JAMES BROWN RIP

26-12-2006

Some of my mates gave James Brown a miss last time he came to the West Midlands 18 months ago. More fool them. It was a great show, and now those of who witnessed his last performance in the area can boast “I was there.”

That's not meant to sound heartless, but let's be honest, JB had lived a long and extraordinary life, and as those of us who saw the performance at Wolverhampton Civic hall will testify the man was a ferocious ball of energy to the end.

Much has been made of his self-proclaimed “Godfather Of Soul” status - we've been running a sweepstake at home to count how many times stuffy BBC presenters would trot out the phrase as if it were fact - but this was just one of a number of gimmicky monikers he attached to himself.

More accurate was the title of “Minister of New New Super Heavy Funk” (emblazoned on the Coldblooded/Funky President 45 from the early 70's) because this was the form of music in which he excelled; a repetitious bass and brass heavydancefloor soup that emerged in the mid 60's and was refined over the following decade becoming in the process the dominant form of urban black American music.

“Sex Machine” was the archetype, but “Papa's Got A Brand New Bag” was arguably as influential with musicians and just as popular on the dancefloor, although it wasn't until the mid 70's and “Get Up Offa That Thing” that Brown enjoyed real chart success in this country.

His band the JB's included some of the tightest players around but that didn't stop the man fining them if they played a rare dud note, and his career was interrupted in 1988 after being chased by cops while under the influence of drugs.

Brown was adopted as an icon by many early hip hop artists who sampled his beats and acknowledged his influence as one of the first African American music stars to control their own business empire.

His death at the age of 73 seems to have been a shock to his associates, but those of us who witnessed his last British appearances will at least have the consolation that he managed those trademark dance steps to the end.