James Brown Tribute
Well, I played 3 1/2 hours of James Brown songs, productions, covers, imitations, and samples tonight at St. Ex. What I liked most about it were the following two discoveries:
1. One can listen to almost 4 hours of James Brown's music and not get bored, at all. It's not just me that felt this way. (And, to be honest, I've listened to a lot more than 4 hours of JB in the past two days.) More than one person came up to me afterwards and said that they had thought listening to that much JB would get old, quick, but were happy to be proven wrong. People were just as into it when I ended as when I began. The thing is: his music has incredible range. There are fast songs, noisy songs, slow songs, mellow songs and mellow sections of songs, and all different sorts of funk. If you just played songs with the Popcorn beat/bassline, or the Hot Pants beat/guitar, it would get old quick, but if you switch it up, it's amazing how much people are able to get into it and stay into it. And they like the long songs the best. 9 minutes into the long version of "Super Bad", I was sad, and the people dancing were sad, that it ended.
2. People like the songs with James Brown himself singing on them the most. His voice is so damn expressive, it's hard not to compare it to a magnet. The moment he starts singing, people take notice and are drawn to it. The most popular songs without JB singing were Bobby Byrd's "I Know You Got Soul" and Lyn Collins's "Think".
My saddest moment: people were not into my attempts to illustrate JB's influence by playing songs that sample him. I played "Pass the Peas" and then Eric B. and Rakim's "I Ain't No Joke", which features the main horn line from "Pass the Peas", and people were noticeably disinterested in the Eric B. and Rakim. Later I played "The Grunt" (which was a big hit with the crowd, actually) and then Public Enemy's "Rebel Without a Pause", which uses the intro horn line from "The Grunt" extensively, and the dancefloor almost completely emptied. I would like to blame this on DC's lack of culture, but it might have just been bad judgment on my part. As usual, I expect far too much of my audience in thinking that they would understand my intentions. One dude (the Sharp Dressed Man, actually), who complimented me on playing the Public Enemy, hadn't even noticed that it featured a rather prominent use of "The Grunt". Oh, well.
Bonus points: I every 45 minutes or so, I would play one of the intros to my many live James Brown recordings, where the announcer lists JB's hits and the band punctuates his announcements with horn blasts.
At the very end, I played an outro from a live JB recording I have, in which JB personally thanks his audience and says good night.
Throughout I played the two bootleg video tapes I have of JB performances from the late 60's and early 70's on the TV on the wall.
The biggest hit of the night: Maceo playing "Tighen Up" from the "Live in Dallas '68" CD (it's also on the "Soul Pride Instrumentals" two disc comp.). It's long and people got more and more into it as it went on. It was a partial floor-filler. (It was crowded anyway, but not everyone standing was dancing.)
A fitting tribute to the Godfather, if I may say so myself.
1. One can listen to almost 4 hours of James Brown's music and not get bored, at all. It's not just me that felt this way. (And, to be honest, I've listened to a lot more than 4 hours of JB in the past two days.) More than one person came up to me afterwards and said that they had thought listening to that much JB would get old, quick, but were happy to be proven wrong. People were just as into it when I ended as when I began. The thing is: his music has incredible range. There are fast songs, noisy songs, slow songs, mellow songs and mellow sections of songs, and all different sorts of funk. If you just played songs with the Popcorn beat/bassline, or the Hot Pants beat/guitar, it would get old quick, but if you switch it up, it's amazing how much people are able to get into it and stay into it. And they like the long songs the best. 9 minutes into the long version of "Super Bad", I was sad, and the people dancing were sad, that it ended.
2. People like the songs with James Brown himself singing on them the most. His voice is so damn expressive, it's hard not to compare it to a magnet. The moment he starts singing, people take notice and are drawn to it. The most popular songs without JB singing were Bobby Byrd's "I Know You Got Soul" and Lyn Collins's "Think".
My saddest moment: people were not into my attempts to illustrate JB's influence by playing songs that sample him. I played "Pass the Peas" and then Eric B. and Rakim's "I Ain't No Joke", which features the main horn line from "Pass the Peas", and people were noticeably disinterested in the Eric B. and Rakim. Later I played "The Grunt" (which was a big hit with the crowd, actually) and then Public Enemy's "Rebel Without a Pause", which uses the intro horn line from "The Grunt" extensively, and the dancefloor almost completely emptied. I would like to blame this on DC's lack of culture, but it might have just been bad judgment on my part. As usual, I expect far too much of my audience in thinking that they would understand my intentions. One dude (the Sharp Dressed Man, actually), who complimented me on playing the Public Enemy, hadn't even noticed that it featured a rather prominent use of "The Grunt". Oh, well.
Bonus points: I every 45 minutes or so, I would play one of the intros to my many live James Brown recordings, where the announcer lists JB's hits and the band punctuates his announcements with horn blasts.
At the very end, I played an outro from a live JB recording I have, in which JB personally thanks his audience and says good night.
Throughout I played the two bootleg video tapes I have of JB performances from the late 60's and early 70's on the TV on the wall.
The biggest hit of the night: Maceo playing "Tighen Up" from the "Live in Dallas '68" CD (it's also on the "Soul Pride Instrumentals" two disc comp.). It's long and people got more and more into it as it went on. It was a partial floor-filler. (It was crowded anyway, but not everyone standing was dancing.)
A fitting tribute to the Godfather, if I may say so myself.
posted by Charles P. Everitt at 11:18 PM
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