"Disco is James Brown"

[Disco Funk]

I never like 'James Brown Is Dead'. I think they did it not just for the shock value, but also to say something like 'disco is dead'. In other words, they wanted to emphasize that they didn't think James Brown's influence was around anymore, which couldn't have been further from the truth. Most disco/house/dance music, if not all of it, can be traced back to the Godfather of Soul.

Now I dislike that LA Style track even more. Long live Soul Brother Number 1.

As a tribute to JB, I've been playing his music all week. Not just his own recordings, but stuff he recorded with Marva Whitney, Vicki Anderson, Lyn Collins, Bobby Byrd, and The JBs, to mention just a few. The Hardest Working Man In Show Business will be on heavy rotation in my CD player until his funeral.

RIP James Brown

Here's a cool version of Cold Sweat, done with a dash of Give It Up Or Turnit Loose:

Cold Sweat

Disco Funk

[remicks]

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I can't imagine a crowd dancing to any song saying anything about anyone being dead . I have to say I find that beyond vulgar. I honestly can't even picture it. (! ?)
( Bernie do you really like it that much ??? You've got like eighty versions of it !! )

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[disco1999]

In the early 90's vulgar songs was the big thing in the techno rave world. Besides James Brown is Dead, other titles like
Obscure FM - Michael Jackson is in heaven now
(repeated lyrics: Michael Jackson is shot dead in front of a live studio audience)
New York Style - Shut the fuck up bitch u can't sing
RIP - Désolé Madame (I am sorry but your son is dead)

[remicks]

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Disco Funk ,

I'm sorry for your pain !
I know you really dig the guy .
One of my all time favorite people past away this year too..... Buck Owens. He's my own favorite local yokel from Bakersfield. And before anyone says anything …. the guy had over twenty No. ! country songs … and made one hell of a contribution to the world of music .
..Like James Brown he was an origianl , a total self-made man . He carved his own path , his music style was his own .... and he lived it .... like James Brown .... his whole life.

And like James Brown , Buck Owens was performing right up until the week he died. That is part of what is so shocking... these are the kind of people in our lives we think will be around forever . There they are, still on stage going strong. And then suddenly without warning … it’s over.

It seems unfair .... but then would they really have wanted it any other way? They lived long lives and to the fullest .... right up until the very end . We should all be so lucky.

RIP Buck Owens and James Brown . ( Never expected to mention those two names in the same sentence but it now seems most fittin’ ) Thanks for all you gave to this wonderful thing called music.


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[Simon White]

I suspect that Mr Browns point was that most of the music he made was DANCE music, pure and simple right from things like 'I Got You' and 'Out Of Sight'..therefore he was saying that in effect he was always a disco artist in the same way that Chubby Checker (for instance) was a disco artist because he too made music for dancing, but not in the generally accepted definition of the 70's, i.e. 125 + bpm's, strings, 4/4 , hi hats ect. The very name James Brown defines funk and James brown's influence in popular music is far more important than someone like Elvis Presley.

Things like 'Star Generation' and the truly horrible 'For Goodness Sakes Look At Those Cakes' were The Godfather's attempts to go full on 'Disco' in the 70's and were not good, whereas as virtually everything he did before that in the 70's was utterly fantastic....and were uptempo FUNK records that were played in DISCOS, things like "Sex Machine' 'Body Heat' 'Get Up Offa That Thing' and from the album 'JAM/1980's" 'Nature' & 'Eyesight' (which has the legend 'James Brown New Disco Sound' on the 45 label !)

The fact is, 'Disco' killed James Brown's career in the late 70's and it wasn't until his earlier 70's and late 60's FUNKY work started to be sampled by the Hip Hop crowd that he climbed back into the place he deserved.


How the hell Rod Stewart - who made ONE disco record (and an awful one at that)..got dragged into this I don't know. Considering Rod Stewart was recording white soul lite in the 60's,and then did mostly cover versions and ballad type things he by no stretch of the imagination can be called a disco artist and shouldn't even be mentioned in the same breathe as JB.

