The Genius of James Brown • Hacker News Board

Re: The Genius of James Brown

#11

Post by HippoViolation » Tue, Aug 23, 2016, 4:42 PM UTC

mjklin wrote: post #7

WhitneyLand wrote: post #4

Unlike most music legends JB is one that's hard for me to appreciate. I love funk and funk derivative bands, but most of his songs have never resonated with me. Guess I just have be happy that he had such a positive influence on other artists.

With JB it was as much about the stage work as much as it was the music. That man just loved being on stage. Watch some videos of his dance moves. At some point in every show he would appear to break down from exhaustion, and his stage hands would cover him with a cape and try to lead him off. Then he would break free, throw off the cape and run back to the mic. Showmanship!

look up James Brown's cape man: http://chronicle.augusta.com/life/people/2011-11-13/james-br...

Re: The Genius of James Brown

#12

Post by TylerE » Tue, Aug 23, 2016, 4:43 PM UTC

agumonkey wrote: post #10

golemotron wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would've been nice if the review actually talked about his music. It made me wonder whether the bio made the same omission.

I don't know his earliest period, but hiring Bootsy collins, IMO, altered his music, and propelled bassline funk even higher than he did before. Bootsy was different. His work in parliament is unique, and pfunk is musically significant. Both in itself, in its direct influence, and indirect later gene spreading through samples. Dance music wouldn't be the same without this cat.

I think the Bootsy connection is over-stated, actually. He was only with Brown for 11 months, and while there were a handful of key singles cut (including Sex Machine), the associate was really quite brief and didn't result in that many recordings.

If you look at the recording from late 1969 and early 1970, like Mother Popcorn, Ain't It Funky Now, Say It Loud (I'm Black and I'm Proud), the direction to harder funk was already very apparent.

This is to say nothing of, say, what Larry Grapham was doing with the Family Stone circa '68-'69, or other west coast funk pioneers.

Re: The Genius of James Brown

#13

Post by scelerat » Tue, Aug 23, 2016, 4:48 PM UTC

golemotron wrote: post #2

I think it would be better if biographers wrote philosophy rather than projecting their own onto their subjects. Once you have a critic writing about a biography you have a two layer cake to peel apart.

There's a Wikipedia article on James Brown if you just want distilled facts with minimal interpretation.

Re: The Genius of James Brown

#14

Post by agumonkey » Tue, Aug 23, 2016, 5:42 PM UTC

TylerE wrote: post #12

agumonkey wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know his earliest period, but hiring Bootsy collins, IMO, altered his music, and propelled bassline funk even higher than he did before. Bootsy was different. His work in parliament is unique, and pfunk is musically significant. Both in itself, in its direct influence, and indirect later gene spreading through samples. Dance music wouldn't be the same without this cat.

I think the Bootsy connection is over-stated, actually. He was only with Brown for 11 months, and while there were a handful of key singles cut (including Sex Machine), the associate was really quite brief and didn't result in that many recordings. If you look at the recording from late 1969 and early 1970, like Mother Popcorn, Ain't It Funky Now, Say It Loud (I'm Black and I'm Proud), the direction to harder funk wa…

I really find Bootsy's basslines and overall music directions very different even from high rated funk musicians like Graham.

I'll dig further in the titles you listed to test my hypothesis.