‘Get Up Offa That Thing’ and celebrate ‘Godfather of Soul’ James Brown
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/5/3/800030962/series/get-up-offa-that-thing-and-celebrate-godfather-of-soul-james-brown/
‘Get Up Offa That Thing’ and celebrate ‘Godfather of Soul’ James Brown
Black Music Sunday is a weekly series highlighting all things Black music, with over 300 stories covering performers, genres, history, and more, each featuring its own vibrant soundtrack. I hope you’ll find some familiar tunes and perhaps an introduction to something new.
Happy James Brown Day! The legendary musician and showman was born on May 3, 1933. He would have been 93 years old today.
From his Musician Guide biography by Simon Glickman:
In the book about his life, Living in America, James Brown told the author, “I never try to express what I actually did,” regarding his influence on the American soul scene. “I wouldn’t try to do that, ’cause definition’s such a funny thing. What’s put together to make my music–it’s something which has real power. It can stir people up and involve ’em. But it’s just something I came to hear.”
The music that James Brown heard in his head–and conveyed to his extraordinary musicians with an odd combination of near-telepathic signals and vicious browbeating–changed the face of soul. By stripping away much of the pop focus that had clouded pure rhythm and blues, Brown found a rhythmic core that was at once primally sexual and powerfully spiritual. Shouting like a preacher over bad-to-the-bone grooves and wicked horn lines, he unleashed a string of hits through the 1960s and early 1970s; he was also a formative influence on such rock and soul superstars as Parliament-Funkadelic leader George Clinton, Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger, Prince, and Michael Jackson, among countless others.
[…]
Brown was born in the South–sources vary, but generally have him hailing from Georgia or South Carolina–and grew up in Augusta, Georgia, struggling to survive. At the age of four, he was sent to live with his aunt, who oversaw a brothel. Under such circumstances, he grew up fast; by his teens he drifted into crime. In the words of Timothy White, who profiled the singer in his book Rock Stars, “Brown became a shoeshine boy. Then a pool-hall attendant. Then a thief.” At 16 he went to jail for multiple car thefts. Though initially sentenced to 8-16 years of hard labor, he got out in under four for good behavior. After unsuccessful forays into boxing and baseball, he formed a gospel group called the Swanees with his prison pal Johnny Terry.
Brown’s official website tells more of his story:
Nearly stillborn, then revived by an aunt in a country shack in the piney woods outside Barnwell, South Carolina, on May 3, 1933, Brown was determined to be Somebody. He called his group “Famous” before they had a right to; called himself “Mr. Dynamite” before his first Pop hit; and proclaimed himself “The Hardest Working Man in Show Business” before the music business knew his name. His was a fantasy, a sweet dream. But James Brown had singular talent, and the vision to hire the baddest. In his own time, he became “Soul Brother Number ONE,” a larger-than-life Godfather of Soul.
Some say it was a freedom too bold. Night after night, on stage and in the studio, his blood swirled, his legs split and his body shook. But talking to a crowd stretched at his feet in the late 1960s, James Brown reassured them: “If you ain’t got enough soul, let me know. I’ll loan you some! Huh! I got enough soul to burn.”
{…]
His main concern was hustling; his main outlet was sports. He liked music: gospel when he attended church; big-band swing and early rhythm & blues that he heard that he heard on the radio and on jukeboxes, particularly Louis Jordan with his Tympany Five was a special inspiration.
In 1946, all of 13 years old, Brown first tried his musical luck with his Cremona Trio, a penny-making sideline. His career halted temporarily when he was imprisoned for petty theft in 1949.
Paroled in Toccoa, Georgia, in 1952, under the sponsorship of the local Byrd family, Brown started to make music his principal motive. Initially, he sang gospel with Sarah Byrd and the church club, then joined her brother Bobby Byrd’s locally established group, known as the Gospel Starlighters or the Avons, depending on what or where they performed.
There was no cohesive plan. Transporting illegal hootch across the state lines was a bigger moneymaker than their day jobs and night gigs. Gradually, though, singing rhythm & blues seemed to make the most sense.
