James Brown: Godfather of Soul, Forefather of Funk

When music legend James Brown died on Christmas Day of 2006, former president Gerald Ford followed just two days after, allowing an interesting phenomenon to occur. On television, viewers were shown endless footage celebrating the legacy of Gerald Ford, while radio listeners were rewarded with almost constant music and talk celebrating the legacy of James Brown. And honestly, it was hard for me to feel that Gerald Ford had made any greater contributions to American society than Brown.

You can say what you want about Brown's abuse of women, his mistreatment of his bands, and his egotistical antics. You can say what you want about his family, his debauchery, and his adultery. But the fact remains that as a performer and musician, he paved the way for black artists to follow and provided intelligent, danceable songs of liberation and empowerment ("Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud", "The Payback") that became anthems of pride and comfort for young black communities all over the country. He invented funk by changing the focus of soul music from its melody to its rhythm, and mentored bassist Bootsy Collins who would go on to define funk with Parliment/Funkadelic. He layed the ground for hip-hop by providing easily sampled musical climaxes in such songs as "Please, Please, Please" and "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag." And what all of these innovations did was allow a new kind of music to emerge. A kind of music that was black, poor and proud of it. And regardless as to whether that pride emerged as a slap-happy bass-line in a George Clinton song or in the beatboxing of a thousand black youth, it was there. And remains today in the hearts of young black people all over the nation, and on the Top 40 charts.

So R.I.P James Brown. You've earned it, no matter what people say.




This is James Brown's now legendary appearance on The T.A.M.I Show in 1964, where he brought his music to thousands of white television viewers, dancing and singing with such enthusiasm that the Rolling Stones were reportedly afraid to follow him!