James Brown, the “Godfather of Soul”, the legendary R&B artist, the singer and songwriter who defined funk and inspired rap, died yesterday at Atlanta’s Emory Crawford Long Hospital of congestive heart failure at the age of 73.
Brown’s last words were to his manager Charles Bobbit, and they were: “I’m going away tonight.”
James Brown is one of the few music legends who will live on forever through their art and through the way they affected and revolutionized the music scene.
His influence was broad and deep, and so much of the music we hear nowadays has it’s roots in Brown’s music.
Brown began his professional music career in 1953 and skyrocketed to fame in the late 1950s and early 1960s on the strength of his thrilling live performances and a string of smash hits. In spite of various personal problems and setbacks, he continued to score hits in every decade through the 1980s.
I grew up listening to James Brown’s hits from “Sex Machine” to “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” to “I Got You (I Feel Good)” and countless other songs; My dad is very big fan of Brown’s music, and so his songs played a big role in my personal musical education and defining my taste of music.
Rest in peace James Brown, for you have achieved immortality through your music…
great post!
indeed, Mr Brown will remain immortal for his incredible input in the development of modern-day music. I myself am a big fan of Brown and the rest of ‘quality’ music that came from that era. Being twenty-two, it’s painful realizing that today a young person’s interest in such music has declined drastically. and you know what i mean. today for every 10 R’n’B fans there’s like 1 jazz listener. this is not to take away from R’n’B by any means – some of it i really like. But lets face it – most of what RnB labels have to offer these days is a smelly pile. If things in relation to global americanization keep on going the same way, we have slim chances of world music raising its standards anytime soon, which i think is a huge paradox in itself since it was the U.S. that jazz, blues, funk and fusion came out of. and by no means has America stopped producing its jazz and blues, but it is its rap singles that reach the ears of young people all over the world. maybe this whole thing is a stretch, i don’t know. just a sad fact i guess… anyway, MMM, since you’re based in Tunisia, i would be delighted to hear what the music scene is like over there. What’s predominant? what’s big in the underground? what are the major labels? I myself am a Russian living in Prague, Czech Rep, a wonderful place for good gigs (going to see Richard Bona on the 24th!! :)). Here, unlike any place i’ve seen, there’s quite a good balance within the general music scene. I think it’ll be a place like Czech Republic or maybe an Arabic country that’ll create a platform for the rise of something worthy and new in music today. appreciate your time and would love to hear back from you.