James Brown

I didn't expect Christmas morning to start with tears, but JB has been a huge inspiration for me, as a white woman. As for black men, what can you say? He was the first black man to get up there and be a black man, truly, thoroughly, genuinely. If you ever want to know what it means to be a real person on this earth, to be uncompromisingly true to yourself, look at the master. Rural, uneducated, coming from nothing, but he heard the music, never stopped. When James was coming up, the last thing you wanted to be was a black man, no matter the talent. I love Chuck Berry, and Little Richard deserves props too, but James came out as neither effeminate nor literary, nor with a whitewashed do-wop group. He was a fully sexual black man, right out there with it, at a time when that was so threatening that guys were getting killed all over the place.

I thought the man would go on forever, he was touring this year. I'll be covering some of his music this Friday and next Wednesday. Come out and listen, or at least go see Dreamgirls, with Eddie Murphy renewing his old SNL hot tub personality into a funky JB-esque homage to the performer. In a few more years there should be something even better; Spike Lee will direct and Brian Grazier will produce a biopic on Brown's life, production to start late 2007.

Take a look at what the man wrote in 1964:

This is a man's world, this is a man's world
But it wouldn't be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl

You see, man made the cars to take us over the road
Man made the trains to carry heavy loads
Man made electric light to take us out of the dark
Man made the boat for the water, like Noah made the ark

This is a man's, a man's, a man's world
But it wouldn't be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl

Man thinks about a little baby girls and a baby boys
Man makes then happy 'cause man makes them toys
And after man has made everything, everything he can
You know that man makes money to buy from other man

This is a man's world
But it wouldn't be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl

He's lost in the world of man
He's lost in bitterness

James had his demons, hard childhood, and I don't apologize for the way he treated women, or men. But, at least there was awareness. I see lots of these workaholic men all over the place, so happily immersed in their world of deals, cut off from their kids, their hearts, their souls, their passions, and never even knowing it. They have the wife, they have the kids, and all their stuff, and they think they are men. They think that's what it means to be a man. Well check it out guys, cause it takes a hell of a lot more than that. Yeah, it IS a man's world... and take a look at it.

So, save yourself the pain and cut the fucking vapid, petrified carols today and do what's right... turn up the burn and funk out! Look at how much hip hop dominates music today and how many of those beats came straight off his cuts. Virtually every act making money today owes Brown a huge debt. I can't think of any artist who has had more of an impact on the sound of popular, lucrative music today. Bye JB. I'll miss you.