The Genius of James Brown | Hacker News Reader

The Genius of James Brown

nybooks.com

53 pointstintinnabula13 comments

After a browsing and selected passage reading of the article, I'm sure it's a fine piece dealing fairly with the book itself, which, as well, appears to have merit to an audience which may be interested in the subject. James Brown is, to me, a very iconic musician and representation of US cultural impact (both his influences and his influence). If there are several books about the subject and one comes along to really improve, then great!

Eventually the market will tap out, aka, "How many books about Abraham Lincoln do we need?!"

Disclosure: For biographies I primarily read ones about musicians. The Rex Brown autobiography was the latest, and I do want to get around to some others.

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.

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.

McBride is a musician, but sadly it's common for reviewers who aren't comfortable with that tend go just skip it.

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.

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.

That's probably the best way to look at artists that don't strike your personal taste.

I don't care to listen to any Beatles songs, but I know the world would be worse off without them due to their enormous influence.

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!

Some of his early lives, still in bw video, are transe like. Everything was so tight I felt watching a space Shuttle reentry vibrating and burning.

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

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