James Brown

 

Singer, song writer, band leader, dancer, record producer, political activist, shoe shiner, black power advocate, record label executive, radio station owner and hardest working person in show business James Joseph Brown was born in Barnwell, South Carolina, on May 3, 1933 and became a major figure in 20th century music. He began his career as a gospel singer age 16 with other young prisoners in Toccoa, Georgia. In the mid 1950s he rose to prominence as the lead singer of Bobby Byrd’s group The Famous Flames. His success peaked in the mid-1960s with a successful “Live at the Apollo” LP and a number of hit singles, especially the ground breaking “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag”.

“Night Train” is one of his few instrumentals; the band is really great. Mr Brown does put in an appearance during the recording, as a railway attendant. The track is taken from a 1962 LP called James Brown Presents His Band. The date does not appear on the UK Sue single. The recording, with the same B side, was originally issued in the UK on EMI Parlophone R 4922 in July, 1962. It is thought that the original song writer of “Why does everything happen to me” was Roy Hawkins.

He was notorious for his discipline system where he would fine his band members for various failures.

He was also famous for his “Cape Act” in which he feigned exhaustion and collapse during the song “Please Please Please”, and his valet/master of ceremonies Danny Ray (left in the picture) would rush to help him and place a life-restoring cape on his shoulders.

James Brown died in Atlanta, Georgia, from congestive heart failure and pneumonia, on December 25, 2006.

Danny Ray died on 2 February 2021, age 85. The Los Angeles Times noted: ”Even after Brown’s death, Ray continued to serve his boss’s needs. A resident, like Brown, of Augusta, Georgia, he was present at Brown’s 2006 memorial service, where he draped Brown’s body with a cape embroidered with the phrase “The Godfather of Soul.” A year later, during a tribute to Brown at the 49th Grammy Awards, Ray hung the cape on a lone microphone.”

Image: Danny Ray and James Brown during the "Cape Act". Michael Ochs Archives