The King of Part 1 / Part 2 Records : James Brown

[remicks]

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One of James Brown's contributions to music leading it toward disco was his defiance that a song had to be over because its three minutes of allowable radio air-time had expired . He just faded the song out ... then faded it back in to finish it out as the B side ! By the 70's he was more likely to format this way than not .

Some of his Pt. 1 / Pt. 2s :

PAPA'S GOT A BRAND NEW BAG --- 1965
AIN'T THAT A GROOVE --- 1966
SAY IT LOUD , I'M BLACK AND I 'M PROUD --- 1968
THE LITTLE GROOVE MAKER, ME --- 1969
MOTHER POPCORN --- 1969
BROTHER RAPP --- 1970
TALKIN' LOUD AND SAYIN' NOTHING --- 1970
HOT PANTS --- 1971
GET ON THE GOOD FOOT --- 1972
I GOT ANTS IN MY PANTS --- 1973
THE PAYBACK --- 1974
SEX MACHINE --- 1975


and then .... there's this one ..... from *** 1964 ***

OH BABY DON'T YOU WEEP

.... which begs the question .......... was this the first PT. 1 / PT. 2 record ever released?? :-? ....Can anyone name any that were issued earlier ??? :-? :-?


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[eddie]

That part 1/part2 is about as old is the recording industry. It first happened in the days when albums were a set of 78 records each faded after about 3 minutes. Sometimes the song continued on the other side due to the format's time restriction.
Many early jazz recordings employ this.

[Disco Funk]

I don't know myself who originated it. I guess it was easier than doing an edit. In the case of James Brown's songs, they were like extended jams. And he tended to record all the important vocals in the first 3 minutes, with the remainder of the song either the riff repeated for another 4 minutes or just a variation on the intro.

Plus, it takes time to do an edit, and the Godfather Of Soul was more content with churning out as many 45s as possible in a short span of time, so fading it out after a certain point was the most time efficient method of creating a single for radio airplay.

Disco Funk

[remicks]

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So we gotta give JB some credit for the non-edit . :roll:

You're right DF .. ... and it's incredible how much music James Brown would put out . In 1969 alone he put out 15 singles .... that's a new song every month and then some !! Which I think testifies how respected he was as an artist. Because that is very risky ..that kind of (over) exposure . He's lucky the programmers didn't just start ignoring him .... But somehow his better stuff seemed to break their way through each time and rise to the top .....

I think he had the right idea with his long versions ... ... if a song was good enough for the "A" side ....... more of it was fine for the "B" side . I'll take that anyday over some throwaway "B" side tune .
Maybe it also was to his advantage for royalties purposes ..... got paid twice as much for the same tune ....?

So Eddie , Pt.1/ Pt.2s go that far back ( makes sense since those songs back then were not formulated in length for play within a Top 30 radio format .... but then were limited by the space allowed when pressed on the disk ) ...... now what about during the 45 era ?? I can't think of any off hand that are like this prior to 1965 ..... but surely there must have been ....
any on Motown for instance ?

What about Stevie Wonder's "FINGERTIPS " ..... actually I think that was just a PART TWO er ..... :roll: :lol: gettin' close though !! :D

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[eddie]

Many fans of JB are aware of this.
JB used to release a 45 that was sped up and mixed differently. On the Star Box, you can see that with Papa's got a brand new bag and I feel good. He subtitles the different version. Back in 1970 when his label went from King to Polydor, he recut some tracks.

[Disco Funk]

James Brown wasn't just content with have Part 1 and Part 2. He even had Part 3 and Part 4! The original 45 version of Hot Pants had a B Side credited as Part 2 and 3. But it doesn't fade out in between 2 and 3, and there wasn't any other instance of the song being released as Part 1 and 2, so adding "Part 3" to the name was just crazy! For Part 3 and 4, James Brown released those parts for 'Make It Funky'. But I recall they accidentally called the wrong sections of the track Part 3 and Part 4, as Part 4 was from earlier in the song than Part 3. LOL!

Still speaking of JB, does anyone here find it disappointing or annoying that his funk compilation CDs were released with mono mixes or mixes where most of the instrumentation was down the middle but with echo to make it sound like stereo? Like in the case of Cold Sweat, where on the original vinyl release, the drums were actually mixed down one channel, but on the Foundations of Funk CD, all of the instruments were mixed pretty much down the middle! They did the same thing with There Was A Time by the Dee Felice Trio (w/ James) on Funky People #3 - it was included in mono. Yet it was a stereo mix back in the day on LP and 45 with the straight drums on one channel in the intro, which was sampled by hip hop artists like Ultramagnetic MCs (Give The Drummer Some) and Pete Nice and CL Smooth (I think that was their name). I think in the liner notes or even Harry Weinger said it was because it was originally how James Brown liked it, but I think it had to do with trying to foil the samplers.

Disco Funk

[efunk_adelic]

I bought a copy of Billboards Top 100 weekly charts... and if you look at the early seventies section (70-75)... I can't recall a week where he wasn't on the charts with something...

[remicks]

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When James Brown joined Polydor in 1971 , the label routed a special supplement in Billboard to publicize the deal.

In it they said:

"It takes plenty to be Soul Brother No. 1."
and went on to say that James ' concert schedule was an annual 335 performances. His stage show featured a troop of dancers, a 21-piece orchestra ...with four drummers ... two working .... two on standby , a male singer , a female singer , and a back-up trio .
Somehow within that full schedule ... he was also constantly in a recording studio ... as well as running three radio stations .... in Augusta, Knoxville, and Baltimore.

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[efunk_adelic]

Originally Posted by remicks

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When James Brown joined Polydor in 1971 , the label routed a special supplement in Billboard to publicize the deal.

In it they said:

"It takes plenty to be Soul Brother No. 1."
and went on to say that James ' concert schedule was an annual 335 performances. His stage show featured a troop of dancers, a 21-piece orchestra ...with four drummers ... two working .... two on standby , a male singer , a female singer , and a back-up trio .
Somehow within that full schedule ... he was also constantly in a recording studio ... as well as running three radio stations .... in Augusta, Knoxville, and Baltimore.

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that is just insane.... that's like being in the recording studio during the day and doing a concert at night every day. Amazing