James Brown "The Godfather of Soul" has passed on, and there are many thoughts on what his legacy is and has meant. His influence in music is well known, but he also had an impact in film, including the present "Dreamgirls" where a character is based on him...
Cinema Views With Film Critic Kevin J. Walker thewordnerpaper @excite. Dotcom
walkernet @gmail dot com
http://cinemaviews.tripod.com Godfather Of Soul Passes "Soul Brother Number 1", "The Bad Busta from Augusta and "The King Of Soul," Also "The Hardest Working Man In Show Business" Mourned as James Brown Passes at Age 73;
Spike Lee BioPic film set for 2008 The national news featured the passing of James Brown near the top of their broadcasts, and was only overshadowed with the passing of former President Gerald Ford. His influence was still being forged, even in a hit movie such as "Dreamgirls," while his Christmas anthem of holiday and social comment was heard this season with his "Santa, Go Straight To The Ghetto." Brown went to an Atlanta hospital last weekend and was diagnosed with pneumonia where he died from complications of congestive heart failure. Funeral arrangements call for a public viewing at the Apollo theatre in New York's Harlem before internment in Augusta, Georgia where he grew up. He was born James Joseph Brown Jr. in North Carolina although raised in Georgia, giving him one of his original nicknames as "The Bad Busta From Augusta" from an early boxing career. James Brown and the Famous Flames traveled the nation, playing in the "Chitlin Circuit" of Black owned and operated clubs throughout the Southland before their fame grew. They became one of the many Black groups such as the Temptations, Spinners, Supremes and more with multigenerational crossover appeal, especially with the Nostalgia Music wave when Baby Boomers brought the music to the fore and in so doing brought Brown to more generations of youth. He had become so famous that he could become a subject of parody like the late crooner Barry White whose visage appears through Robin Williams in Happy Feet" as the king penguin with the plastic six pack plastic binder around his neck. This only made others more interested in his music and showmanship. Handing over the torch or sorts was seen in the joint appearance with Usher Raymond at the 2005 Grammy Awards, where the two danced alternatively. The NBC broadcast showed a clip and has a link at their archives of James Brown film clips. Stories were told of his largesse in his many Milwaukee appearances. He carried a shoe shine box in his car when in the late 1950s he pulled up to one Black venue he was scheduled to play and saw a gaggle of young boys on the corner looking for shoes to shine. "Here let me show you how to do it right," said Brown. He shined THEIR shoes, while impressing messages of entrepreneurship to the young boys. Seeing a group of youngsters gathered at the doors at a downtown venue and unable to get in, he ordered that they were to be let in for $1.00. Those who didn't have even that were to be let in for free. BUSY SCHEDULE BY NECESSITY NOT CHOICE The week he went into the hospital he had three appearances booked for the following week. This active schedule was not of his choosing. He wanted to sit back and enjoy the fruits of a long and successful career; he had millions; a personal jet; and homes in two states. But he also had several wives and many children. Tax bills, child support and wife payment problems called for increasing revenue streams and kept him on the road. James Brown's stage antics were renown and imitated, mentioned by White TV anchors who evidently were acquainted with the material. This was such as the "Microphone Tango" he performed, holding the mike cord and tossing the head of the stand forward, then snatching it back, cradling the microphone while dropping to the floor on one knee, sweat pouring down his face. There was one that was more dramatic, and even performed by White TV VJs: The man kneels onstage, screaming pleadingly into the microphone while the backup singers harmonize: "Please, please, please...
"..Don't go...
"...I love you so..."" A friend come out of the wings, and places a glittering cape over his shoulders while he leads him off the stage a broken man bent over in his grief, his hunched shoulders shuddering with his sobs as he and his friend slowly march off to the wing in time to the beat. He rebels, throws the cape off, runs to the front of the stage and grabs the mike again, repeating the refrain. He breaks down again. Another glittering cape of a different colour, again he is led off. This would be repeated a good four or five times. Everybody who'd seen it knew the routine, but like Shakespeare's plays some things retain their power over time and although we know the plot still enjoy seeing its execution. Prince of Minnesota who at one we time worked in the James Brown Revue even incorporated many of the stage mannerisms into his own concert tours. Female vamps strut suggestively about, band members engage in their own antics while in front Prince holds court. He learned this "3 Ring Circus" technique from Brown. Spin-off Brown groups from the James Brown Revue included The JBs who produced "Monorail," one of the early "Bus Stop" tunes, sort of Urban Square Dancing done without partners in a large group. The Horny Horns were sort of another spin-off who played with acts such as Bootsy Collins. RAP MUSIC INFLUENCE Brown's influence was vast, affecting not only his native R&B, but Rock And Roll, and even Rap Music. Estimates are that Brown is the most sampled performer in rap. Eric B and Rakim; Ice Cube; and NY DJ Cool Herc were among those who sampled his tunes. His dance moves also had an impact. The Mash Potatoes and Camel Walk, which is sort of a forward Moon Walk was in his repertoire. There is an old audition tape of a young Michael Jackson doing his moves. Usher, MC Hammer and even Mick Jagger's stage moves were aped, along with his general looting of Black music. There was a Dancing James Brown Doll, along with those Dancing Santas that one can buy in discount stores. Press a button and a dance tune issues forth, with Brown's 14 inch figurine moving in time to the beat. The rendition is accurate even down to the oversized belt buckles and the processed hair. Charles "Dapp" Wilson, the late Milwaukee community activist and Old School music and R & B booster, purchased a bunch of the dolls and passed them around the community. SPOKE LEE JOINT OF BROWNS LIFE IN 2008 James Brown knew theatre and theatricality well and like many performers went at least partway into film. The death announcements weren't long issued before talk evolved of a film