James Brown Month - Last Minute Entry

         

Florence Farmer - "Living Legend (Parts One and Two)

     I've been swamped with various nonsense this month, to the extent that I've been unable to participate in our celebration of James Brown. But I'm not going to let the month end without bringing you something...  but you may wish that I hadn't after hearing this rare gem!
     There's not a lot of information to be had about Ms. Farmer, but she lived with JB for a time in 1966-67 (one source suggests that she lived with him later, after he and his second wife Deirdre split up), and she only ever made one record, which debatably is one too many. This page on a seemingly-defunct message board has some anecdotes about her, and a batch of cool photos of James, from which I've stolen the photo below. Go check it out!

(L to R: "Jeannie" (last name unknown), Florence Farmer, JB, Terry Brown, Teddy Brown

Whiskey A Go Go

Rustic Rampage @ Fool's Paradise Twin !

 

THIS FRIDAY & SATURDAY ONLY !

REDNECKS !  CRACKERS !!  HILLBILLIES !!!

PEA-PICKERS !!!!

SO MANY COUSINS !   SO LITTLE TIME !! 

 

TWO THOUSAND MANIACS

(1964, dir. Herschel Gordon Lewis)  

 

B/W

HILLBILLY HOOKER 

(aka HONEY BRITCHES) 

(1971, dir. Donn Davison)

Hillbilly Hookers radio spot

FULL SERVICE SNACK BAR
featuring: 

Tasty corndogs!  Refreshing beverages! Savory BBQ!
...and - for this engagement only - Mr. Pibb on tap!

*No Outside Food Or Drink*

 

THE FOOL'S PARADISE TWIN ACCEPTS

JAMES BROWN BLACK & BROWN STAMPS

James Brown Month Ends Today

R.I.P.

Reprinted by permission.  Copyright © Tim Jackson 2006.

Psychotronic Eats The New Yorker's Brain

It's getting strange out there. The latest issue of The New Yorker features "A Psychotronic Childhood," being a pocket autobiography by Colson Whitehead, one focusing on the author's lifelong affection for fleapit cinema. The Psychotronic Encyclopedia Of Film and its author, Michael Weldon, receive significant mention throughout. A thoughtful, non-ironic take on Ray Dennis Steckler's films and others of comparably Incredibly Strange persuasion is given significant column inches within the current issue of this bastion of snootiness. Go figure.

 

 "What is real? Are you certain you know what reality is?" - The Wizard Of Gore

King James Brown

James Brown Month: James Brown Says It Loud pt. 3 - Tell Me That You Love Me

Wrapping up our series on the loudest, craziest, least-in-control James Brown numbers ever (which, as you may recall, I have designated a subgenre all its own, "Free James Brown"), we arrive at the top of the heap, the apex of insane, the single wildest track JB ever laid down on wax. It's the B-Side of "Don't Be a Drop Out", "Tell Me That You Love Me".

It's a live cut, and if you lop off the 10 second intro, it's about a minute and a half long. A wild two guitar duel opens the show, and then the band and James come in, playing as fast and screaming as loud as they can possibly muster. There is no structure, a sudden stop in the middle eats up another couple of seconds, and the track fades out on just about the craziest scream JB or anyone ever screamt, which I believe might just be a loop of the crazy scream he screams right before the stop.  All in all, crazy. 

Apparently cobbled together from some live tapes by Bud Hobgood, Teo Macero style, this track is guaranteed to clear the floor of all but your bravest dancers while everyone else runs away holding their ears in pain.  SO GREAT.

Play it three times in a row one time for me!

Tassel Twirler Tuesday!

Who_Stole_My_Bird_Dog?

James Brown Month: Can I Get Some Help? - Give It Up or Turnit Loose

Here's a (to me) previously unknown, "Funky Drummer"-ish, instrumental version of "Give It Up Or Turnit Loose". I found it on an Iranian three song EP on the Top 4 label, and it's credited to the James Brown Band. The EP also has the standard versions of Sly and the Family Stone's "Thank You Falettin' Me Be Mice Elf Again" and Bill Moss's "Sock It to Me Soul Brother", so I assume that it was a fairly standard licensing deal, if there was any deal at all, that resulted in this record's release.  I have been unable to find any reference to it elsewhere. I don't, however, have absolute knowledge of every obscure Brown-involved cut ever recorded, and as far as I know this might just be tucked away on the corner of some obscure or not-so-obscure album or 45 I have overlooked, maybe under a different name.  The sound on this is slightly dim, typical for a 45 with about six minutes on a side. Would love to find a fuller sounding version. Anyone out there know of this version's appearance on a record other than this one?

Summer Boogaloo

Ichiban New Bin

Takeshi Terauchi & The Bunnys - Summer Boogaloo

Of course, Summer doesn't really start until June 24th, when the Summer Soul-stice airs!

James Brown Month: RJ Smith Interview Part III

The final installment of our interview with The One author RJ Smith.


ICHIBAN: How in the world did James Brown have time to do everything that he did for himself AND produce the number of records he produced for other people? Do you have any insights on how involved he was in productions, or was it more of a brand name thing?

RJ SMITH: My sense is those numerous productions happened every way possible – some were cut without him being anywhere NEAR the studio. Some were built on ideas he had talked out with the musicians, or with JB stopping by the studio without being much invested in the moment. And some happened with JB at the center of the action. Then again, as Jim Dickinson once told me, sometimes the guy who brings the coffee is the one who really produces the session – you never know what is going to be the catalyst. It’s a mystery.

