View Full Version : James Brown dies at 73; RIP
ATLANTA - James Brown, the dynamic, pompadoured "Godfather of Soul," whose rasping vocals and revolutionary rhythms made him a founder of rap, funk and disco as well, died early Monday, his agent said. He was 73.
Brown was hospitalized with pneumonia at Emory Crawford Long Hospital on Sunday and died around 1:45 a.m. Monday, said his agent, Frank Copsidas of Intrigue Music. Longtime friend Charles Bobbit was by his side, he said.
Copsidas said the cause of death was uncertain. "We really don't know at this point what he died of," he 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, got me reading the Bible."
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 Out Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud," a landmark 1968 statement of racial pride.
"I clearly remember we were calling ourselves colored, and after the song, we were calling ourselves black," Brown said in a 2003 Associated Press 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."
With his tight pants, shimmering feet, eye makeup and outrageous hair, Brown set the stage for younger stars such as Michael Jackson and Prince.
In 1986, he was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And rap stars of recent years overwhelmingly have borrowed his lyrics with a digital technique called sampling.
Brown's work has been replayed by the Fat Boys, Ice-T, Public Enemy and a host of other rappers. "The music out there is only as good as my last record," Brown joked in a 1989 interview with Rolling Stone magazine.
"Disco is James Brown, hip-hop is James Brown, rap is James Brown; you know what I'm saying? You hear all the rappers, 90 percent of their music is me," he told the AP in 2003.
Born in poverty in Barnwell, S.C., 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, Ga., 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 1/2 years in Alto Reform School near Toccoa, Ga., 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 program before being paroled in February 1991. In 2003, the South Carolina parole board granted him a pardon for his crimes in that state.
Soon after his release, Brown was on stage again with an audience that included millions of cable television viewers nationwide who watched the three-hour, pay-per-view concert at Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles.
Adrienne Brown died in 1996 in Los Angeles at age 47. She took PCP and several prescription drugs while she had a bad heart and was weak from cosmetic surgery two days earlier, the coroner said.
More recently, he married his fourth wife, Tomi Raye Hynie, one of his backup singers. The couple had a son, James Jr.
Two years later, Brown spent a week in a private Columbia hospital, recovering from what his agent said was dependency on painkillers. Brown's attorney, Albert "Buddy" Dallas, said singer was exhausted from six years of road shows.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/16315334.htm
ELEANOR MAW
12-25-2006, 7:20am
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/16315334.htmI LOVED JAMES BROWN. I WATCH A DVD OF HIM IN CONCERT, I LOVE IT, HE COULD MOVE AT THE SAME TIME AS SING, AND THAT'S COOL, HE WILL BE VERY MUCH MISSED.
Skippy95
12-25-2006, 8:25am
Rip :(
Ouch, that stinks. I'm still getting to know about his death. Rest In Peace:love:
Remembering the Godfather of Soul
James Brown’s death is as much a shock as it is a loss
When some senior celebrities die, it’s a surprise because … well honestly, we thought they were already dead. Then there’s the “Godfather of Soul.” “Mr. Dynamite.” “Soul Brother Number One.” “The Hardest Working Man in Show Business.” James Brown was both an artist and a man so iconic and full of, well, life, he seemed beyond its inevitable end. And so news of his passing at age 73, on Christmas Day no less, is as great a shock as it is a loss.
The inspiration for the 1982 Tom Tom Club hit, “Genius of Love,” Brown experimented with rhythm & blues, gospel and jazz to become the defining voice of soul and funk. Indelible hits such as “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag,” “Get Up (I Feel Like Being Like A) Sex Machine” and “Hot Pants,” cement Brown’s signature shouts and percussive vocal style in the pop culture lexicon. Most modern music echoes Brown’s unmistakable influence, including disco, rock, jazz, reggae, house music and hip-hop. There would be no Justin Timberlake, it can be argued, if not for James Brown.
