James Brown Gets Funky On Soul Train!
Because it's sensational, watch The Godfather Of Soul saying it loud on this awesome comp of appearances on the beloved R&B dance show.
JAMES BROWN - THE Hardest Working Man In Show Business, Mr Dynamite, Soul Brother Number One, Mr Please Please Himself - departed this life on December 25 2006. But as this phenomenal three-quarter-hour clip shows, some things are stronger than mere corporeal non-existence. Compiled from various early-to-mid-’70s appearances on long-running TV show Soul Train, here's James and The J.B.'s blasting through Hot Pants, Soul Power, The Payback and other of The Godfather's mighty hits of the period, and it's admirably gutbucket stuff. Backed by a ruthlessly drilled band with matching outfits and stage moves - all no doubt kept on their toes by their unignorably coiffed leader's habit of cash fines for perceived screw ups/inadequately pressed trousers - James leads from the front. A screaming, all-dancing, all-powerful figure, he presides over scarecely believable highlights too numerous to list. Try the crazy moves at 5.44 during Get On The Good Foot, or the scorching Papa Don't Take No Mess, where the newly be'tached James sports a punkoid studded leather ensemble. And how much can hip-hop be heard lumbering down the tracks during My Thang?
Just be careful you don't get snared in a James Brown funk cycle, stuck on clips like this superb 1971 performance of Sex Machine with Bobby Byrd, props to Wes Montgomery and, at 45 seconds, yet more outtasight dance moves.
