Released on = January 11, 2007, 6:58 am

Press Release Author = Anna Chua

Industry = Entertainment

Press Release Summary = So befitting a life center-stage and dramatic, James Brown
died on Christmas Day. The James Brown that only God can so perfectly create, He has
taken away on His day. Even his funeral seemed like one of his sold-out concerts!
Truly, in death as in life, "The Godfather of Soul" is Funky to the very end.

Press Release Body = Norwalk, CT, January 13, 2007-His latest backup band, the Soul
Generals, thrashed on, playing as if they were in one of his jam-packed concerts.
The crowd cheered and danced to his hits like "Soul Power" and "I Feel Good," like
he himself were singing for them right then and there. If it were someone else's
funeral, it wouldn't be this funky. For his fans did not just come to mourn his
death, they also came to celebrate his life and his music. He is James Brown, "The
Godfather of Soul." He was 73.

James Joe Brown was born during the Great Depression, on May 3, 1933 in Barnwell.
S.C. When he was four years old, he was abandoned by his mother and moved with his
father to live with his aunt in Augusta, Georgia.

He was the hardest working kid on the streets long before he was the
"Hardest-Working Man in Show Business." During childhood, he worked in many odd
jobs, singing on street corners, picking cotton and shining shoes "in order to
survive as a little black boy growing up in the South," he said. "I was nine years
old before I got a pair of underwear from a real store; all my clothes were made of
sacks and things like that. But I knew I had to make it. I had the determination to
go on, and my determination was to be somebody."

Forced to drop out of school, Mr. Brown, as he likes to be called, sang and danced
for soldiers at nearby Fort Gordon. He also helped his father washing cars. And at
16 years old, long before he became the Godfather of Soul, he almost became a
godfather of the other sort: he was involved in car theft and other petty crimes,
earning him a three-year stint at reform school. There he met Bobby Byrd, leader of
a gospel group and later became his life-long friend.

After juvenile camp and starting life anew, Mr. Brown tried semi-pro boxing and
baseball. Unfortunately, a leg injury took him out of the ring and the fields and
led him to our radios.

In 1956, he joined Bobby Byrd's gospel singing group that was then touring Georgia.
However, after seeing Hank Ballard and Fats Domino perform, James and Bobby were
enticed to secular music. They formed a group called the "Flames" and recorded
"Please, Please, Please," which was to become later as Mr. Brown's signature song.
Being a business man and a bandleader he gathered into the Flames more talent of
singers, dancers and musicians to an ensemble that later became known as "James
Brown and the Famous Flames" with which he toured.

Although he would always have a full crowd anywhere he performed, he was but a minor
R&B artist with a limited audience. He then thought of releasing a live recording of
one of his concerts. Alas, it was turned down by his then label King Records,
certain that the album would not sell.

But his self-reliance, trained since early childhood, would not let his dream remain
unachieved. Mr. Brown put up his own money to record the October 1962 Apollo Theatre
Concert. Three months later, with the album's highly successful release, James Brown
was catapulted to stardom. Thus Soul's greatest leader came.

He toured relentlessly over the ensuing years, selling out concerts and adding up to
almost a thousand songs in his repertoire, including "I Got You (I Feel Good)"
(1965), \"Cold Sweat\" (1967), \"Sex Machine (1970), \"Hot Pants\" (1971) and \"The
Payback\" (1973). \"Say It Loud: I\'m Black and I\'m Proud\" (1969) remains to be an
African-American civil rights anthem.

Recognition also started to pile up. He won the Best R&B Recording Grammy Award for
"Pappa's Got a Brand New Bag" in 1965. In 1987, "Living in America," which can be
heard in "Rocky IV" movie, won another Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance.
And in 1992, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award. Other major
recognitions he garnered includes being a charter "Rock and Roll Hall of Famer" and
being honoured by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Aside from collecting awards, he also came to influence music in other, mostly
younger and fledgling, artists. Unknowingly, with every horn, cranky rock and roll
guitar, powerful bass, funky grunts, bedevilling dance moves and vibrant and
explosive showmanship, he inspired the likes of Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger,
Prince, and yes, Elvis Presley.

Even contemporary artists, who could not have been old enough to be among his
audiences in the 60's, 70's and the 80's were inspired and continue to be inspired
by his style, like Dr. Dre, P. Diddy, Snoop Dogg, Ne-Yo, Justin Timberlake, Rage
Against the Machine. the list goes on.

All of them and so much more - fans and other artists all over the world mourn the
passing, but celebrate the life, of the "Godfather of Soul," "Forefather of Rap,"
"God of Rhythm and Blues," "Mr. Excitement," "Hardest-Working Man in Show Business,"
"Funkiest Mutha in the Universe."

So befitting a life center-stage and dramatic, he died on Christmas Day. The James
Brown that only God can so perfectly create, He has taken away on His day. And in
the words of yet another of Mr. Brown's disciples, Public Enemy's Chuck D, "may his
funky soul R.I.P.\"

We at WikiMusicGuide pay our respects to the late James Brown. Our thoughts and
prayers go out to Mr. Brown's family, friends and loved ones. He will be missed. But
his music lives on.

Like all other music artists - legends, pioneers, breakthroughs - James Brown will
have his rightful place in cyberspace. At WikiMusicGuide, all that is music is
celebrated by the music fans for the music fans.

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