As gifted and influential as he was, perhaps one of Brown’s most amazing feats is how he rose from poverty to success largely by sheer force of will. Brown remains one of the few performers on the 1950s black musician “Chitlin Circuit” who is lavishly recognized for his talent and accomplishments. Among the first inductees to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Brown’s numerous awards also include Lifetime Achievement Awards from both the Grammy and Rhythm & Blues Foundation Pioneer Awards. There’s also a seven-foot bronze James Brown statue in his hometown of Augusta, Georgia — the same city from which he was banished decades earlier after serving several years in a juvenile detention center.
Consummate performer, stern taskmaster
Ironically perhaps, it was Brown’s first major brush with the law that led to his music career. It was in detention that Brown met longtime partner Bobby Byrd, eventually joining Byrd’s R&B band, the Famous Flames. Ceaselessly touring the South, the band achieved notoriety with minor hits such as “Please Please Please” and “Try Me.” But it was Brown’s electric performance style, which he maintained throughout his career, that skyrocketed the band to fame.
By this time, Brown also took control of the band. As well as leading musical direction, Brown notoriously imposed strict rules, including monetary fines for musicians who made even the slightest mistake during a performance. (Perhaps influencing Bruce “The Boss” Springsteen who also imposed similar penalties on the E Street Band.) Many of Brown’s band members predictably walked out, only to return later, eventually forming Brown’s most well known band, the J.B.s. Perhaps they decided that Brown’s talent and drive were worth his draconian nonsense.
It was during the ’60s and early ’70s that Brown created his most influential work, including “I Got the Feelin,’” “Licking Stick-Licking Stick” and “Funky Drummer.” Brown also scored the 1973 blaxploitation film “Black Caesar.” His solid horn and guitar arrangements were copied by Sly and the Family Stone and Parliament. Jazz great Miles Davis even cited Brown as an influence. And according to pop music legend, Brown’s 1969 song “Funky Drummer” is said to be the most sampled tune ever, featured in songs by dozens of artists from hip-hop to rock, including NWA, Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, TLC , Mobb Deep and Sinead O’Conner.
Brown was also a social activist, and as his awareness expanded, so did his lyrics in “Say It Loud — I’m Black and I’m Proud” and “I Don’t Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing (Open Up the Door I’ll Get It Myself)” (1970). Such songs delivered during the civil rights movement decreased Brown’s white audience at the time, and limited play on many radio stations, but obviously didn’t damage his fan base in the long run.
Template for stardom
Beyond his far-reaching musical influence, Brown led an often-tumultuous life that also became a template for what it means to be a rock star. He continued to have trouble with the law well into his senior years, including arrests for drug possession as well as domestic abuse. His 1988 arrest following a high-speed car chase in Augusta, Georgia was ripe for satire, even though he ended up serving three years of a six-year sentence for using PCP and threatening bystanders with a gun.
For an artist with a career as long as Brown’s, but with no blockbuster bio pick like contemporary Ray Charles, it’s easy to forget how important that career has been, especially when it’s someone as quirky and as easy to caricature as Brown. Comedians from Eddie Murphy to Aries Spears have well-worn impersonations of Brown’s effusive singing, smooth dance moves and often-unintelligible speech. These spot-on depictions were only upstaged by Brown himself — his frequent appearances on “The Howard Stern” show often required his wife or assistant to act as translator.
And for the younger and/or musically ignorant, it’s easy to never know. Case in point: Back in the ’80s, a James Brown concert review, seemingly written by neophyte music journalist, raved about the performer’s resistance to leave the stage. The review described how at the end of the show, an assistant repeatedly attempted to place a gold lame cape around the exhausted singer, who was drenched in sweat. Each time, it seemed, Brown was too exhausted to sing another note, and was ready to be escorted from the stage. But then he would leap to his feet, tossing the cape away and re-launching into the number as if suddenly renewed.
Anyone lucky enough to see Mr. James Brown in concert, or attentive enough to watch him every time he came on TV, knows that this was his shtick. He’d been doing the cape act for decades. He remained, after all, “The Hardest Working Man in Show Business.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16353627/
Thanks for the info. I have been uptodated in the newsreel about his death.
