James Brown
The Godfather of Soul and pioneer of funk music.
He is widely recognized as the central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century music.[1] Born on May 3, 1933, in a one-room tin shack outside Barnwell, South Carolina, James Joseph Brown was a multifaceted American performer known as a singer, songwriter, dancer, musician, and record producer.[1][2][3]
Quick Facts
- Birth name
- James Joseph Brown
- Born
- 3 May 1933
- Birthplace
- Barnwell, South Carolina, U.S.
- Died
- 25 December 2006
- Place of death
- Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
- Occupation
- Singer
- songwriter
- dancer
- musician
- record producer
- bandleader
- Years active
- 1953–2006
- Partner
- Tomi Rae Hynie (1997–2006)
Facts from the source article.
Life and work
By 1967, Brown's emerging sound began to be defined as funk music, and he released "Cold Sweat," which some critics cited as the first true funk song.[4] The Famous Flames, an R&B vocal group founded by Bobby Byrd, had Brown as its lead singer after he started out singing gospel in Toccoa, Georgia, and he gained fame in the mid-1950s.[5] After a robbery conviction at age 16, Brown was sent to a juvenile detention facility in Toccoa, where he and four fellow inmates, including Johnny Terry, created a gospel quartet.[6] "Please, Please, Please," released in March 1956 on King Records' Federal subsidiary, became the Famous Flames' first R&B hit and sold over a million copies.[7]
The ballad "Try Me," which Brown put out in October 1958, reached the number-one position on the R&B chart at the start of 1959.[8] Seventeen of Brown's singles achieved the number-one spot on Billboard's R&B chart.[9]
What the cited sources add
The Guardian's 2015 article notes that biographer Geoff Brown described James Brown as an "ill-tempered, inveterate, emotional and physical scrapper"[3] The same source states that Brown learned to play organ, bass, guitar, saxophone, trumpet and drums while scraping by as a child.[3] The Guardian piece describes "Cold Sweat" as a "monstrous groove" that reached No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart, where it stayed for three weeks.[3] Doran writes that Brown's dedication to the black radical cause went into overdrive after the murder of Martin Luther King in April 1968.[3]
Doran states that the drum break from "Funky Drummer" is "one of the 20th century's most instantly recognisable drumbeats".[3]
References
- Wikipedia, "James Brown" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Doran, "James Brown – 10 of the Best", The Guardian, October 28, 2015; Wiegand, "James Brown: 1933–2006 – Godfather of Soul Changed Music at Frenetic Pace", San Francisco Chronicle, December 26, 2006 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "James Brown" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Ancestry of James Brown"; James Brown (1998). Notable Black American Men. Farmington Hills, Michigan: Thomson Gale (Document no. K1622000047). Retrieved January 12, 2007, from the Biogra; Brown, J.; Eliot, M. (2005). "Introduction" in I Feel Good: A Memoir of a Life Soul. New York: New American Library. .; Brown Tucker 1997, p. "Chapter One"; Hirshey, "Funk's Founding Father: James Brown, 1933–2006", January 25, 2007; Rhodes 2008, p. 8; Rhodes 2008, p. 8; Rhodes 2008, p. 8 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Doran, "James Brown – 10 of the Best", The Guardian, October 28, 2015. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com
- Wikipedia, "James Brown" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: George, N. (1988). The Death of Rhythm & Blues, 101. New York: Pantheon Books. .; Vincent, R. & Clinton, G. (1996). Funk: The Music, The People, and The Rhythm of The One, 123. New York: St. Martin's Griffin. . (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "James Brown" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hay, "Music box meets the Toccoa band: the godfather of soul in Appalachia", Black Music Research Journal, January 2023, p. 103–133; "The Famous Flames Biography | The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum", Rockhall.com; "James Brown Biography | The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum", Rockhall.com (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "James Brown" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Rhodes 2008, p. 8 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "James Brown" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: White, Cliff (1991). Discography. In Star Time (p. 55) [CD liner notes]. London: Polydor Records. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "James Brown" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Inductees: James Brown, performer", Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "James Brown" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Corpuz, "James Brown's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits", May 3, 2017; Whitburn 2010, p. 89; Hirshey, "Funk's Founding Father: James Brown, 1933–2006", January 25, 2007; Whitburn, J. (2000). Top Pop Singles: 1955–1999. Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research. p. 900. . (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article James Brown (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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