HOW MUSIC CHANGED, PART 136f –JAMES BROWN, THE GODFATHER OF SOUL

PLAY THE SHOW

Our final show on the legacy of James Brown picks up in the early ‘70s and covers more years than all previous five shows combined. The reasons for this are simple. The ‘disco’ years were not kind to someone as gritty and funky as James Brown, and his legal entanglements further distracted him from what did best. Nevertheless, there are quite a few highlights for us to cover today, including;

1)    Brother Rapp/ Ain’t It Funky Now

2)    Hot Pants

3)    I’m a Greedy Man

4)    King Heroin

5)    Get On the Good Foot

6)    Doing It to Death

7)    Papa Don’t Take No Mess

8)    Soul Power

9)    Fame (David Bowie)

10) Hot (I Need to Be Loved)

11)  Unity” -  The Third Coming

 

 

HOW MUSIC CHANGED, PART 136e – JAMES BROWN PERFECTS THE FUNK

PLAY THE SHOW

 This represents our 5^th show dedicated to the music of James Brown, and for this hour, we can keep things fairly simple. Around this time in his career, James Brown just kept getting funkier and funkier, which would seem near impossible, considering how funky he already was. There was not another human being on the planet Earth who was wound up as tight as James Brown. There still isn’t, and there probably never will be again. No doubt about it, James Brown was a wunder-kind, and today’s show proves just how far he was capable of going.

            Here’s a list of featured songs from today’s program;

1)    Give It Up or Turn It Loose

2)    Mother Popcorn

3)    Funky Drummer

4)    Funky Drummer (Bonus Beat Reprise)

5)    Get Up I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine

6)    Super Bad

7)    Talkin’ Loud and Sayin’ Nothing

8)     Make It Funky

April 1978 – A Handful of Good Singles, a Boatload of Great Albums

PLAY THE SHOW

The charter for American Hit Radio has been based on hits, which translated to hit singles. In the past year or so, we’ve broadened our coverage to include album tracks, and shows like this explain the reason why we’ve changed. By 1978, the singles market was suffering from a lack of consumer interest, with albums dominating the market. A few singles were still exciting and memorable, but most of the great music was only available on 33-RPM albums (naturally, this was a decade before the CD took over).

            While reviewing the charts for April 1978, we can only find three singles that are worthy of praise. Meanwhile, there’s a mother lode of memorable albums. We try to squeeze a fair proportion of both into today’s program. A list of songs from today’s show includes

1)    Always and Forever- Heatwave

2)    Because the Night – Patti Smith

3)     Werewolves of London – Warren Zevon

4)    Soft and Wet – Prince

5)    Glory – Television

6)    Ain’t That Nothin’ – Television

7)    Till Victory – Patti Smith

8)    All the Children Sing – Todd Rundgren

9)    Cholly (Funk Getting Ready to Roll) – Funkadelic

10) This Year’s Girl – Elvis Costello

11)  Lipstick Vogue – Elvis Costello

HOW MUSIC CHANGED, PART 136d – JAMES BROWN INVENTS THE GROOVE

PLAY THE SHOW

In the first half of the ‘60s, James Brown established himself as a reliable hitmaker by releasing a series of influential and innovative singles. In the second half of the ‘60s, James Brown reinvented music as we knew it. In essence, he boiled everything down to its rawest essence. Suddenly, lyrics were mostly inconsequential. Arrangements (meaning song structure) were sparse and simple. Melody was virtually nonexistent. Previously, these had been three of the most important ingredients for a hit record. In the hands of James Brown, they became redundant, even irrelevant. This reinvention of music turned the music world on its ear, but most artists couldn’t even conceive of replicating his formula. More or less single-handedly, James Brown invented funk music, then spent the next decade refining his innovations. Here’s a list of songs featured in today’s program;

1)    Let Yourself Go

2)    Cold Sweat

3)    Get It Together

4)    I Can’t Stand It (When You Touch Me)

5)    I Got the Feelin’

6)    Licking Stick – Licking Stick

7)    Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud

8)    There Was a Time

9)    I Don’t Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing…

 

SOME OF THE BEST FROM APRIL 1968

PLAY THE SHOW

Once again, we dig into our bag of tricks and go back forty years, this time covering music that debuted in April 1968. Once again, we are amazed by the overall quality and diversity of what became available. The singles are all catchy, and most of them are beautiful, while the album tracks once again redefine the state of popular music. To keep things interesting, we also dig up a few sleepers from this era. Listen up and see what you think. Here’s a list of songs from today’s show;

1)    Ain’t No Way – Aretha Franklin

2)    Delilah – Tom Jones

3)    Take Time to Know Her – Percy Sledge

4)    Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing – Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell

