doing an entire album of Popcorn themed dance songs. It's a toss up.

People people, we gotta get over before we go under

"Funky President" is a great song -- and from a Nixon supporter no less! JB's career is full of ubercool & uberweird things (sometimes inseparable). His achievement -- he changed the face of modern music (at least the popular variety, and I've read more than one composer who cited him as an influence) -- & his wackiness are both hard to overstate.

I haven't seen a Pixies date for SF, dammit.

They're not doing a show in Boston either, which strikes me as willfully perverse.

JB's career is full of ubercool & uberweird things (sometimes inseparable). His achievement -- he changed the face of modern music (at least the popular variety, and I've read more than one composer who cited him as an influence) -- & his wackiness are both hard to overstate.

Heh. Then you're going to love the part of the book where I say he's overrated!

Well, not really. But I do think his influence has been overstated in the same way that Louis Armstrong's influence was overstated in the Ken Burns jazz doc.

Which is to say, of course they're titans, and HUGE in American music. But by making them that HUGE you wind up distorting the history. Mostly I wanted to make the case that while I think James Brown is funky, he isn't Funk. (Except for the very brief period when he had the JBs with Bootsy.) I think Sly and the Family Stone were far more influential on the direction of black music from the late sixties on.

I just don't hear James Brown rhythms except as pastiche (with a huge and notable exception being "Funky Drummer" samples). But Larry Graham's bass-playing defined black music for the last 40 years.

Here's what I wrote:

Some celebrated artists still need reconsideration because their narrative doesn't scan neatly. Because Sly Stone remains inconveniently alive, the history of funk and rap has been grossly distorted. James Brown is a gigantor dust magnet accruing credit for every flicker in black music for the last four decades. While his rhythmic innovations brought a stinky new whipcrack funkiness to American music, James Brown did not invent funk. He's sui generis—nobody sounds like him except by pastiche. Neither did George Clinton invent funk. Funk starts on the thumb-callous of Larry Graham on "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)"—and all things funky roll outward from that low, seismic tremor. But Sly crawled up a hole in his nostril thirty years ago, and George Clinton's a cuddlier interview for VH-1. Also, the Family Stone's epochal Woodstock performance date-stamps them as Hippie Rock in a way that muddles the clear line from There's a Riot Goin On through every Dr. Dre production.

Though to counter my own argument, one place where you do hear a huge seventies James Brown influence is in African music, particularly Fela.

Funk starts on the thumb-callous of Larry Graham on "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)"

Ooh! And then that hey/scream thing? So fucking awesome. I am hearing the right song in my head, right?

Ooh! And then that hey/scream thing? So fucking awesome. I am hearing the right song in my head, right?

Don't you have any Sly in your house? See, this is what I'm talking about.

"Thankyou..." isn't so screamy to my recollection. More ominous and low and bass-popping.

note to self: put more Sly on the Jesse funk thang.

"Thankyou..." isn't so screamy to my recollection. More ominous and low and bass-popping.

Well, the singing style is very different from other S&FS hits. I'd apply "scream" more to the beginning of "Dance to the Music."

I'd also argue that Charles Wright & the (and I know I'm not getting this exactly right) Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band were at least funky, and maybe even funk. Example -- "Express Yourself."

I'd also argue that Charles Wright & the (and I know I'm not getting this exactly right) Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band were at least funky, and maybe even funk. Example -- "Express Yourself."

Yup, an underrated band right on that cusp of hard soul and funk.