Unfortunately he died due to hospital negligence, the nurses and doctors all just standing around clapping and cheering as he clutched his chest and kept saying “I cain’t go on… I cain’t go on…”.
Great artist, great loss.
Papa’s got a brand new (body) bag.
I guess I’m among the people that find it hard to disconnect the “entertainer James Brown” from the “wifebeater, drug abuser James Brown”. It’s a bitch that there’s two sides to that coin. It’s a big loss to the music world, I’ll grant you that.
Thank god it wasn’t just me who had that come to mind.
Honestly! I had nothing to do with this! I wish nothing but good health and a long life for Ms. Nichols! 
In the fall of 1966, I saw James Brown and the Famous Flames at the Atlanta Municipal Auditorium. It was the first time I had ever been to a show without my parents. My parents didn’t even know I had gone - I was supposed to be “working” on the school newpaper!
Here is a sample of what this 15 year-old white kid saw that night. No wonder they called him “The Hardest Working Man in Show Business.”
So sorry to see another of the greats go.
I almost felt bad about making the joke to my brother that they kept trying to wheel him out of the room, but he’d keep throwing the sheet off to go back for one last encore!
This was the first thing I thought of, although this is pretty enjoyable as well. (Two video links- first unauthorized, second on ad agency’s website).
I couldn’t help but think of them putting James’s cape on as he walks his way up to Heaven. So long, and hopefully God’s bandstand is double-bolted.
Meaning no disrespect whatever, I find it incredible that with his substance abuse problems, prison, fast paced life style, busy schedule (he had five dates planned between Christmas and New Years), etc., that James Brown made it to 73. He must have had good genes.
What a bummer. I just figured he was too mean to die. Or too funky.
We listened to Live from the Apollo Vol. II driving home from the vibrotronica ancestral homeland yesterday. The most amazing part–and there were many amazing parts–was the three-track sequence “There Was a Time”/“I Feel Allright”/“Cold Sweat”. Just amazingly intense music. I have listened to that album for years, but I never realized that the first two songs are just a slight variation on the third song, “Cold Sweat.” Structurally, the songs presage hip hop and loop music, which is just amazing to me since that performance took place 20 years before the technology to do loop based music was widely available. Sometimes, genius is in the subtle things.
The Godfather died on Christmas day. From now on, I will celebrate Funkmas!
I’m holding a copy of the December 25th edition of the Bergen County, New Jersey Record newspaper, featuring an advertisement for the Thursday December 28th show of–you guessed it–James Brown at the local Performing Arts Center.
However he had some messes up later in life, James Brown broke down every hip-shaking barrier in Western culture, via long-run group trance style music, and gave strength when so needed. I’m listening now to “Make It Funky–The Big Payback” All very precise and excellent; Brown knew how to hone a band to excellence. Without JB, don’t know if there’d be a George Clinton or, on and on.
And, looking at the photos, he kept his own self pretty damn honed, too. He really was on par with Elvis for changing the absolute HipShake of the world, and lasted longer, in better shape, throughout all.
Head on out, JB, make it funky…
If y’all only know the Hits, go ahead and get the box sets… JB sustained it all way beyond the best known songs.
I really should change that to: he’s since left Elvis in the Dust; not many people sampling Elvis, really.