James Brown – Two for the Price of One

According to Wikipedia:

“James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. A progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century music and dance, he is often referred to as the ‘Godfather of Soul’ and ‘Soul Brother No. 1’. In a career that lasted over 50 years, he influenced the development of several music genres.”

Why James Brown?

1. As a band member, I was always impressed by how musicians playing various instruments can take a band leading position, which requires basic familiarity with all instruments participating in the band; for a vocalist in particular, this is not something to be taken for granted.
2. Brown is a key figure in the genre of Funk, which used to be one of my favorite genres to play on bass and to listen to.
3. Besides band leading skills, I am easily impressed by musicians adjusting to various genres. Brown took it to the next level, being considered one of the pioneers of at least 2 genres: Funk and Soul.

Watch a band leader at its best…

“Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine”

Year of release: 1970

Notice how Brown walks the band and the audience through the different parts of the song. He counts in to the beginning the song, signals to transfer from the main theme to the bridge and then back. Transfer back is bridged with the instrumental breaks in unison taken from the intro hooking into the song, and included in the outro as well.

Fun Fact: Brown is playing the piano line on this track.

To know more about funk, Sex Machine is a great song to begin with.

Funk was created by African-American musicians, a category under which Brown falls.

Musically, Funk is characterized by its:

1. bass riffs (see why I like it so much?): low-pitched musical lines
2. syncopated beat: beat with changes in emphasis from on beats to off beats
3. groove: sense of rhythmic flow, as in dancing (advantageous from the aspect of popularity)

Source: https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-funk-music-definition-characteristics.html

To illustrate more of this funkiness, I need to introduce you to another hit by Brown.

“I Got You (I Feel Good)”

Year of Release: 1965

Things to note in the music:

• Brown is hooking you into the song simply by showcasing the strength of his voice
• Q&A between voice and sax
• 12 bar blues
• instrumental breaks in unison
• saxophone solo – dominant instrument

Fun fact: the song appears on “Garfield: The Movie”

So maybe Brown’s version doesn’t portray as much Funk as Sex Machine, but later it was covered by Israeli-American Funk guitarist Oz Noy (yes, he’s one of us):

And now let’s play more of that soul thing…

“Soul Man”, originally sang by Sam and Dave duo in 1967, and covered by Brown in 1974

Lyrics available in video for those of you who wish to sing along 🙂

Few things to note:

• hook: guitar line
• sax holding notes during first verse
• chorus: triple Q&A between vocals, sax and guitar
• towards the end scale is modulated

Fun Fact: Later on the song was covered by the Blues Brothers.

Now, seeing as another ebook was written about them for this course, here’s a version with which I believe some of you will be familiar inspired by the Blues Brother – taken from the sitcom “Drake and Josh”!!!

Though we are talking about soul now, see how the music makes them get up and dance! Clearly there’s a link between Funk and Soul

You know what’s funny? This song was originally sang by a duo, and covered multiple times by duos. Does this make James Brown, covering the song on its own, a sole man?

(Pun intended)

The origin of Soul music is Memphis, Tennessee; the genre spread throughout southern US in the 1950s.

Musically, soul is characterized by:

• extensive and varied use of vocals to convey emotions (“I Feel Good”)
• Q&A (“Soul Man”)
• repetitiveness (which is why I haven’t uploaded lyrics for “Sex Machine” in the first place…)
• if you play sax, this is your genre

source: https://official.fm/soul/

Now here is another hit for you to recap the sense of soul… plus an opportunity to watch Brown performing live:

“It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World”

Year of release: 1966

Lyrics:

Few Things to note:

The music –

• Hook: starts off with instrumental breaks, followed by an impressive vocal entrance
• Verse: brass on 2 and 4
• Chorus: repetition on same lyrical idea (the message of the songs), in various vocal approaches showcasing Brown’s talent
• Vocal licks throughout fading outro

The lyrics –

• basis of a verse line: man made this to serve that purpose
• the entire song is occupied with men, whereas the most important piece of lyrics acknowledges women for men’s success in the world

And now, neither Funk nor Soul

“Please Please Please”

Year of release: 1956

This piece is defined to be of the Rhythm and Blues genre, later combined with different genres to create Funk (R&B combined with Soul and Jazz) and Soul (R&B combined with Gospel).

So far, this is the oldest track in the book! If you listen carefully you will notice Q&A between Brown and more vocals, possibly indicating this element was taken from R&B to Soul.

Let’s listen to everything combined!

“Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag”

Year of release: 1965

Bonus question: the song is divided into 2 sections. Identify when

Hint: at some point Brown’s voice is not up front

Few things to note about the music:

• Q&A between Brown and brass – the Soul element
• that sax!!!
• 12 bar blues
• the Funk element: percussive guitar line – strums on 2 and 4, played solely in 11th and 12th bars

Lyrics:

To sum up Brown’s main musical features…

• Brown’s voice: used for hooks, conveying emotions, and Q&A with instruments and additional vocals as one
• Brown’s main sidekick – saxophone
• iconic guitar lines
• instrumental breaks in unison
• selection of songs in 12 bar blues
• repetitive lyrics, and sometimes musical ideas

Components of popular music in James Brown’s music:

• Energy: positive (“I Feel Good”) with some exceptions (“Man’s World”), various emotions conveyed by powerful vocals (attributed to Soul)
• Speechiness: repetitive, occasionally replaced with sax licks
• Acousticness: mostly upbeat rhythm accompanied by staccato (separated) musical ideas and instrumental breaks in unison
• Danceability: mainly attributed to Funk components
• Liveness: Q&A engages listeners with performer, groove
• Instrumentalness: sax is the main star, bass lines both melodic and rhythmic, occasional guitar fills

Thank you for reading and listening!

For more of James Brown, Gospel and Blues, see The Blues Brothers ebook by Liad Tadmor:

(reference approved by author)