"Needs more . . ."

ICHIBAN: You posit in the Dancer chapter of The One that Brown was a dancer first and had to make up music to go suit his movements. Do you think that this was a conscious or unconscious process? Also, are you aware of how much Brown was exposed to African music in the 50s and 60s? Was his piling of polyrhythms something he picked up from somewhere or was it kind of instinctively sui generis?

I think Brown got the attention he craved, and the sustenance he needed to survive, first from dancing, and a little later from singing. He learned he had a mastery over audiences first by moving to a rhythm.

An amazing thing – and maybe in the end, the most amazing thing – about Brown was how he carried the lore of the African diaspora as fully as anybody ever did. I think he was listening to everything, and was influenced by all kinds of things (I’m struck for instance by how every time he was coming to LA in the late 50s/early 60s, he seemed to get paired with a mambo band. Wonder what he took from that!) I suspect he heard a lot more African sounds coming through the Cuban and Puerto Rican music – boogaloo! – around him in the streets while he was living in NYC in the ‘60s than from whatever Afro pop itself he might have heard. I think his piling of poly-rhythms has everything to do with being a profoundly responsive African-American from the South – and not just any part of the South, but South Carolina, with a very particular role in the slave trade, and a very specific and rich slave culture. The mystery of the guy is how he became this clear channel signal for the culture of the slave south – it was fragmented and outlawed during and after slavery, yet James Brown put it all together and made America feel it. I bet he didn’t even totally know how it happened – I’m sure he never would have talked about it, because his most comfortable line on Africa’s influence on him was that while, sure, he heard some overlaps, he wasn’t playing African music, he was playing James Brown music! He wasn’t going to acknowledge anything beyond his own innate genius.

JB working a postage stamp

In this age where everything is recycled from the past, how in the world is it that JB's amazing TV show Future Shock is not available as a DVD box set?

You speak wisdom. I thought the film and whatever documentation of it were in the posession of Ted Turner, who apparently would sometimes come in from a night of Atlanta partying and hang out with Brown on the set. But someone recently suggested that CNN now owns the recordings as part of the deal that Turner signed over. It kills me that this stuff is not on DVD, accompanied by a deluxe booklet with notes by Pete Relic and Questlove. Not right.

somebody hook a doctor up

What, to your mind, is the last great James Brown recording/single?

One day when I was sitting in court in Aiken, SC listening to lawyers and family members arguing about who should get what, they started complaining about the alleged disappearance of a number of masters found in Brown’s pool house. Among them was a master recording of Johnny Paycheck! How the heck could that be? Since then I’ve wondered if JB and JP did some kind of thing together. Maybe THAT’s the last great Brown recording. 

Mind. Blown. GET READY YOU MOTHERS, FOR THE BIG PAYCHECK!

One of the great JB divas who does not make an appearance in The One is Lyn Collins. Did you hear any good stories about her?


Regarding Lyn Collins, I recall her complaining in an interview in a British magazine that Brown had installed a telephone, like a hotline, in his house so that he could be in constant communication with her and know her every movement. She said dating him was like being in prison.


I've also seen lots of claims, which may have some accuracy, that Brown would paradoxically put out those records by proteges like Lyn and Marva [Whitney] and Bobby [Byrd], but should they start to take off, he'd start calling radio stations and tell them NOT to play the records. In other words, he was pretty okay with these folks feeling indebted to him, by putting out their records, throwing them some money. But if their records started stealing attention from him, he would have to intervene/knock them down - and being the producer, distributor and erstwhile check payer for various folks, he had lots of means at his disposal . . . But I have heard claims specifically about Lyn's version of "Think About It", that when it started heading for the top ten (r&b, I guess), JB began working the phones, calling his DJ connections and telling them to cool their action. How you prove that I don't know, but it seems somewhat plausible.

"I don't care how good it's doin'! I've got
money - now I need love! Shut it down!"

And, lastly, is there a particular song that you wanted to fit into The One that for one reason or another didn't make the cut, and what do you want to say about it?


I wrote out several thousand words on "The Grunt" [a 1970 JB produced instrumental by the Collins kids' version of the JB's], particularly its relationship to 18th and 19th century Cincinnati and how that town was known as Porkopolis. The abundant slaughterhouses used to dump trucks full of spare ribs into the river because they didn't know they tasted good. Wild dogs used to own downtown Cincinnati at night, wild dogs with pieces of meat in their maws scaring the shit out of visiting European ladies and forever shaping their impressions of Ohio and America. I couldn't find the right place for it in the book, but anyway "The Grunt" launched that particular jag. Something about "The Grunt" just leaves a man to thinking about pig flesh and wild dogs. It's that good. 

Special thanks to Mr. Smith for taking the time to chat with us about Soul Brother #1. The One can be found at the usual retail and online outlets, for instance here.  

James Brown Month: Honky Tonk . . . POPCORN! Bill Doggett

This slammin' floorfiller bears the distinction of being the first James Brown production to feature Bootsy & Catfish Collins, Frankie "Kash" Waddy, Philippé Wynne, Robert McCullough, Clayton Gunnels and Darryl Jamison - they were called the Pacesetters at the time, but one night in Columbus, Georgia, on zero notice, after James had fired his entire band for wanting more money, they became the core of the JB's.