James Brown does The Hustle

[remicks]

*****


Didn't someone recently mention that James Brown sort of pooh poohed the whole disco thing ? ( this despite the fact that he put out a good handful of 12" single releases :P thru the years )
Not to mention this: ..... his attempted study of the Hustle craze ..... ( he wasn't a good student )
The result : a groove written and performed by him released on a 1975 Polydor 45 called .... " HUSTLE !!!!" .

The sparse vocals include these sentiments :

"......do the hustle baby oh ya uh huh...
... grind until your backbone slip ....
do the nasty hustle
then you turn around your funky hips haa-aaah
turn around quick
and get in a slump
then shake your money maker
and do the double bump"
then later
" they doin' the hustle on the Soul Train now ....."

followed by a call-out of several cities where everyone's hustlin and double bumpin' :P ( Jacksonville , LA , New Orleans , Miami, Boston Nashville , Mobile ....
Mobile? ...the hustle !? ...really ?? )


It has a sort of WAR-ish sound overall (SLIPPIN" INTO DARKNESS" ) with some added active bongo-ing and a wailing Van Halen guitar ...... a sound that's a far cry from anything you'd associate dancers doing the hustle to. :oops:

Play this alongside Van McCoy's "THE HUSTLE " and in terms of the formulation of dance grooves .... you've got an interesting study of the passing of the patton .

*****

[Disco Funk]

Did he put it down? I was always under the impression that he was spending more time trying to take credit for inventing disco, hence the album 'Original Disco Man'. He definitely embraced the sound. He certainly was one of the people who deserves credit for co-creating it, with his minimalistic extended grooves.

George Clinton on the other hand I've seen interviewed and he totally dissed disco (at least as recently as the late 90's). I think other members of his Funkadelic empire actually liked it. He said that disco grooves were boring, like making love with one stroke. I guess he never listened to stuff by BT Express, Brass Construction, Fatback Band, etc...

Disco Funk

[thommy2458]

The only thing I remember
him joking about was in "get up offa that thing" he mentions
the fact that KC and the Sunshine band are white..
"that's a white boy playin"...
Thom

[remicks]

*****

I'm thinking I read a thread here mentioning this. I'd love to be wrong .... no reason for JB to diss disco !!! :P :evil:

I do know that the era overlapped a rough period of his own life and that he has bad feelings about his years with Polydor where he felt he wasn't promoted nor paid enough ......

I'd like to learn more .... anyone else have info ?
I'll look into this some more ......... it's interesting ......




His misinterpretation of the music that was emerging at the time is still demonstrated in this song which is supposedly about doin' The Hustle . Whereas Van McCoy nailed it .... James Brown does just the opposite. . His phrasing of "do the nasty Hustle..." exemplifies this .....the nasty hustle? That dance was anything but nasty ..... it's the last word I'd have chosen to tie in with it ..... His entire tawdry description of shaking one's money maker sounds like he's envisioning some other dance he favors at a different kind of club .....
*****

[neonlights]

Whereas Van McCoy nailed it .... James Brown does just the opposite. . His phrasing of "do the nasty Hustle..."

lol this sounds like something I need to hear! :lol: I wonder what album this came from, if it was even on an album..

I've always been curious about JB's attempts at disco, as derivative as they may have been. I have to admit, I enjoy his "Original Disco Man" album, which is probably unique, since it seems it was one of the few times he used an outside producer (Brad Shapiro) during this time. I agree with Disco Funk, he was definitely one of the originators and biggest influences on the disco sound, but it seems when disco really started to emerge, instead of being ahead of the pack, he was struggling to keep up and making up for it by desperately (at least by the time of "Original Disco Man") trying to stake his claim on the whole thing..

I read part of his most recent autobiography, if I recall, he talks about how he was sort of pushed into "doing disco" and sort of resented it at least at first anyway. Don't quote me on that though, I couldn't take out the book for as long as I wanted, so I didn't finish it :(

[remicks]

*****

My 45 promo copy calls the song "HUSTLE !!! (DEAD ON IT ) "

Dave Thompson's book FUNK labels it : " HUSTLE (DEAD ON IT ) "

It went # 11 R&B

From the book :

The mid-70's grew darker . Another damaging round of battles with the IRS loomed . Brown's radio stations were in trouble over nonpayment of mechanical royalties , while Brown himself was dragged into a messy payola trial. Equally damaging , his relationship with his label , Polydor was moving toward it's own crises. Despite his success, Brown had never been convinced of Polydor's ability to market and promote his music. This was no problem while his records were selling as a matter of course, but it became increasingly worrisome as his commercial appeal began to slip in the face of the musical movement he once believed would never take root in America, the dreaded disco. ( words of author * )

later ...

Work on his next album was stalled while Brown and Polydor argued over its direction. He wanted to make a new funk monster : they envisaged ( and eventually got ) A Brad Shapiro -produced slice of slickness and soulessness titled THE ORIGINAL DISCO MAN . A second Shapiro set , PEOPLE , followed in 1979. Brown disliked them both ....... "

( * remember this is a book with a slant toward bestowing the virtues of funk .........not disco ... )


*****

[efunk_adelic]

a james brown thread :D


nice.... nice.... very nice

[efunk_adelic]

let's see...... James Brown tracks i've played of late...


