One : The Life and Music of James Brown (9781101561102) (59 page)

Black Arts Movement confronts Brown: Stephen E. Henderson, “Inside the Funk Shop,” in
African American Literary Theory: A Reader
, Winston Napier, ed. (NYU Press, 2000); Cecil Brown, “James Brown, Hoodoo and Black Culture,”
Black Review
1 (1971); Larry Neal, “And Shine Swam On,” in
Black Fire: An Anthology of Afro-American Writing
, Amiri
Baraka and Larry Neal, eds. (Black Classic Press, 2007); Neal’s “Suppose James Brown read Fanon,” from “The Social Background to the Black Arts Movement,”
The Black Scholar
18, no. 1 (1987); Amiri Baraka’s poem “The Funk World,” in Baraka,
Digging
; “The Changing Same (R&B and New Black Music),”
The LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader
(Basic Books, 1999); “James Brown,” The Last Poets, on
Right On!
CD; Mel Watkins, “The Lyrics of James Brown: Ain’t It Funky Now, Or Money Won’t Change Your Licking Stick,” in
Amistad 2: Writings on Black History and Culture
, John A. Williams and Charles F. Harris, eds. (Random House, 1971).

“I’m a racist when it comes to freedom.” “James Brown Goes Through Some New Changes,”
Jet
, Dec. 30, 1971.

Soul City: Devin Fergus, “Black Power, Soft Power: Floyd McKissick, Soul City and the Death of Moderate Black Republicanism,”
Journal of Policy History
, no. 2 (2010); “McKissick’s New Town for Blacks Called ‘Soul City’,”
Jet
, Jan. 30, 1969; “Soul City Makes Changes: Receives Federal Help,”
Jet
, March 9, 1972.

Floyd McKissick: Oral History with Floyd B. McKissick Sr., Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill;
Cleveland Call & Post
, July 5, 1972;
California Voice
, Aug. 31, 1972; letter from McKissick to James Brown, dated Jan. 3, 1973, McKissick Papers, Chapel Hill.

“This black man who used to style himself a super-militant” and “political prostitutes.” Carl Rown syndicated column, Aug. 16, 1972.

“I can’t throw you a rope until I save myself. It’s slippery around the edge of the bank.”
Newsweek
, July 1, 1968.

Sammy Davis Jr. embraces Nixon: Wil Haygood, “The Hug,”
Washington Post
, Sept. 14, 2003; the picture appeared in
Jet
, Sept, 7, 1972.

“If you’ve seen one city slum, you’ve seen them all.” Agnew quoted in Perlstein,
Nixonland
.

“There are people in our society who should be separated and discarded.” Agnew in the
Chicago Tribune
, July 1, 1970.

Robert Brown: interview with Bruce Tucker, Tucker files; “Robert Brown Puts Black Consciousness in the White House,”
Jet
, March 4, 1971; “Nixon Shines at Brown’s Bash,”
New York Amsterdam News
, Feb. 12, 1972; “Testimonial for Brown Benefits Sickle Cell Anemia Drive,”
Jet
, Feb. 17, 1972.

Nixon meets with James Brown: White House recording made on Oct. 10, 1972, conversation 7958, National Archives, College Park, Maryland.

Brown Endorses Nixon: “Brown Urges Nixon to Help Blacks and Endorses President,”
Jet
, Oct. 26, 1972; “Black Entertainers Say Every Voter Has the Right to his Opinion,”
Atlanta Daily World
, Nov. 5, 1972.

The endorsement fallout: “Brailey Accuses James Brown of Soul Sell-Out for Backing Nixon,”
Baltimore Sun
, Oct. 12, 1972; “Black Supporters of President Under Fire,”
The New York Times
, Oct. 17, 1972; “Brown Says Nixon Backs King ‘Day,’”
Augusta Herald
, Oct. 20, 1972; “Stars for Nixon Camp Assailed,”
Chicago Defender
, Oct. 23, 1972; “White House Delegation Meets With James Brown,”
Atlanta Daily World
, Oct. 24, 1972; Charles Green, “The People Speak”
Newark Afro-American
, Oct. 28, 1972; “Down the Big Road,”
Cleveland Call & Post
, Oct. 28, 1972; “Say James Brown is no Soul Brother,” William Marable,
New York Amsterdam News
, Oct. 28, 1972; “Has James Brown Sold Black People Out or Sold Them In?”
Jet
, Nov. 2 1972; “Angela Calls Sammy Traitor to Black People,”
Cleveland Call & Post
, Nov. 18, 1972; “Davis and Brown Prod President Nixon to Help Blacks,”
Jet
, Nov. 23, 1972; “Right On by Pamala Haynes,”
Pittsburgh Courier
, Dec. 2, 1972.

Election night in Washington: Ethel Payne, “So This is Washington,”
Pittsburgh Courier
, Nov. 25, 1972.

Knoxville beating:
Knoxville Sentinel
, Dec. 11, 1972; also Dec 12, 13, 27, and 28. Daviss interview.

“He found out this country is not as free as he thought.” Letter,
Jet
, Jan. 11, 1973.

