One : The Life and Music of James Brown (9781101561102) (56 page)

Chapter Eight:
STAR TIME

Apollo Theater: Douglas Wolk,
James Brown’s Live at the Apollo
(Continuum, 2004); Ted Fox,
Showtime at the Apollo: The Story of Harlem’s World Famous Theater
(Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1983);
New York Amsterdam News
, Oct. 26, 1974; Apollo Theater Collection, Smithsonian.

Brown’s intentions to record at the Apollo: Brown,
The Life of James Brown
; Wolk,
Live at the Apollo
; Chuck Seitz interview.

“Didn’t nobody believe in us.” Byrd interview, AAAMC.

“They’re talking about…James Brown’s ‘secret’ project.”
Pittsburgh Courier
, July 28, 1962.

The Apollo show:
Live at the Apollo 1962
(Polygram, 1990).

“How
do you define soul, James?”
David Frost Show
, March 30, 1970.

Lewis Hamlin: Tonya Taliafierro and Rosa Pryor-Trusty,
African American Entertainment in Baltimore
(Arcadia Publishing, 2003); liner notes to
James Brown, Soul Pride: Instrumentals 1960-1969
(Polygram, 1993); Devin Christy, Reppard Stone interviews.

Clayton Fillyau: Jim Payne,
Give the Drummers Some! The Great Drummers of R&B, Funk and Soul
(Face the Music Productions, 1996); Clayton Fillyau Jr., Anthony Fillyau, Jim Payne, Melvin Webb interviews.

New Orleans funk drumming: Scherman,
Backbeat
is a well-told tale narrated by a true pioneer, though, listening to Earl Palmer, you’d think he invented all of New Orleans. Antoon Aukes’s
Second Line: 100 Years of New Orleans Drumming
(C. L. Barnhouse, 2003) does a great job of breaking down the area’s history and styles for nonmusicians. Stanton Moore’s rich
Groove Alchemy
(Hudson Music, 2010) and interviews with Ahmir ?uestlove Thompson and Moore were also drawn upon.

Fillyau’s musical upbringing: Has another surprising element. In high school in Tampa, Fillyau was a student of Reynold Davis, and through Davis he learned the drum cadences pioneered at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University. Known as FAMU, this school’s great marching band drum section would play its fabled “death cadence,” during which the 100-plus marchers would move one step every three seconds, and then explode into a cadence requiring six steps per second. FAMU had a reputation for bringing jazz and then R&B rhythms into the marching band format from the 1940s on, and they performed in Tampa. Schoolmate Melvin Webb recalled, “We played a lot of jazzy stuff. Reynold Davis would keep up with all the songs at the time. Even at parades we would stop and do special steps – say a record came out that was very popular. What Davis would do was write the song out, arrange it for the band, and we would perform that in a parade along with your marches – and we would stop and do a dance step as we were marching when we played those tunes.” Not just in New Orleans, but in various Southern enclaves, marching, drumming, and dancing were folding into one another.

“I’ve Got Money”:
James Brown, The Singles Volume Two: 1960-1963
(Hip-O Select, 2007).

Aftermath of the
Live
recording: Wolk,
Live at the Apollo
; Blavat, Lee and Seitz interviews.

“I became a big city thinker.” Cliff White, “The Man Who Never Left,”
Black Music
, April 1977.

Chapter Nine:
KEEP ON FIGHTING

Club 15
shoot-out and the feud with Joe Tex: Freeman, “Soul Brother No. 1”; Freeman, Satellite Papa, Allyn Lee interviews.

The house in St. Albans, Queens: “Cootie Williams, Queens” in “Know Your Boroughs,”
New York Amsterdam News
, April 30, 1949; Doon Arbus, “James Brown is Out of Sight,” in Leeds and George,
James Brown Reader
; Betty Jean Newsome, Roach interviews.

“James Brown, who is grossing more than a half million this year.” “New York Beat,”
Jet
, Sept. 19, 1963.

“When you are a child who is unwanted.” Marlon Brando and Robert Lindsey,
Songs My Mother Taught Me
(Random House, 1994).

“It’s the ultimate hustle.” Shana Alexander, “The Grandfather of All Cool Actors Becomes the Godfather,”
Life
, March 10, 1972.

“Hair and teeth.” Brown and Tucker,
The Godfather of Soul
. Interestingly, in the original transcript, the quote is a little different: “You got implants on the hair and implants on the teeth and that’s the end of it. A man got those two things, he got it all.” Booker T. Washington’s dental avidity is spelled out in
Up From Slavery
(Penguin Classics, 1986), where he says of the toothbrush, “I am convinced that there are few single agencies of civilization that are more far-reaching.” See also Robin D. G. Kelley, “Nap Time: Historicizing the Afro” (
Fashion Theory
, vol. 1 no. 4, Nov. 1997), where the author goes so far as to rank the comb with the drum as “an essential part of African culture.”