[remicks]

Originally Posted by Simon White

How the hell Rod Stewart - who made ONE disco record (and an awful one at that)..got dragged into this I don't know. Considering Rod Stewart was recording white soul lite in the 60's,and then did mostly cover versions and ballad type things he by no stretch of the imagination can be called a disco artist and shouldn't even be mentioned in the same breathe as JB.

Rod Stewart was mentioned by me as an example of someone who has "moved on" and now minimizes the significance of disco in their career . I've read that kind of attitude concerning some others too. Therefore I found it refreshing that in 2003 James Brown would even bother to mention disco in any way associated with him.

Stewart blasts 'sexy' song
05/01/2005 - 08:39:36

Veteran rocker Rod Stewart would only erase one aspect of his career given the chance - the moment he stepped into the studio to sing hit tune Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?

The gravel-voiced star remains embarrassed he asked the world to judge his sex appeal in the oft-ridiculed song, and still cringes in shame every time he has to perform it live.

Stewart says: "It was three steps backwards. I've made a few mistakes but nothing as dramatic as that.

"It's the one song I don't get a kick out of singing." © Thomas Crosbie Media, 2006.

Yes Rod did one especially outstanding disco record ... (and he also went on to do more 12" club styled songs in the 80's)

How outstanding was it ? Well .... put it this way : Out of all the "disco acts" trying to outclaw the others to the top during the peak of disco ... it was incredibly Rod Stewartof all people with DO YA THINK I'M SEXY that bumped them out of the way .............staying at number one for an amazing four weeks....making Rod very hot property as the 70's closed out. Hardly a mere asterisk song in Rod's career or in the story of disco.....


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[Nano]

Hey Bernie: no James Brown collection is complete without "Papa Don't Take No Mess"... all fourteen minutes of it Re: double LP "HELL" (1974)

Rod Stewart had a fling (or a "cash-in") with disco for a couple of years, like The Rolling Stones and other rock artists did. Obviously he's not a "disco artist" per se and he doesn't want to be remembered as that.

Disco was for him a huge fad, and no artist longing for a "career" wants to be linked with a fad, no matter if he's wrong in thinking that.

Remicks, it strikes me as odd that you didn't mention Isaac Hayes yet! :)

[Simon White]

Originally Posted by remicks

Rod Stewart was mentioned by me as an example of someone who has "moved on" and now minimizes the significance of disco in their career . I've read that kind of attitude concerning some others too. Therefore I found it refreshing that in 2003 James Brown would even bother to mention disco in any way associated with him.
Yes Rod did one especially outstanding disco record ... (and he also went on to do more 12" club styled songs in the 80's)

How outstanding was it ? Well .... put it this way : Out of all the "disco acts" trying to outclaw the others to the top during the peak of disco ... it was incredibly Rod Stewartof all people with DO YA THINK I'M SEXY that bumped them out of the way .............staying at number one for an amazing four weeks....making Rod very hot property as the 70's closed out. Hardly a mere asterisk song in Rod's career or in the story of disco.....


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Yes dear.
Rod Stewart's career was well under way (unfortunately) before the awful tacky pop garbage of 'do you think i'm sixty' (well, maybe it wasn't in your world....) and is exactly what you say it wasn't..an asterix. It stands up well these days as an example of the type of cr*p that made people burn disco records. The melody is stolen from something else as well.

[remicks]

Originally Posted by Simon White

Yes dear.
Rod Stewart's career was well under way (unfortunately) before the awful tacky pop garbage of 'do you think i'm sixty' (well, maybe it wasn't in your world....) and is exactly what you say it wasn't..an asterix. It stands up well these days as an example of the type of cr*p that made people burn disco records.

Gosh Simon , does this mean this is one disco record you won't be trying to smuggle in as Northern Soul !!!!


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[remicks]

Originally Posted by Nano

H

Remicks, it strikes me as odd that you didn't mention Isaac Hayes yet! :)

ISAAC HAYES IS DEAD TOO !!! ??? .................

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