[…]
Too poor to afford horns, “either James or I would whistle or we’d scat sing it together,” Byrd added. “Our voices always did go well together.”
The Avons did pop ballads, too, for the afternoon tea parties and such. But in clubs and high schools, Brown, having emerged as the group leader, was bit more reckless.
“The dancing y’all seen later on ain’t nothing to what he used to do back then,” Byrd said. “James could stand flat-footed and flip over into a split. He’d tumble, too, over and over like in gymnastics. We’d say, ‘What’s wrong with you? When it’s time to record, you’ll have killed yourself.’”
There are quite a few excellent documentaries on YouTube that tell his story, including “James Brown: The Man, the Music, & the Message”:
James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American musician. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century music, he is referred to by various honorific nicknames, some of which include “the Hardest-Working Man in Show Business”, “Godfather of Soul”, “Mr. Dynamite”, and “Soul Brother No. 1”.[1] In a career that lasted more than 50 years, he influenced the development of several music genres.[2] Brown was one of the first 10 inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at its inaugural induction in New York on January 23.
Soul Connection (1978) | The James Brown Story
James Brown: The Godfather of Funk | Meet The Man Behind the Music and the Grooves
Renowned as the “Godfather of Soul & Funk,” James Brown is a pioneer of funk music and an iconic figure in 20th-century music and dance. This program showcases interviews with Brown, live performances, and conversations with band members Bobby Byrd and Maceo Parker Jr.
James Brown’s Last Chance – 2005 VH1 documentary
2005 vh1 episode of documentary series, Inside/Out. Follows 70-year-old James Brown as he hopes for one more time in the spotlight. He and his entourage tour the world, with plans for it all to conclude with a tribute show to himself at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. But not everything goes as planned . . .
James Brown – Beat The Devil (2002) | Directed by Tony Scott HD
James Brown, Clive Owen, Gary Oldman and Danny Trejo star in this hyperkinetic short film from the director of True Romance. Commissioned by BMW to promote their cars, it was one of a series of shorts directed by top tier tHollywood filmmakers
When documenting Brown, it’s important to look at the history of The Famous Flames.
How The Famous Flames Created the James Brown Sound
“Please, Please, Please” – James Brown and The Famous Flames
Brown also made his mark on civil rights history.
The Night James Brown Saved Boston
April 5, 1968. It is the day after one of the most catastrophic moments in the history of the civil rights movement. Backstage at the Boston Garden, the mood is somber, appropriately funereal. Just 24 hours ago, Martin Luther King, Jr., the most important and beloved African American leader in America, has been assassinated, and though James Brown is booked that night for a show, nobody really wants to go onstage and play. On April 4, 1968, the leader of the nonviolent resistance movement, Martin Luther King, was assassinated in Memphis. On April 5, 1968, James Brown sang, and the city of Boston didn’t burn down. This film tells the story of the pivotal role that James Brown—and that particular James Brown concert—played in the political, social and cultural history of the country, focusing on 1968, a defining year for America.
This film tells the story of the pivotal role that James Brown—and that particular James Brown concert—played in the political, social and cultural history of the country, focusing on 1968, a defining year for America. Using actual performance footage and the personal recollections of James Brown’s band members, friends like activist Reverend Al Sharpton, personal manager Charles Bobbitt, Princeton University Professor Dr. Cornel West, Boston citizens, those who attended the concert, politicians (such as former Boston Mayor Kevin White) and Newsweek’s David Gates, The Night James Brown Saved Boston tells the compelling story of an artist at the absolute peak of his powers using his artistry for the greater good.
When I was young, this was our anthem:
Say it Loud- I’m Black and Proud | James Brown
James Brown – Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud – Live on Soul Train, 1973
Here’s a least-expected duo:
He was buried with full honors after his death on Christmas Day, 2006:
James Brown’s Homegoing (2006)
Please join me in the comments section below to continue this birthday celebration!
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