“There is a close relation between bad teeth and dyspepsia.” Richard Carroll, “The Negro Church as the Guardian of Public Health,” in James Edward McCulloch,
Democracy in Earnest: Southern Sociological Congress, 1916-1918
(BiblioLife, 2009).

Expoobident: Pianist and gentleman’s gentleman Babs Gonzales is said to have coined the term, perhaps in the 1950s. An interpretation in the
Jazz Journal
defined it best: “All is well. It is here.” See also:
Expoobident
, a good album by trumpeter Lee Morgan (Vee-Jay, 1960).

“You got to be like an act, so therefore you cannot mingle.” Byrd interview, AAAMC.

The surrounding circle of roughnecks: Henry Stallings, Alan Leeds, Frank McCrae, Al Sharpton interviews.

The argument over “Oh Baby Don’t You Weep”: Alan Leeds, liner notes to
The Singles Volume Two
; Leeds interview.

“He couldn’t
read music, but he knew exactly what he wanted.” Fillyau in Payne,
Give the Drummers Some!

“You don’t know why one day you want steak, the next day you want fatback.” Markus Schmidt, interview with James Brown,
Wax Poetics
21, Feb.–Mar. 2007.

Fair Deal and the Smash deal: Brown and Tucker,
Godfather of Soul
; Leeds liner notes to
Singles Volume Three: 1964-1965
; “King Wins Brown Suit,”
Billboard
, October 24, 1964; Leeds interview.

“Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag”: “First Recording of Papa’s Bag was in Charlotte,”
Charlotte Observer
, Feb. 25, 1992; “Give Him a Little Thanks for a Great Song,”
Charlotte Observer
, January 3, 2007; “‘Guitar Boogie’ Launched Legend,”
Charlotte Observer
, April 8, 2007; Clay Smith, Levi Rasbury interviews.

“I was just trying to be different.” Payne,
Give the Drummers Some!

“When Maceo plays, it’s almost like an extension of me.” Sarah Bryan, interview with Parker, for the North Carolina Arts Council, posted at
www.ncarts.org/elements/project_specs/MaceoParker.pdf
.

“There is nothing so personal as the sweat from your eyebrow.” Schmidt interview,
Wax Poetics,
Feb.–Mar. 2007.

“It was the beginning of a new world.” Unpublished interview conducted by Christina Patoski.

Raid on a dope den: “Bronx Raid,”
New York Amsterdam News
, Nov. 13, 1965.

Tammi Terrell: Ludie Montgomery and Vickie Wright,
My Sister Tommie: The Real Tammi Terrell
(Bank House Books, 2005); TV documentary series
Unsung
, produced by TV One, program on Terrell aired Sept. 20, 2010; David Butts, Lee, Bennett interviews.

Chapter Ten:
THE CAPE ACT

The Rockland Palace show: Stella Comeaux, “The Amazing Power of James Brown,”
Sepia
, Jan. 1961.

“No one made a remark.” “Interview With Edward Bishop,” Box 4, folder 84, Mura Dehn Papers on Afro-American Social Dance, circa 1869-1987, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, New York Public Library.

Ostyaks and shamanism: V. M. Mikhailovskii, Oliver Wardrop translator, “Shamanism in Siberia and European Russia, being the second part of ‘Shamanstvo.’” Essay
from
The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. XXIV
(London, 1895); Fridtjof Nansen,
Through Siberia: The Land of the Future
(Yokai Publishing, 2010);
Encyclopedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition
(Cambridge University Press, 1910).

“Perhaps the most outlandishly shamanistic performer of all.” Rogan Taylor,
The Death and Resurrection Show
(Frederick Muller Ltd., 1983).

Gorgeous George: John Capouya,
Gorgeous George: The Outrageous Bad-Boy Wrestler Who Created American Pop Culture
(Harper Entertainment, 2008).

Danny Ray: Ray David Hoekstra, “James Brown’s Cape,”
Chicago Sun Times
, Dec. 25, 2006; Danny Ray interview. Guitarist Keith Jenkins says Ray would save up a perfect, glorious suit for the final days of a long tour; when the rest of the band was down to dirty laundry, Ray would emerge from the bus in a shining cream-colored coat, defying all understanding.

TAMI Show:
The T.A.M.I. Show Collector’s Edition
DVD, essay by Don Waller (Shout! Factory, 2010); Greil Marcus, “Rock Films,” in
The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll
, Jim Milled ed., (Random House/Rolling Stone Press, 1980); “Star-Studded TAMI Rock n’ Roll Show Thrills Teens” and “The Inside Story,”
Los Angeles Sentinel
, Nov. 5, 1964; Steve Binder, Toni Basil, Lee, Bennett interviews.