Quotes about the death of James Brown
Rev. Al Sharpton
“What James Brown was to music in terms of soul and hip-hop, rap, all of that, is what Bach was to classical music. This is a guy who literally changed the music industry. He put everybody on a different beat, a different style of music. He pioneered it.”
Little Richard
“He was an innovator, he was an emancipator, he was an originator. Rap music, all that stuff came from James Brown.”
President Bush
“An American original, his fans came from all walks of life and backgrounds. James Brown’s family and friends are in our thoughts and prayers this Christmas.”
Charles Bobbit
“People already know his history, but I would like for them to know he was a man who preached love from the stage. His thing was 'I never saw a person that I didn’t love.’ He was a true humanitarian who loved his country.” -- Charles Bobbit, a friend who was with Brown when he died
Agent Frank Copsidas
“Last night, he said 'I’m going to be there. I’m the hardest working man in show business.”’ — Agent Frank Copsidas, on Brown’s comments the night before he died about a scheduled New Year’s Eve performance in New York.
Rev. Jesse Jackson
“He was dramatic to the end — dying on Christmas Day. ... He’ll be all over the news all over the world today. He would have it no other way.”
James Brown's final moments
'I'm going away tonight,' legend, 73,
told a friend, sighing, before his death
He had a voice like a dangerous blade and a body like a stick of dynamite, and in a lifetime that took him from a Southern slum to superstardom, he tore his way through American life on no one's terms but his own.
Soul singer James Brown died of congestive heart failure early Christmas morning, his manager said, a day after checking into an Atlanta hospital. He was 73.
The legend uttered his last words Sunday night, telling a friend, "I'm going away tonight."
Brown left behind four decades of top 10 hits that defined soul, funk and hip hop, a matchless role in black culture and an outsized reputation as a troubled musical genius.
As millions of fans mourned the loss of the man known as The Godfather of Soul, the people who knew him best remembered the pull and the power of the complicated man underneath the pompadoured, silk-draped legend.
Brown was admitted to Emory Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta on Sunday with severe pneumonia, after a dentist told him earlier in the week he needed medical attention, Brown's agent Frank Copsidas said.
"He was having pain before, but then the pain went away and he told me, 'I'm going away tonight,' " said Charles Bobbit, Brown's personal manager and longtime friend.
"I didn't believe him," he said, adding that a short time later, Brown sighed quietly three times, closed his eyes and died.
The singer had canceled some dates, but still looked forward to playing two shows at New York's B.B. King Blues Club on New Year's Eve, Bobbit said.
Fans gathered under the theater's 42nd St. marquee yesterday with flowers and memories, scrawling tributes on a poster-sized picture of Brown emblazoned with the message "Rest in peace."
"How can we begin to replace him?" asked Anton Wilkins, 42, of Washington Heights, a promoter at the club. "After all the stuff he'd been through, he had a pretty good life."
Abandoned by his parents and raised by relatives, Brown grew up dancing for spare change and scavenging for lumps of coal in segregated Augusta, Ga.
He was sent off to reform school at 15 for breaking into cars there, earning the nickname "Music Box" during three years behind bars.
But from his very first hit - 1956's "Please, Please, Please," recorded when he was 22 - Brown announced himself as a searing, singular talent.
He could seethe with anger or ripple with love, sometimes in the same breath, and when words alone weren't enough, he lapsed into grunts and shouts - while flying across the stage in spangled outfits and punctuating his dance moves with a surging fury of splits, spins and kicks.
Brown became a phenomenon with songs like "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag," "I Got You (I Feel Good)," "Sex Machine," "Hot Pants" and "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud" - a black-power anthem he sang at President Richard Nixon's first inaugural.
"He made music that people loved, and wasn't afraid to make political statements," said Carl Redding, owner of Amy Ruth's Restaurant in Harlem. "He created his own sound and he was a master musician. He's right up there with the best of the best."
