RIP James Brown: Godfather of Soul -Hardest Working Man in Show Business - Mr. Dynamite - The Minister of Super Heavy Funk - Soul Brother #1

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