“It’s a Holiness feeling – like a Baptist thing.”
Soul Illustrated
, Summer 1968.

Other men in capes: Opal Nations, “The Story of His Grace King Louis Narcisse,”
Blues and Rhythm
150, June-July 2000; For Brother Joe May, see Guralnick,
Dream Boogie
.

“I am lost for words to speak about this man.” Buster Brown letter, Dehn Papers.

“His emphasis on ego breaks all bounds.” Mura Dehn,
Sounds & Fury
, June 1966.

“I danced so hard my manager cried.” Rose,
Living in America
.

Chapter Eleven:
MAN’S WORLD

James Meredith: Meredith,
Three Years in Mississippi
(Indiana University Press, 1966); Charles W. Eagles,
The Pride of Defiance: James Meredith and the Integration of Ole Miss
(University of North Carolina Press, 2009); Meredith, “
Black Leaders and the Wish to Die,”
Ebony
, May 1973; Paul Hendrickson, “The Dilemmas and Demons of James Meredith,”
Journal of Blacks in Higher Education
40 (Summer 2003).

The March Against Fear: Taylor Branch,
At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68
(Simon & Schuster, 2006).

Carmichael and Black Power: Chester Higgins, “Divided on Tactics, Leaders Agree March A Success,”
Jet
, July 14, 1966; Robert E. Johnson, “Black Power: What it Really Means,”
Jet
, July 28, 1966. For interpretations of the Black Power movement, see William L. Van Deburg,
New Day in Babylon: The Black Power Movement and American Culture, 1965-1975
(University of Chicago Press, 1992); Peniel E. Joseph,
Waiting ’Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America
(Henry Holt and Co., 2006); and Joseph, ed.,
The Black Power Movement: Rethinking the Civil Rights Black Power Era
(Routledge, 2006).

“The ‘Negro’ should not return.” Dick Gregory,
Up From Nigger
(Stein and Day, 1977).

“I’m sorry, y’all. James Brown is on. I’m gone.” Jonathan Rieder,
The Word of the Lord Is Upon Me: The Righteous Performance of Martin Luther King Jr
. (Belknap Press, 2008).

Brown at Tougaloo: newsreel clips;
Jet
, July 14, 1966.

The Canton, Mississippi, workers and “Papa’s Brand New Bag”: Marty Jezer,
Abbie Hoffman: American Rebel
(Rutgers University Press, 1992); “Mississippi Woodworking, Leather Cooperatives Formed,”
The Movement
, Nov. 1965.

“James Brown’s got more musical genius than Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart put together.” Clipping from
Newark Evening News
, Aug. 26, 1966, in the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission online files, mdah.state.ms.us/arrec/digital_archives/sovcom/.

“There was no doubt that he was addressing this plea to the Freedom Marchers.” “Brando Shouts ‘Black Power,’ James Brown Cries on Miss. Stage,”
Philadelphia Tribune
, June 28, 1966.

“It’s a Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World”:
James Brown, The Singles Volume Four: 1966-1967
(Hip-O Select, 2007); Michael Clancy, “It’s A Woman’s World,”
Village Voice
, Dec. 18, 2007; Betty Jean Newsome, Carl Kaminsky interviews. Years after pressing her case, and after numerous court dates, Newsome did get her name listed as a cowriter of the song.

Frank McRae: Mainstem column,
Philadelphia Tribune
, Feb. 19, 1966; “Singer James Brown Sues Phila. Process Artist for Million,”
Philadelphia Tribune
, July 19, 1966;
Tribune,
July 23, 1966;
New York Amsterdam News
, July 23, 1966; Masco Young, “The Notebook” column,
Philadelphia Tribune
, July 30, 1966; McRae interview.

Sex change rumors:
Houston Forward Times
, Nov. 13 and 27, 1965; “James Brown Sex Shift Denied in Houston,”
Philadelphia Tribune
, Dec. 21, 1965;
Michigan Chronicle
, Oct. 26, 2005; Brown and Tucker,
Godfather of Soul
; Stallings, Fred Wesley interview.

“‘Race music’ is perhaps at last becoming interracial.” “The biggest cat,”
Time
, April 1, 1966.

Jackie Wilson feud: Brown interview, Tucker files; McRae interview.

“Being a mulatto, he didn’t have the energy or strength I had.” Brown, Tucker files.

King Records in transition: Fox,
King of the Queen City
; Darren Blase, Leeds interviews.

“James had his way then.” Glover interview, Country Music Hall of Fame.