James Brown: Still funky after all these years

With hits like "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" and "I Got You," James Brown created a new style called funk

October 13, 2000
Web posted at: 4:59 PM EDT (2059 GMT)

From Serena Yang
CNN WorldBeat Correspondent

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- When it comes to soul music, few artists can top the contributions or influence of James Brown. Combining new rhythms with socially conscious lyrics in the early '60s, he merged soul, gospel and traditional black music into a new style: funk.

"'Funky' is about the injustices, the things that go wrong, the hungry kids going to school trying to learn," the 67-year-old Brown said recently. "'Funky' is about what it takes to make people move -- take it from the gospel, from the jazz.

"Thank God that I had the ability to understand that I had a different beat and that I was a drummer."

VIDEO Watch James Brown get funky at the House of Blues Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)     QUICKVOTE What's your favorite James Brown song? 'Papa's Got a Brand New Bag' 'Sex Machine' 'I Got You' 'Hot Pants' View Results

Brown, born in Georgia in 1933, grew up in poverty. In the late '40s, he was convicted of armed robbery, but managed to gain parole with the help of singer Bobby Byrd. They formed the gospel group the Flames, which would later change its focus to R&B ... and its name. By the 1950s, James Brown and the Famous Flames were a regular on the nightclub circuit.

Brown had his first hit in 1958 with "Try Me." It reached No. 1 on the R&B hit charts, and even made the pop charts, too. But it was the release of "Live at the Apollo" five years later that put him on the track to stardom.

The album, with songs like "Think," "I'll Go Crazy," and "Night Train," had a harder edge and more complex Latin and jazz influences. He took the musical evolution further the next year, 1964, with the release of "Out of Sight."

It wasn't called funk at the time, but that's where his music was headed.

By 1965, he had perfected funk, a sound epitomized by the raucous "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag." The album tapped Brown into a white audience, and a far wider acceptance of his new sound.

"When I got 'Papa's Got a Brand New Bag,' there was nothing like it around me," he said. "Even after they started the riots, after Dr. King was assassinated (in 1968), it seems my beat continued on.

James Brown had his first hit in 1958 and he hasn't let up since. Nicknamed "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business," the singer still influences artists today

"Then I recorded a song called 'Say It Loud I'm Black and I'm Proud' and that really got to the people and there I was ... The money kept rolling in."

Brown kept rolling, too. He put on such high-energy shows that he became known as "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business," "The Godfather of Soul" and "Mr. Dynamite" -- honorifics the Georgia House of Representatives included in a 1997 resolution commending Brown's "musical genius."

Part of the formula to his success was ever-changing musical styles and flashy looks, said Brown.

"Do your hair in different styles, make people notice," he said.

"Good lyrics are good things, but I would like to pass on that drive, that invigorous undying determination."
— James Brown, The Hardest Working Man in Show Business

Brown began to burn out artistically in the mid-'70s, but other artists took the funk torch, sampling his hits. And if the younger generation of artists are to learn just one thing from his legacy, he says let it be his ambition.

"I would like to pass on the want to do something," he said. "The need is there. Good lyrics are good things, but I would like to pass on that drive, that invigorous undying determination."

Arson suspected in Brown fire
May 4, 2000
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Allmusic.com: James Brown
Funky-stuff.com: James Brown

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