Brown's last major hit was "Living in America" from the 1985 soundtrack to "Rocky IV."
Brown never again scored a popular single, but his backing band's propulsive rhythms and irresistible horn riffs won new life in the late 1980s as raw material for countless hip-hop songs.
"People will remember him for his moves, his ability to perform and that sound he used to make," said WBLS-FM radio jock Vaughn Harper. "The true test of time for a musician is whether or not your music lasts. James Brown was an icon, and his music will live forever."
Brown was an astute moneymaker, as well as an entertainer, buying his master tapes back from a white-owned record label and running a business empire from an Augusta office.
Yet he seemed pursued by demons in his personal life - marrying four times, siring children with girlfriends and mistresses, being dogged by allegations of drug use and spousal abuse.
He famously served a 15-month prison term he earned with a PCP-fueled two-state rampage in 1988, when he threatened dozens of people with a shotgun before leading 14 squad cars on a chase that ended only after cops shot out his tires.
Brown's funeral will surely be a blockbuster event, though arrangements will not be completed until at least today. He is survived by his fourth wife, backup singer Tomi Rae Hynie, and at least four children.
"He was dramatic to the end - dying on Christmas Day," said the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a friend of Brown's since 1955. "Almost a dramatic, poetic moment. He'll be all over the news all over the world today. He would have it no other way."
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/story/483215p-406735c.html
I don't agree with some of the things he did, but he has some brilliant songs.
Legend.
I think it's horrible to die in these days, but the death surprise you in the moment you never imagine.
Funeral arrangements set for James Brown
Public will be able to view body at services in New York and Georgia
ATLANTA - A public funeral service for “Godfather of Soul” James Brown at an 8,500-seat arena bearing his name in his hometown of Augusta, Ga., has been set for Saturday.
Brown, who died Monday of heart failure in Atlanta at age 73, will be buried later Saturday in Augusta, Brown’s agent, Frank Copsidas, said.
A private funeral service for Brown that will include family and friends will be held Friday, Copsidas said, though he declined to say where it would be held.
On Thursday, members of the public will be able to view Brown’s body, which will lie in state at the Apollo Theater in New York, Copsidas said. The body also will lie in state on Saturday at James Brown Arena in Augusta, where the 1 p.m. public service will be held, Copsidas said.
Friends are calling the public service a “homecoming celebration” for Brown.
The public funeral service, which the Rev. Al Sharpton will officiate, is expected to draw a who’s who of entertainment figures and public officials.
Sharpton and some of Brown’s relatives spent Tuesday afternoon at an Augusta funeral home, where they were expected to view the singer’s body and finalize funeral arrangements. Sharpton left the funeral home without speaking to reporters.
Brown is survived by his partner, Tomi Rae Hynie, one of his backup singers, and at least four children — his two daughters and sons Daryl and James Brown II, Copsidas said.
Fans flocked to Brown’s statue in Augusta Tuesday to pay their respects, leaving flowers and other items.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16361043/
James Brown’s body placed in crypt
Rev. Al Sharpton presides over service at home of singer's daughter
COLUMBIA, S.C. - James Brown’s body was placed in a crypt Saturday at the Beech Island home of one his daughters, family and friends of the soul singer said.
White balloons were released and Brown’s adult children and other family members and friends sang and prayed over the singer’s body, said the Rev. Al Sharpton, who presided over the noon ceremony.
Also at the service were Brown’s partner, Tomi Rae Hynie, and the couple’s young son, who led the procession. “This is what James wanted, for the family to come together. Everyone really felt like James was there with us,” Hynie told The Associated Press by phone.
The service took place more than two months after the singer died in an Atlanta hospital. Brown died Dec. 25 at age 73, and his body had been held at an undisclosed location since then.
The private service at the home of Deanna Brown Thomas, about three miles from Brown’s Beech Island home, was in sharp contrast to elaborate funerals for the Godfather of Soul held after his death in New York and Augusta, Ga.