5)    A Beautiful Morning – The Rascals

6)    Auntie’s Municipal Court – The Monkees

7)    Valleri – The Monkees

8)    Writing Wrongs – The Monkees

9)    Save the Life of My Child – Simon and Garfunkel

10) America – Simon and Garfunkel

11) Voices of Old People – Simon and Garfunkel

12) Old Friends/Bookends Theme – Simon and Garfunkel

13) Sweet Inspiration – The Sweet Inspirations

HOW MUSIC CHANGED, PART 136c – JAMES BROWN HAS A BRAND NEW BAG

PLAY THE SHOW

Today’s show covers the era when James Brown became a full blown phenomenon. Although he had troubles with his record label, and recorded only 3 tracks for the entirety of 1963, he was extraordinarily busy. He started his own publishing company (Fair Deal) , his own label (Try Me), and began developing other recording Once the Beatles hit, he started recording again with a vengeance, in various styles. On one side, he recorded a batch of classic songs with full orchestration. With the Parker brothers Maceo and Marvin, he started working on a few unusual ideas of his own, rhythmic experiments that were based almost exclusively on feel. When the songs became huge hits, two things became obvious; 1) James Brown really was the hardest working man in show business, and 2) Papa had a brand new bag.

            Here’s the list of remarkable songs featured in today’s show;

1) Out of the Blue

2) Maybe the Last Time

3) Mona Lisa

4) Nature Boy

5) I Want to Be Around

6) Come Rain or Come Shine

7) Out of Sight

8) Papa's Got a Brand New Bag

9) I Got You (I Feel Good)

10) Ain't That a Groove

11) It's a Man's Man's Man's Man's World

12) Don't Be a Dropout

13) Bring It Up (Hipster's Avenue)

IT WAS BETTER 50 YEARS AGO – APRIL 1958

PLAY THE SHOW

It was before I was born, so I can’t say firsthand that 1958 was a great year to be a music fan, but I have to admit that the evidence sure points in that direction. All songs from today’s show date from April 1958 – either the month that the record debuted or the month that it peaked – and there’s plenty here to keep any music fan satisfied. Perhaps the most impressive thing about this era is how the songs have retained their appeal. They just don’t sound 50 years old. Here’s the evidence;

1)    All I Have to Do Is Dream – The Everly Brothers

2)    Talk to Me, Talk to Me – Little Willie John

3)    Betty and Dupree – Chuck Willis

4)    Twilight Time – The Platters

5)    Oh Lonesome Me – Don Gibson

6)    Oh Lonesome Me – Neil Young (as a point of reference)

7)    Good Golly Miss Molly – Little Richard

8)    The Walk – Jimmy McCracklin

9)    Dinner with Drac – John Zacherle (as a “Great Miss”)

10)  Lollipop – The Chordettes (as a “Bad Hit”)

11)  Breathless – Jerry Lee Lewis

12) Sweet Little Sixteen – Chuck Berry

13)  Wild Is the Wind – Johnny Mathis

14)  Wild Is the Wind – David Bowie (as a point of reference)

HOW MUSIC CHANGED, PART 136b – JAMES BROWN AT THE APOLLO

PLAY THE SHOW

             To completely understand the impact of James Brown’s recording of his performance from Harlem’s Apollo Theater on October 24, 1962, you need to forget most of what you already know about James Brown. Back then, Brown, was a minor recording star with a few marginal hits to his name. His appeal was still mostly regional, and very, very few people in ‘mainstream’ culture knew of him. More importantly, this took place before Brown kicked his innovations into overdrive. This recording dates over a year before the British Invasion. It pre-dates “I Feel Good,” and “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” by years. It came at a time when R&B artists (oh yeah, this was before ‘soul music’, too) rarely crossed over, and before ‘live’ albums became commonplace. It is also unusual because as a live album, it couldn’t yield any hit ‘singles’, which was the only medium that Brown had success with until that point.

            That’s a lot of reasons to recognize the importance of this album, but the most important reason is its quality. Brown sings and pleads (and dances, although we regrettably cannot see that) as if his life depended on it, and in a sense it did, because if this album failed, his career may have been cut short. As it is, the rest is history.

            Here’s a list of songs featured in today’s program. All are live recordings from the Apollo theater, unless indicated otherwise;

1)    Lost Someone (studio)

2)    I’ve Got Money (studio)

3)    Prisoner of Love (studio)

4)    Intro/I’ll Go Crazy

5)    Try Me

6)    Think

7)    I Don’t Mind

8)    Lost Someone

9)    Night Train

10)  Devil’s Den (studio)