Brown, James 173other superb musicians. Aft er 1976, Brown continued to
have R&B hits but not another pop hit until 1985’s “Living
in America.”
As a spokesperson for black America, Brown met with
Vice President Humphrey and controversially endorsed
Nixon for president. His music also had a profound im-
pact on black political activism; “Say It Loud—I’m Black
and I’m Proud” (1968), with children chanting the title
and Brown declaring, “We’d rather die on our feet than liv-
ing on our knees,” became an anthem for the Black Power
movement.
Brown re-Africanized African American music by
wryly sliding his sound on a scale between ragtime’s synco-
pation and Africa’s cross-rhythms, incorporating ideas from
jazz, blues, gospel, and country and western and repeat-
edly sampling diverse sources from the Petticoat Junction
theme to Elmore James to Byrd and himself, serving a role
in maintaining the groove analogous to the African mas-
ter drummer. Brown put on show business’s most energetic
performance; his dancing infl uenced all who followed.at North Carolina A&T University, where he learned to re-
conceptualize and rearrange the Flames’ voices.
On February 4, 1956, the Flames fi rst recorded for
Cincinnati’s King/Federal. “Please, Please, Please” (adapted
from doo-wop renditions of Big Joe Williams’s blues “Baby,
Please Don’t Go”) reached the number 5 slot on the R&B
chart. Brown sang lead and soon assumed permanent
leadership of the band. Th is song eventually refl ected an
important event in Brown’s career and in the develop-
ment of black musical forms. Th e Africanized musical
foundation Brown absorbed in South Carolina and Au-
gusta was enhanced through the incorporation of more
Euro-American concepts, preparing Brown to become a
soul music pioneer, a primary creator of funk, and an es-
sential predecessor to rap and hip-hop. “Please” began the
re-Africanization of popular music through its renewed
emphasis on call-and-response, the relentless repetition of
words and phases as cross-rhythm, and Brown’s attention
to nuanced variations in vocal tone and frenzied gospel-
infl uenced performance.
Although the Flames fell apart, Byrd eventually re-
turned and worked with Brown off -and-on for the rest of
his career—writing songs, orchestrating arrangements,
managing the band, and singing and playing keyboards.
Brown charted again in 1958 when “Try Me” reached the
top position on the R&B chart. Brown charted 24 more
times before his fi rst crossover hit (no. 1 R&B, no. 8 Pop),
“Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag” in 1965. Featuring Maceo
Parker on saxophone and Jimmy Nolen on guitar, “Papa’s”
changed popular music’s emphasis on the two/four beat
to a beat on the fi rst and third, using the instruments and
voices primarily as percussion in maintaining a polyrhyth-
mic groove, with irresistible, protofunk forever changing
popular music.
In 1963, Brown fi nanced the radically innovative re-
cording Live at the Apollo (the fi rst of several of Brown’s live
Apollo recordings). Th is LP featured extended versions,
complete with audience shrieks and applause; it spent an
unheard-of 66 weeks on the charts. Brown and Byrd contin-
ued to refi ne and distill funk in subsequent hits, including
“Cold Sweat” (1967), “Licking Stick” (1968), “Get Up (I Feel
Like Being A) Sex Machine” (1970), “Hot Pants” (1971),
“Get on the Good Foot” (1972), and others. His band, the
JB’s, included Parker, Byrd, and Nolen but also Fred Wesley
on trombone, drummers Clyde Stubblefi ed and John “Jabo”
Starks, and William “Bootsy” Collins on bass guitar, among
James Brown, known as the Godfather of Soul, during a live per-
formance in 19 64. (Photofest)