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James Brown biography

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Quick Facts

  • PLACE OF DEATH: Atlanta, Georgia
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Best Known For

James Brown, "The Godfather of Soul," was a prolific singer, songwriter and bandleader and one of the most iconic figures in funk and soul music from 1956-2006.

Synopsis

Born on May 3, 1933 in extreme poverty, James Brown worked his way to the top of the funk and R&B music earning the moniker "The Godfather of Soul." His unique vocal and musical style influenced many artists. Brown was also renowned for his work in social activism, both in his songwriting ("America is My Home", "Black and Proud") and advocating the benefits of education to schoolchildren.

Contents

(born May 3, 1933, Barnwell, S.C., U.S.—died Dec. 25, 2006, Atlanta, Ga.) American singer, songwriter, arranger, and dancer, who was one of the most important and influential entertainers in 20th-century popular music and whose remarkable achievements earned him the sobriquet “the Hardest-Working Man in Show Business.”

Brown was raised mainly in Augusta, Ga., by his great-aunt, who took him in at about the age of five when his parents divorced. Growing up in the segregated South during the Great Depression of the 1930s, Brown was so impoverished that he was sent home from grade school for “insufficient clothes,” an experience that he never forgot and that perhaps explains his penchant as an adult for wearing ermine coats, velour jumpsuits, elaborate capes, and conspicuous gold jewelry. Neighbours taught him how to play drums, piano, and guitar, and he learned about gospel music in churches and at tent revivals, where preachers would scream, yell, stomp their feet, and fall to their knees during sermons to provoke responses from the congregation. Brown sang for his classmates and competed in local talent shows but initially thought more about a career in baseball or boxing than in music.

At age 15 Brown and some companions were arrested while breaking into cars. He was sentenced to 8 to 16 years of incarceration but was released after 3 years for good behaviour. While at the Alto Reform School, he formed a gospel group. Subsequently secularized and renamed the Flames (later the Famous Flames), it soon attracted the attention of rhythm-and-blues and rock-and-roll shouter Little Richard, whose manager helped promote the group. Intrigued by their demo record, Ralph Bass, the artists-and-repertoire man for the King label, brought the group to Cincinnati, Ohio, to record for King Records's subsidiary Federal. The label's owner, Syd Nathan, hated Brown's first recording, “Please, Please, Please” (1956), but the record eventually sold three million copies and launched Brown's extraordinary career. Along with placing nearly 100 singles and almost 50 albums on the best-seller charts, Brown broke new ground with two of the first successful “live and in concert” albums—his landmark Live at the Apollo (1963), which stayed on the charts for 66 weeks, and his 1964 follow-up, Pure Dynamite! Live at the Royal, which charted for 22 weeks.

During the 1960s Brown was known as “Soul Brother Number One.” His hit recordings of that decade have often been associated with the emergence of the Black Arts and black nationalist movements, especially the songs “Say It Loud—I'm Black and I'm Proud” (1968), “Don't Be a Drop-Out” (1966), and “I Don't Want Nobody to Give Me Nothin' (Open Up the Door, I'll Get It Myself)” (1969). Politicians recruited him to help calm cities struck by civil insurrection and avidly courted his endorsement. In the 1970s Brown became “the Godfather of Soul,” and his hit songs stimulated several dance crazes and were featured on the sound tracks

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