The hardest working man in show business, James Brown has died at the Emory Crawford Long hospital in his home state of Georgia at 1.45am, Christmas morning.
Although the official cause of death is still unknown, Brown was admitted to the hospital over the weekend from Pneumonia.The 73 year old star released his first single 'Please Please Please' in 1956, and over the next 50 years would help revolutionize soul music, playing it so hard the word "soul" ceased to describe it and people began using the term funk (strangely enough, something funky had previously meant something "disgusting"). He fast became one of the most sampled artists in history, as he indirectly revolutionized hip hop in the mid 70s and beyond.
He earned the title "The Hardest Working Man In Show Business" from his excessive tour schedules, playing hundreds of shows every year. He also had a reputation for being one of the toughest bosses around, fining band members for tardiness and even for imperfections in their on-stage uniform.
His hard-line work ethic caused some of the world's finest musicians to leave his band, including bassist Bootsy Collins, trombonist Fred Wesley and even his favorite sax player, Maceo Parker (who is currently part of Prince's touring ensemble).
Parker was loved by Brown so much that even after he left, his replacement musicians sometimes heard him saying "Play that horn Maceo!" (as he can be heard saying on his legendary 'Live At The Apollo' album).
Brown has admitted in later years to purposely hiring lesser skilled musicians to tour with because they're more likely to do as their told.
In the recording studio, Brown was never afraid to replace a musician, as he recalls in Gerri Hirshey's 1984 soul chronicle 'Nowhere To Run - The Story of Soul Music', "One time I was doin' a record, and the drummer said he had to go to the restroom and at that time, I felt something. I said "Go!" and when he come back, I had cut a million seller playin' the drums myself - 'Night Train'."
As Brown's career moved on, he became a spokesperson for the black community in America. With his black pride anthem - 'Say It Loud (I'm Black And I'm Proud)' in 1968, he, like Martin Luther King and Mohammed Ali had become a symbol for the black revolution.
His contributions to hip hop and dance music are undeniable - as he was introduced in Melbourne, Australia in early 2006 at the Good Vibrations festival (a festival of dance and hip hop), a member of the Cuban Brothers told the excited crowd "This man has influenced probably every artist on this bill today," shooshing the naysayers who questioned the promoters for their choice of headliner.
Like many soul singers, he began singing in the church, once saying "I'd like to go back to gospel. Really I never left, or it never left me. The public may not know it, but the sex machine first did it to death for the Lord."
Brown even tried his hand at big band jazz, saying in the liner notes to his little known compilation with the Louis Bellson orchestra, 'Soul On Top', where some of his biggest hits and several standards were completely reworked, "At heart, I've always been a jazz man. When I was just a kid in Macon, GA., doing amateur shows, I went up on the stage with some of those great name bands that passed through town. I've never forgotten the impression those big band sounds made on me."
Although his past has been checkered with jail time, drug problems and even bankruptcy, through hits like 'Papas Got A Brand New Bag', 'Sex Machine', '(I Got You) I Feel Good', 'Living In America', 'It's A Man's World' and a seemingly endless string of others, Brown has firmly planed himself in the history books as one of the world's greatest entertainers.
