Papa's Got a Brand New Bag

"Take It to the Bridge"
JAMES BROWN, one of the truly true originals to come out of American Music died last night in Georgia--and I'll bet it was a rainy night in Georgia, too.

I first saw James on the Ed Sullivan Show back when "Please, Please, Please, Please" was on its way to the top. He put the beat on the 1. He didn't allow mistakes in his band. In one concert, you actually hear James, while he's singing, say, "I heard that." His manager said when he heard that he knew somebody in the band had screwed up and James was letting him know he heard his screwup--and, the manager said, the dude definitely heard about it after the show and was lucky if he wasn't fired.

James Brown. A man who went about looking for his reward, looking to be known, getting known, but then getting in trouble with his own people back in those Noxious Nixon years--and then he went to the Apollo Theater and got back on top again. Yeah, James made mistakes in his personal life but never in his music. In the music, James was renown, unique, a genius, a true American music star and IDOL in the realm of Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Ike Turner, Chuck Berry, the true inventors of a new form of the blues that when black was called "Rhythm & Blues" (when white, "Rock & Roll"), which is what it was, too, though Robert Johnson had been singing about "Rockin' and Rollin'" for a long time and so had John Lee Hooker and J.B. Lenoir, and Big Joe Turner ("Roll 'Em Pete") and that's what this music really was, the earliest form of American Rock and Roll, the blues taken to another height, ridin' on elements of blues, boogie, jazz, ragtime, with the syncopation that matches the human heart beat when it's rocking or when its rolling.

James Brown one of the last of the Great Originators: Scott Joplin, Buddy Bolden, Louis Armstrong, Big Joe Turner, Wynonie Harris, Louis Jordan, Joe Liggins, Roy Milton, Lucky Millender, Nat "King" Cole (and James sounds like Nat to me)...and there are more--Chuck Berry, Aretha, and Ike are still with us...these are our TRUE AMERICAN IDOLS.

One of my favorite James Brown songs's lyrics pretty much sums up how I think James saw the world, his world; beautiful lyrics, much more brilliant than anything the Beatles ever wrote or could write. Read 'em and think of James.

This is a man's world, this is a man's world
But it wouldn't be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl

You see, man made the cars to take us over the road
Man made the trains to carry heavy loads
Man made electric light to take us out of the dark
Man made the boat for the water, like Noah made the ark

This is a man's, a man's, a man's world
But it wouldn't be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl

Man thinks about a little baby girls and a baby boys
Man makes then happy 'cause man makes them toys
And after man has made everything, everything he can
You know that man makes money to buy from other man

This is a man's world
But it wouldn't be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl

He's lost in the wilderness
He's lost in bitterness

GOODBYE, GODFATHER JAMES--It ain't gonna be the same in this old world anymore.

Your pal,

thegrowlingwolf
for The Daily Growler

PEACE ON EARTH AND GOOD WILL TOWARD JAMES BROWN! "Take it to the bridge! Take it to the bridge!"