Link Wray savaging the James Brown Band instro "Hold It".
Thursday, May 3, 2012
James Brown Month: Godfather in the Garage part 2 - Link Wray "Hold It"
Happy Birthday
JB would have been 79 years old today. Please enjoy the historic "concert that saved Boston" from April 5th, 1968, the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.
James Brown says it loud: Chonnie on Chon & I Feel That Old Feeling
It's difficult to say much original about an artist as revered and well documented as JB, but maybe we can reshuffle some old elements and come up with something "new", that in and of itself being a classic James Brown technique.
In addition to James Brown the soul man and James Brown the minister of the new new super heavy funk, James Brown the balladeer and James Brown the smooth jazz organist, James Brown the pop crooner and James Brown the spoken word poet, all of whom I'm sure will show up here in one form or another over the course of the month, there's also James Brown, maker of a totally crazy loud racket, or, until something better comes along, James Brown: Rock and Roller.
Brown got a lot of his impulse to sheer frantic rhythmic excitement from Little Richard (he also got his hair, his first manager, and one of his first bands from Little Richard) so it's only fitting that we start pursuing this vein in the Brown mines with this crazed melding of Little Richard and Roy Brown from 1956, "Chonnie-On-Chon".
Near as I can tell, "Chonnie-On-Chon" is supposed to be roughly the equivalent of "Bama-Lama-Bama-Lou" or "Whop Bop a Lu Bop a Whop Bam Boom", while the verses of the song recall the events of "Good Rockin' Tonight".
Soul Brother #1's soul brother number one, Bobby Byrd, georgia peaches the keys.
And speaking of way out takes on Brown's influences, his very first session for Federal produced this spectacularly wild version of Wynonie Harris's "I Feel That Old Age Coming On". The title is tweaked to better reflect the fact that James was disinclined to feel old age (because that would require getting tired). But, really, the song should have almost been called "I, James Brown" because in his wild shrieks at the beginning of each verse he announces his unprecedented ego to the world by shrieking "I . . . I . . I . . . I-I-I-I" over and over again. He's so far gone by the end of the song that he forgets to say "I feel that old feeling coming on" at the end of the song and reverts back to the original lyric.
Second link from ike ike ike ike ikedyson71's indispensable all JB youtube channel
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
James Brown Month: BOCKY & THE VISIONS - Godfather in the Garage Part 1
The first in a JB Month Series featuring some of the greatest garage/frat performances of James Brown classics.
Today we've got this classic from Cleveland wailers Bocky and the Visions, hitting it TWO TIMES and taking it into the REDDA with "I Go Crazy" and "Good Good Lovin'".
Ten dollar two sider alert
James Brown Month History Lesson: Mr. Dynamite Unauthorized
Interesting for expert and novice alike, here's a compilation of documentaries, news clips and TV appearances from Soul Brother Ichiban. The first hour is a British documentary from the late 70s (first 20 minutes, VERY interesting - Brown shoots pool, combs his hair, negotiates a deal on a show, goes to Africa) and an 80s US documentary (a useful career trajectory). The second hour is shorter TV interviews and features from the 80s when Brown's career was really being reappriased by the mainstream. The Dick Cavett feature with interviews with Little Richard (starts at 1:10) is especially worth watching
It's a mixed bag, and hardly all new (it eventually starts covering the same material more times than Brown recorded versions of "Please Please"). AND every ten minutes there's an ad for some IT synergistic something or other that stands in marked contrast to whatever funky thing is going on in the documentary. However, it's worth a bookmark and slow troll through the footage. I had to see it all, anyway.
Dear God In Heaven!!
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Artist of the Month: SOUL BROTHER ICHIBAN
This month, Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban delves into the unparalleled career of the King of 45s, the DJ's best friend, the man who taught the world to dance . . . with hits like: SUDS! HOT! SUPER SLICK . . . SUPER BAD! MONEY WON'T CHANGE YOU! CHONNIE ON CHON! AND I DO JUST WHAT I WANT! TELL ME THAT YOU LOVE ME! Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Licking Stick, Brother Rapp Rapp himself . . . the hardest rocking man in history . . . James Brown!
We open our ceremonies with this amazing choral tribute to the king, the king of soul, performed by a group of Rochester, New York elementary school students, led by their teacher Nancy Dupree on an album recorded for Smithsonian-Folkways called Ghetto Reality.
Give the poor little shoe shine boy some!
Make sure your bad self joins us for all of JB's birth month for rare tracks, videos & photos, an interview with RJ Smith, author of The One, the newly published Brown biography, and much more.
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