“He was very private,” said Sharpton, a longtime Brown confidant.
The crypt likely will not be Brown’s final resting place. A public mausoleum is being built and its location will be announced once it is completed, the family said.
Relatives locked in legal battle
Brown’s children decided to use their own money to place his body in the crypt instead of waiting for disputes over his estate to be settled in court, Sharpton said in a statement.
“Where he is now has nothing to do with court proceedings,” Sharpton said.
Hynie, who claims she is Brown’s fourth wife, and her son were not included in Brown’s will. Attorneys for Brown said his marriage to his backup singer was annulled because Hynie was still married to another man.
Now that the family has come together, Hynie said she and her son will move back to South Carolina “to carry out James’ plans.”
“He wanted our marital home to become a Graceland. He wanted us to have a James Brown museum,” Hynie said.
Long legal battles between Brown’s children, Hynie and Brown’s trustees will likely occur before a museum and mausoleum can be built.
Brown’s children wanted to consult with Elvis Presley’s family to see how they transformed his Memphis, Tenn., home into Graceland after Presley’s death.
A longtime friend of Brown and trustee of his estate was disappointed by the service.
The trustees had made arrangements for Brown to be laid to rest at no cost at a “very prominent memorial garden in Augusta,” Buddy Dallas told the AP by phone. “Mr. Brown’s not deserving of anyone’s backyard,” said Dallas, who was not at Saturday’s service.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17554974/
SevenUp!
03-11-2007, 11:26am
RIP James.
ELEANOR MAW
03-11-2007, 1:23pm
One of the very best singers of all time, a very big influence on many a singer. Rest in peace James Brown.
Children Challenge James Brown's Will
Dec. 29, 2007, 7:15 PM EST
The Associated Press
AIKEN, S.C. -- Five of James Brown's children say their late father's will should be invalidated because his former advisers used undue influence to get him to create charitable trusts that the advisers would profit from, according to court documents filed this week.
The children were largely left out of the financial portion of the will, which leaves the bulk of the soul singer's money to trusts set up to educate Brown's grandchildren and needy kids.
Atlanta attorney Louis Levenson said the children discovered earlier wills drafted by their father that cast doubt on whether he truly wanted to leave his estate to charity.
"There was sporadic indication that Mr. Brown intended to benefit some charities, but the circumstances surrounding the making of these documents have always been clouded in mystery," Levenson said.
Five Brown children are challenging the will in Aiken County Probate Court. They claim Brown's longtime advisers Buddy Dallas, Alford Bradley and David Cannon convinced the soul singer to create the trusts so the advisers would profit from managing the two charities after Brown died.
Dallas denied the allegations and called attempts to void the will "an act of desperation."
"No one told James Brown what to do," Dallas said, adding that if he were going to use his influence to benefit himself, "I would have just influenced him into giving me something."
The Brown children challenging the will are Deanna Brown Thomas, Venisha Brown, Daryl Brown, Yamma Brown Lumar and Larry Brown. A sixth child named in Brown's will, Terry Brown, has hired a different attorney.
One grandchild whose tuition would be paid for by the trusts has accused his relatives of trying to break the charities to get the money.
Most of Brown's estate, including his Beech Island home and rights to his image, name and music, would go to the James Brown "I Feel Good" Trust for the education of needy children in South Carolina and Georgia, as well as to a family trust to educate his grandchildren younger than 35.
Brown died on Christmas Day 2006 of heart failure. He was 73.
Just how much money is involved in Brown's estate is unclear. In October, Forbes reported Brown made an estimated $5 million in 2005 alone. But attorneys have said Brown's accounts do not have the money they expected.
http://music.msn.com/news/article.aspx?news=290423>1=7702
SevenUp!
12-30-2007, 5:55pm
Whatever he's got, it'd be very nice to use it for educational purposes. Too bad his family is standing in the way of what he wanted.
dreamer
12-30-2007, 6:09pm
indeed
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