Nixon’s inauguration: “The Nixon Inauguration,”
Ebony
, March 1973.

“Don’t
make
me equal. I can’t survive on equality.”
Newsweek
, July 1, 1968.

Chapter Nineteen:
FOLLOW THE MONEY

“There’s a lot of money here.” Brown interview, Tucker files.

The Third World:
Augusta Chronicle
, April 17, 2008, Sept. 9, 1973;
Augusta News-Review
, Oct. 18, 1973; Charles Reid interview.

“You never seen a Brink’s truck follow a hearse to the graveyard.” Danny Ray interview.

James Brown Motor Inn:
Baltimore Sun
, June 6, 1970;
Baltimore Afro-American
, May 30 and June 6, 1970; March 27 and April 3, 1971.

James Brown film projects:
Jet
, July 25, 1968, March 13 and Oct. 5, 1972;
Philadelphia Tribune
, March 26, 1969; “People, Places ’n’ Situwayshuns,”
Los Angeles Sentinel
, April 26, 1973.

Blaxploitation Cinema: Darius James,
That’s Blaxploitation!: Roots of the Baadassssss ’Tude
(St. Martin’s Griffin, 1995); David Walker, Chris Watson, Andrew J. Rausch,
Reflections on Blaxploitation: Actors and Directors Speak
(Scarecrow Press, 2009); Richard Simon, “The Stigmatization of ‘Blaxploitation’,” in
Soul: Black Power, Politics and Pleasure
, Richard C. Green and Monique Guillory, eds. (NYU Press, 1997); “Isaac Hayes and the Volatile Black Image,”
Soul
, Jan. 25, 1971; “Sara Speaking,”
New York Amsterdam News
, Aug. 7, 1971; “College Marching Bands Get ‘Shaft Theme’ Sheet Music,”
Jet
, Dec. 23, 1971; “Isaac Hayes, Sammy Davis and ‘Shaft’ Steal Oscar Show,”
Jet
, April 27, 1972; James Brown on Blacula: “New York Beat,”
Jet
, Oct. 5, 1972.

“We shall forget morality and grade this on effort and Blackness.” “Superfly, New Super Flic,”
Soul
, Sept. 11, 1972.

Black Caesar
:
Black Caesar
, MGM (1973; 2001 DVD); Wesley,
Hit Me Fred
; Leeds, liner notes to
James Brown, The Singles Volume Eight: 1972-1973
(Hip-O Select, 2009); Rhodes,
Say it Loud!
; “‘Black Caesar,’ Inverted American Dream,”
Pittsburgh Courier
, June 30, 1973; Larry Cohen, Wesley interviews.

“The Godfather of Soul”: Bobbit, interviewed in 1978 British documentary,
Soul Brother Number One
.

Bob Marley and Brown: John Masouri,
Wailing Blues: The Story of Bob Marley’s Wailers
(Omnibus Press, 2010); Christopher John Farley,
Before the Legend: The Rise of Bob Marley
(Harper Paperbacks, 2007).

The King presses sold to Jamaica: Colonel Jim Wilson interview, Country Music Hall of Fame.

Brown in Brazil: Anna Scott, “It’s All in the Timing: The Latest Moves, James Brown’s Grooves and the 70s Race Consciousness Movement in Salvador, Bahia-Brazil,” in
Soul
, Green and Guillory, eds.; Livo Sansone, “In Bahia and Rio,” in
Brazilian Popular Music and Globalization
, Charles A. Perrone, Christopher Dunn, eds. (Routledge, 2001).

“There was no band from Benin who didn’t have something in their repertoire influenced by James Brown.”
Wax Poetics
, no. 39, 2010.

Get on the good foot and beginnings of hip-hop: Michael Holman, “Breaking: The History,” in
That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader
, Murray Forman and Mark Anthony Neal, eds. (Routledge, 2004); Frank Owen, “Back in the Days: Most of What You Know About the Old School is Wrong,”
Vibe
, December 1994.

“James Brown Nixon’s Clown”:
New York Amsterdam News
, May 26, 1973;
Baltimore Afro-American
, June 2, 1973.

Nixon assisted Brown: Daviss, Leeds interviews.

James Palmer: Martha High, Wesley, Leeds interviews; Leeds email.

Brown and Watergate: “You Can Have Watergate Just Gimme Some Bucks and I’ll Be Straight,” the J.B.’s, on
James Brown: The Singles Volume Eight: 1972-1973
(Hip-O Select, 2009); “Brown Calls $94,000 Tax Case A Fraud ‘By a White Man’s Nigger’; Discusses His Views On Nixon Since Watergate,”
Augusta News-Review
, Jan. 24, 1974.

The IRS spies on Brown: “Top Blacks Among Persons Spied On by Tax Officials,”
Jet
, Oct. 23, 1975;
Augusta Chronicle
, Oct. 3, 1975;
Time
, Oct. 13 1975.

Teddy Brown: “James Brown’s Son Killed; Star Goes on With His Show,”
New York Amsterdam News
, June 23, 1973; Roach, Danny Ray, Daviss, Patton, Sharpton, and Leeds interviews.