Biopic of Brown. But the producers of Hollywood were ahead and far beyond the talking stage. Spike Lee has been tapped to craft a film on Brown's life. Brian Glazer who produced "A Beautiful Mind" will be producing for Paramount Pictures. Black talk radio was rife with who should be the star. "It has to be somebody who can sing and dance," offered up one member of a panel on Milwaukee's 1290 WMCS-AM "Jamie Foxx would be my choice..." "I would think Leon of (Robert Townsend's) "The 5 Heartbeats" "The actor has to be dark-skinned, too" concluded another. Brown has had an appearance in films, both in presence and in spirit. * "BLUES BROTHERS" -- Many people think his first film foray was a small role in this John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd musical road trip of two R & B loving White private detectives trying to save their clients' property. Along the way they encounter Brown as the pastor of a Black church with truly rocking services who sings from the pulpit mike in hand while the choir wails away, and the rotund Joliet Jake turns handsprings down the aisle. The film was partially shot in Milwaukee (the freeway chase scene where the car goes off the unfinished bridge) and featured Aretha Franklin the Queen of Soul to James Brown's King. * ROCKY V - Brown performed "Livin' In America" during the 4th of July extravaganza between boxers Apollo Creed (modeled after Muhammed Ali) now Rocky Balboa's friend and trainer after two brutal fights in the first two movies; and Ivan Drago from the old Soviet Union. The Las Vegas spectacle is renown and replayed often, featuring Brown singing and his red, white and blue clad dancers all about as in one of his stage revues * "ROBOTS" -- Halle Berry and Ewan McGregor co-starred which had a recurring joke where a broken robot lost his voice box and encountered various other voice units along the way, including James Earl Jones' Darth Vader from "Star Wars." In the film's big dance finale after they'd won their freedom, the little robot leads off the big party with "Get Up Off Offa That Thing" and bending over the microphone stand James Brown-style, while all around his dancers and background singers cavort. To one side another robot dances the Robot! * "DREAMGIRLS" has Eddie Murphy's character James "Thunder" Early who is patterned after James brown during the era of his early stage revues with the singing style and processed hair. It is he who gives the Dreamgirls their first big break as backup singers
In fact it was this sort of three ring action onstage that Brown honed in the "Chitlin Circuit" that was later incorporated by Prince, who worked in Brown's operation. Rap groups have used the technique as well, with a stage full of sexy dancers and poseurs prancing about in and endless display of visual and auditory treats. RACE-PROUD BROWN BOUGHT AND BANNED OWN MOVIE; PENNED "SAY IT LOUD -- BLACK & PROUD" BUT MARRIED WHITE WOMEN While many people think Browns' first film foray was a small role in "Blues Brothers" that was about his second film. The first was such an embarrassment that Brown did what the family of The man played by Orson Wells' movie "Citizen Kane" weren't able to do. In the late 1960s film, Brown played one of the millions of former Enslaved in the chaos of the Civil War and Emancipation. He was searching for his former master because he was unused and uncomfortable with this frightening new thing called "Freedom." The racially proud Brown who would go on to record "Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud" bought the film work prints and negatives so it would not be shown. Brown later went on to sample the Other White Meat, marrying White women and having court battles with several other women to join those of the government. The woman who identified herself as Mrs. Brown was locked out of the mansion thereby providing fodder for the likes of Entertainment tonight and inside edition for weeks to come, alternating her with Anna Nicole Smith's battles for her own piece of a dead husband's estate. ACTIVELY POLITICAL, SPENT ENTIRE WEEK ON MIKE DOUGLAS SHOW James Brown was political, and in an unorthodox way. He was a Republican who visited the Nixon White House and worked to bring other African Descended into the GOP. He started the Black And Brown Trading Stamps in the late 1960s and brought them to Black communities all across the nation. With the B&B stamp program as the sponsor, Brown bankrolled his own national radio show for Black stations which featured ground breaking subjects with incendiary hosts, who one time were unceremoniously flipped off the air when they discussed the Black Mafia and explored their legitimacy and acceptability. The microphone however was left on for a few seconds while the host and station management argued. Brown spent a week on the Mike Douglas Show in the late 1960s. It was over a weeklong school holiday like Easter of Christmas so many of us were able to see it. He spoke of politics, having ownership of land, political and economic empowerment. To young people this was something new, and for a week we were schooled by an African Descended millionaire who stayed close to his people. It coloured our views of his movement and life passages. James Brown made many songs, but below are some particular ones of note. If you think we omitted one or two that should have been listed, drop us a message at thewordnetpaper @excite dot com, or walkernet @ gmail.com
JAMES BROWN SONG LIST: Please, Please, Please Try Me Prisoner of Love Papa Got A Brand New Bag Man's World (This Is A) Sex Machine Super Bad Mother Popcorn I Feel Good (I Got You) Living In America Black And Proud (Say It Loud) Santa Go Straight To The Ghetto I Don't Want Nobody To Give Me Nothin' King Heroin
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Our Partner:Kevin Walker
Mr. Walker is a print journalist who often includes Science and Travel articles among his forays on political and societal observations. A past professor of Journalism at his Alma Mater of Marquette University, Walker has written extensively for several newspapers on urban issues, and is presently compiling his essays on the phenomenon of intractable trans-generational familial poverty into the book in progress "The Culture of Poverty," based on his observations on the effects of Welfare Reform in his hometown in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He often writes from an Undisclosed Location in the Hidden Valleys retreat inland from the Mississippi River in western Wisconsin, where he indulges in his first intellectual love, amateur Astronomy and stargazing.
Milwaukee, WI, 53202
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