Give It Up, Turnit A Loose
The Payback Mix-------- just pulled this outta my hat recently... oh my my my.... I've got the funk on :D


Played THE PAYBACK recently at a christmas show.... the guy who asked for it took 45 seconds to get on the dance floor... but once he did... others followed with decent response. I think i'll play that one more often.

[ambassador]

I'm new to the forum but wanted to chime in on this James Brown post. This is the man who's really responsible for initially making me move my feet, long before I discovered disco. The song was "Get Up Offa that Thing," which still has the power to bring the house down despite its later vintage.

In my opinion JB's brand of disco doesn't really even sound like anybody else's disco. "Too Funky In Here" and "Rapp Payback" are the only decent "disco" tracks he did, in my opinion, but his mid-seventies up-beat party jams like "Get Up Offa that Thing," "If You don't Give a Doggone Bout It" (off of Mutha's Nature) and "My Thang" are stone classics and fit nicely with the disco funk of KC BT and Crown Heights Affair.

Enjoying the posts and look forward to contributing more soon.

Ambassador

[efunk_adelic]

I'm new to the forum but wanted to chime in on this James Brown post. This is the man who's really responsible for initially making me move my feet, long before I discovered disco. The song was "Get Up Offa that Thing," which still has the power to bring the house down despite its later vintage.

In my opinion JB's brand of disco doesn't really even sound like anybody else's disco. "Too Funky In Here" and "Rapp Payback" are the only decent "disco" tracks he did, in my opinion, but his mid-seventies up-beat party jams like "Get Up Offa that Thing," "If You don't Give a Doggone Bout It" (off of Mutha's Nature) and "My Thang" are stone classics and fit nicely with the disco funk of KC BT and Crown Heights Affair.

I keep kicking myself for not buying his LP Mutha's Nature

Wondering if it contained a longer version of his other release from it Give Me Some Skin

[QUINNY]

My memory must be going, really badly :oops: . I don't remember Get Up Offa That Thing being released when Disco was out and about and that's despite it being a record that I played the crap out of, Grrrrr. One of his absolute best dance records, for almost any kind of crowd and it was a dream to segue with that double horn stab after the spoken intro, or straight into the song itself.

I remember playing For Goodness Sake, Look At those Cakes during the height of Disco and found it slightly embarrassing.

I always felt that Living In America was his best ever stab at making a Disco record (even though it was released in the mid '80s) and he and Dan Hartman should have received less criticism for making it. It did have a retro sound and feel to it when released, but still worked incredibly well.

[Disco Funk]

I remember playing For Goodness Sake, Look At those Cakes during the height of Disco and found it slightly embarrassing.

What about Bodyheat? That's a great dancefloor track. It made it onto one old disco LP record set I own. But I can see James Brown not getting props at the time, and that people appreciate his late 70's stuff now in the context of appreciating his body of work as a whole, especially since he's long since stopped making any chart-denting tracks.

Disco Funk

[FlyRobinFly]

*****
His misinterpretation of the music that was emerging at the time is still demonstrated in this song which is supposedly about doin' The Hustle . Whereas Van McCoy nailed it .... James Brown does just the opposite. . His phrasing of "do the nasty Hustle..." exemplifies this .....the nasty hustle? That dance was anything but nasty ..... it's the last word I'd have chosen to tie in with it ..... His entire tawdry description of shaking one's money maker sounds like he's envisioning some other dance he favors at a different kind of club .....
*****

Now remicks, now why you gotta question the Godfather like that?

BTW, the "nasty hustle" is really another name for "the freak".

[eddie]

I just bought the CD Soul Syndrome from 1980. The most underrated track from that set is "Funky men". It's very much in the vein of his mid and early 70's work.
"Rapp Payback" which is a streamlined and redone version of "Payback" actually works and stands OK on its own. It's one of the few times JB recut his songs in a tight fashion. A lot of times it appears that he is just doing a run through and the later backup band is subpar. Definitely the JB's were the best and often sadly missed.
For about 15 years, you can tell which tracks JB knows are strong. Those tracks are often extended and have heavy crosstalk chatter and interplay with the band.

[efunk_adelic]

I just bought the CD Soul Syndrome from 1980. The most underrated track from that set is "Funky men". It's very much in the vein of his mid and early 70's work.
"Rapp Payback" which is a streamlined and redone version of "Payback" actually works and stands OK on its own. It's one of the few times JB recut his songs in a tight fashion. A lot of times it appears that he is just doing a run through and the later backup band is subpar. Definitely the JB's were the best and often sadly missed.
For about 15 years, you can tell which tracks JB knows are strong. Those tracks are often extended and have heavy crosstalk chatter and interplay with the band.

believe it or not.... Rapp Payback was played when I first starting to go to the club that I would eventually play for many years. Sadly it was more made fun of than enjoyed which pissed me off.

[Nano]

Funny, but the first time I heard music by James Brown was in a disco record... The song was "Doin' it to death" and a good chunk of it closed the most famous disco mix bootleg, "Bits & Pieces Part III: Let's do it" (1980). Somehow I learned this was James Brown singing, but it took me years to find the track, because it was released under The J.B.'s name.

Basically, the guy who did the mix was paying homage to the Godfather by giving so much space to this song... the others (including Beatles, Gino Soccio et al) didn't have more than 30 seconds each.

Therefore: JB rules! 8)

[efunk_adelic]

Therefore: JB rules! 8)

and yes he does... or


true dat! :D