Slaughter’s Big Rip-off
: DVD, 2001 (MGM, 1973); Rhodes,
Say it Loud!
; Wesley,
Hit Me Fred
; Wesley Red Bull Music Academy interview.

“The Payback”: Adam White and Fred Bronson,
The Billboard Book of Number One Rhythm & Blues Hits
(Billboard Books, 1993); Leeds liner notes,
James Brown, The Singles Volume Nine: 1973-1975
(Hip-O Select, 2010); Byrd interview, AAAMC; High, Wesley, Cohen interviews.

Chapter Twenty:
EMULSIFIED

Life at Walton Way: Brown Thomas, Daviss, Sharpton, Austin, Roach interviews.

The death of Poojie: Daviss interview.

Al Sharpton: Sharpton,
Go and Tell Pharaoh
(Doubleday, 1996); “The Gospel According to James Brown and Reverend Al Sharpton,”
Jet
, Aug. 26, 1991; Sharpton interview.

Secret submarines in the Savannah River: Daviss interview. The region that Brown was born in was wiped off the map by the federal government in the 1950s and turned into the Savannah River Nuclear Reactor Site, a high-security facility where uranium is enriched for nuclear weapons.

“They were looking up to me like a god.” M. Cordell Thompson,
Black Stars
, Oct. 1972. In this article Brown makes a point of defining, while putting borders around, his feelings for Africa. “We’re spiritual brothers
and they even want to strengthen these ties even more,” he said of blacks in America and Africa. “But we’re still from another country, three hundred years did that, and even the Honorable Elijah Muhammad says this. America is going to be our home. That’s why I’m a constitutional man myself, ’cause that’s the only stick we have.”

Zaire:
Soul Power
documentary DVD (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 2010); Hugh Masekela and D. Michael Cheers,
Still Grazing: The Musical Journey of Hugh Masekela
(Crown, 2004); Gary Steward,
Rhumba on the River: A History of the Popular Music of the Two Congos
(Verso, 2000); James,
Rage to Survive
; Wesley,
Hit Me Fred
; James P. Murray, “A Look at Zaire ’74,”
Amsterdam News
, Sept. 21, 1974; “Festival in Zaire,”
Blues & Soul
, Nov. 5 1974; Roach interview.

Ali & Brown: The poem appears in the catalog to the Christie’s auction of the James Brown Collection, July 17, 2008; for the two competing to stop traffic in Manhattan, see Hirshey,
Nowhere to Run.

Senegal:
Soul Brother Number One
documentary; Wesley,
Hit Me Fred
; Lola Love, Daviss interviews.

Omar Bongo: “African President Pays $160,000 for James Brown Concert,”
Augusta News-Review
, Jan. 23, 1975; Love, Patton, Stone interviews.

“Star-Spangled Banner” sung in Cleveland:
Augusta Chronicle
, March 26, 1975.

George Clinton and P-Funk: Greg Tate,
Flyboy in the Buttermilk: Essays on Contemporary America
(Simon & Schuster, 1992); Dave Thompson,
Funk: The Essential Listening Companion
(Backbeat Books, 2001); Marsh,
George Clinton and P-Funk
; Vincent,
Funk
; Joe McEwen, “Funk,” in
The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll
, Anthony DeCurtis, James Henke, Holly George-Warren, eds. (Random House, 1992); Archie Ivy, “We’ll Just Keep Doin’ What Comes Funky,”
Soul
, June 9,1975; JA, “Countdown on Parliament, From Launchpad to Mothership Connection,”
Blues & Soul
, June 29, 1976; Steve Ivory, “If All Else Fails…Funk It,” and Mike Terry, “Funkadelic,”
Soul
, Feb. 5, 1979; Barry Michael Cooper, “The Gospel According to Parliament,”
Village Voice
, Jan. 14, 1980; “Stuffs + Things: A Motorbooty Rap With George Clinton,”
Motorbooty
, 1989; Hank Bordowitz, “The Three Funkateers,”
American Visions
, December 1993; Collins, Waddy interviews. And the work and memory of David Mills.

“We called him the grandfather of soul.” Clinton in
Blues and Soul
, June 29, 1976.

“His music has primal rhythm…” Clinton in
Soul
, Feb. 5, 1979.

Chapter Twenty-one:
THE HUSTLE

Disco: Alice Echols,
Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture
(W.W. Norton & Co., 2010); Tim Lawrence,
Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture, 1970-1979
(Duke University Press, 2004); Peter Shapiro,
Turn the Beat Around: The Secret History of Disco
(Faber & Faber, 2005).

James Brown and disco: Alice Echols, “The Land of Somewhere Else: Refiguring James Brown in Seventies Disco,”
Criticism
, vol. 50 no. 1 (Winter 2008); Steve Blush, interview,
Soho News
, June 28, 1979; “Funky Godfather is Disco’s Daddy,”
Amsterdam News
, June 30, 1979; Joe McEwen, “James Brown Scales the Mountain,”
Village Voice
, July 9, 1979; “Pop Beat,”
Los Angeles Times
, Aug. 25, 1979; “People, Places ’n’ Situwayshuns,”
Los Angeles Sentinel
, June 19, 1980.