Blue Christmas: James Brown died at 1:54 this morning of heart failure. He was probably one of the top five most influential artists of the past fifty years, and maybe of the century. He had become sort of absurd; a disheveled, drug-addicted, wife-beating punchline.
But he was instrumental - perhaps responsible - for the elevation of R&B into the mainstream, the creation of funk (and disco, unintentionally), in inspiring countless hip-hop samples. And he was seriously fucking awesome: he designed his own clothes and danced like Mick and Michael dreamed they could. Read an obit or two, seriously - the man deserves it. I'm not qualified to talk about how he fit into the Black Power movement, or Afrobeat, or any number of other things - but he did, and if you only know a little about Brown it's worth your time to Google up a bit more.
Frankly, I'm barely qualified to talk about his music - I only got past my preconceptions about him this past summer, when I first decided to give his Live at the Apollo (1962) a listen. But damn, am I glad I did. Those titles up above? He hadn't earned - or thought up - all of them yet, in '62. But he was already the hardest working man in show business, already Mr. Dynamite himself. He was already making crowds go totally fucking insane and bringing so much excitement to his performance that it's impossible to avoid being swept up, even now, 44 years later.
Though I've delved into James Brown's back catalog a bit more by this point, the best tribute I can give him is probably still to upload this album - to let those of you who might not have gotten the time to hear The James Brown Show before have the opportunity now. The energy of this thing! It's true that Brown may have been more innovative later in his career. But I'm hoping if you haven't given him a chance in the past, this album will do the same thing for you that it did for me - convince you that you couldn't have been more wrong to write him off.
Listen to this, and celebrate the genius of an incredible artist:
James Brown - Live at the Apollo (1962) Expanded Edition
RIP James Brown: Godfather of Soul -
Hardest Working Man in Show Business - Mr. Dynamite - The Minister of Super Heavy Funk - Soul Brother #1
posting over break
Well, I was hopeful that I would have my singles list ready to go before I left for christmas break (actually, okay, I didn't really think about it that much because of finals), but rest-assured, there will be a singles list! And it will be even better than last year, complete with links to download each song and links to watch each music video. And you can trust that it won't be corrupted by the sinlges lists that are coming out in other online music magazines right now, those lists suck. look for that in mid-January.
As for over break posting, i'm going to be doing a little series I'd like to call "The Music on My Family's Computer" or "Catch Dave Up With (mostly) Non-American Psych Rock." Unfortunately, I myself am not familiar with non-American psych rock. So it will really be more like a unique experience where I investigate something i have no concept of and try to write about it!
My first entry is on The Kaleidoscope and their song "The Sky Children." I don't have much to say about this song, really. It's actually not much my bag, I think it goes on for too long. But if youve hated every other song I've posted, you might enjoy this one slightly more, since I enjoy it slightly less. As for the reasons why I do sometimes listen to it, it is pretty serene and softly poppy. So if i'm not going to invest too much in actually thinking about when the song's going to end, it can be sort of relaxing. It's also highly listenable/accessible, there's no reason why anyone should find this too "noise-y" or something, which can be an occasional problem of mine with the psychotic reactions of the psych-era. Anyways, check it out, you probably won't dislike it.
Download: The Kaleidoscope - The Sky Children
ps. dave, start posting again. i'll delete this line once you do.
