The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (305 page)

James Brown in Central Park, 1979: ‘Take your shades off, Godfather, the fans are over this way’

Having played the ‘chitlin circuit’ (and with Byrd’s sister in The Gospel Starlighters), Brown hit upon the harder edge that was to underline his music thereafter by joining Byrd’s group The Avons - Brown himself prompting the name change to The Flames. The first major hit in this incarnation was ‘Please, Please, Please’ (1956), an R & B smash that sold over a million copies on Federal and confirmed Brown as a fine songwriter. (Another significant friend at this time was Little Richard, who encouraged the admiring Brown to fill in for him when he decided in 1957 to take a break while in mid-tour.) By 1958, his group was billed as James Brown & The Famous Flames, the front man having completed the transition he’d always vowed to make - and having instilled a strict discipline within his team for which he was to become notorious throughout his working life. In 1958, Brown enjoyed the first of seventeen R & B chart-toppers with ‘Try Me’ (also the name of his first label imprint in 1962). This was the genre’s biggest-selling hit of the year.

Though popular in the Southern states, it took until 1963 for James Brown to break through nationally, but break through he most certainly did, with a series of singles that still seem to jump up and burst out of the speaker to this day. That year, ‘Prisoner of Love’ gave him a pop Top Twenty showing, but in 1965 Brown issued the twin behemoths that were ‘Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag’ (perhaps inspired by his boyhood days) and ‘I Got You (I Feel Good)’, both of which were massive pop hits for the King label. Other Top Ten entries from what was undoubtedly The Godfather of Soul’s most fertile period included ‘It’s a Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World’, ‘Sweet Little Baby Boy’ (both 1966), ‘Cold Sweat’ (1967), ‘I Got the Feelin’’ and ‘Say It Loud (I’m Black and I’m Proud’ (both 1968 - the latter, one of several ‘conscience-busters’ recorded by this often outspoken singer). In 1971, Brown switched to Polydor, where the hits were fewer, but there were still some great moments like 1972’s ‘Get on the Good Foot’. His only major Billboard showing after this time was 1986’s anthemic ‘Living in America’, which presaged a remarkable resurgence of interest in Brown. (Hard to believe it, but this song remains the only Top Ten hit for Brown in the UK.)

Brown will undoubtedly be most fondly recalled for his live performances. His relentless stage antics - once considered outrageous by the God-fearing Southerners that made up much of his audience - were often mimicked but never equalled by those who followed. Typically, Brown would turn up and give a spellbound audience the show of its life, often performing for some hours, or until one of his trademark onstage ‘collapses’, after which the show’s MC was expected to drape him in a boxer-style cape and lead him exhausted from the auditorium.

Whether he worked himself to death is, of course, debatable, though Brown performed into his seventies and seemed to find reserves of energy of which most of us can only dream. This unassailable zest was to lead Brown astray once or twice in his life - there were various charges of firearms and drugs possession and an assault on a police officer that resulted in another three years’ incarceration in 1988. In 2007, Brown was to some degree posthumously vindicated when the latter charge was proved to have been at least in part trumped up. (The numerous charges of domestic violence levied against him by his third wife did Brown few favours; however, the singer escaped custodial sentencing in 2004.)

In the end, it was a visit to the dentist on 23 December 2006 following a European tour that revealed the extent of James Brown’s deteriorating health. With his implant surgery put on hold, the singer was hastily referred to the Emory Crawford Long Hospital on Christmas Eve - but it was too late. As Christmas Day dawned across the US, news began to filter through of the great man’s passing during the early hours of the morning. Though there was significantly less celebrating than is usual across the world that day, it remains certain that more than a few glasses were raised in honour of a man who refused to be seen as anything less than Soul Brother Number One.

See also
Jimmy Nolen (
December 1983). Sometime James Brown pianist (and hairstylist) Leon ‘The Burner Austin died in June 2008, while early singer/drummer Carlton ‘King Coleman passed on in 2010.

Lest We Forget

Other notable deaths that occurred sometime during 2006:

Jared Anderson
(US death metal singer/bassist with Hate Eternal and Internecine - briefly with the better-known Morbid Angel; born 28/12/1975; died in his sleep, 14/10)

Richard Barrett
(US lead singer with doo-wop act The Valentines - he went on to manage and produce Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers and The Three Degrees; born Philadelphia, 14/7/1933; pancreatic cancer, 3/8)

Andy Capps
(US rock drummer with Built To Spill - he played on the band’s 1994
There’s Nothing Wrong with Love
album; born James Capps, 1968; possible suicide, 18/5)

Ian Copeland
(respected US music agent/entrepreneur who oversaw numerous name acts - brother to Police drummer Stewart and IRS Records founder Miles; born Syria, 25/4/1949; melanoma, 23/5)

Alan ‘Fluff’ Freeman
(muchloved Australian-born UK DJ and presenter whose calls of ‘Greetings, music lovers!’ and ‘Not ‘alf!’ became catchphrases; born Melbourne, 6/7/1927; short illness, 27/11)

Peter Leopold
(German drummer with popular early-seventies progsters Amon Duul II; born 15/8/1945; unknown, 8/11)

Freddie Marsden
(UK drummer with Merseybeat sensations Gerry & The Pacemakers, who placed their first three hits at number one in 1963 - brother of Gerry; born Liverpool, 23/10/1940; cancer, 9/12)

Buck Owens
(US country singer/guitarist who had many chart-toppers, some with The Buckaroos; born Alvis Owens Jr, Texas, 12/8/1929; heart attack - he died a month before former wife, singer Bonnie, 25/3)

Christer Pettersson
(Swedish drummer with The Hep Stars - before Abba, the country’s biggest pop act; born 3/11/1942; liver disease, 27/8)

Jesse Pintado
(rated Mexican grindcore guitarist who played with the seminal Napalm Death and his own band Terrorizer; born 12/7/1969; liver failure/diabetic coma, 27/8)

Lou ‘Boulder’ Richards
(former US guitarist with Connecticut hardcore metal favourites Hatebreed - he played on two of their albums; born 12/10/1970; suicide, 13/9)

‘Pretty’ Terry Stanton
(US R & B singer with The Polyester Players and The Dazz Band; born California, 1957; shot by muggers three times in the face, horrifically, his body then doused and burned, 27/3)

Mariska Veres
(Dutch singer with early seventies pop act Shocking Blue, who topped the US charts with ‘Venus’ in 1970 - Nirvana covered their ‘Love Buzz’; born Den Haag, 1/10/1947; cancer, 2/12)

Cindy Walker
(respected US country songwriter whose compositions were recorded by Roy Orbison, Bob Wills, Gene Autry and Ray Charles - the best-known being Jim Reeves’s ‘Distant Drums’; born Mart, Texas, 20/7/1918; illness, 23/3)

2007

JANUARY

Golden Oldies #41

Sneaky Pete Kleinow

(South Bend, Indiana, 20 August 1934)

The Flying Burrito Brothers

(Various acts)

Peter Kleinow was by trade a stop-frame animator who’d worked on such kids’ TV favourites as
Gumby
and
Davey & Goliath,
but his talent as a musician made him more than a peripheral figure in the ‘Bakersfield Sound’ of the mid-sixties. He’d become acquainted with The Byrds - in particular Chris Hillman and Gram Parsons, the latter having tried to coax the previously guitar-oriented folk/rock act toward a distinctly more country leaning. Kleinow’s virtuosity on pedal steel helped authenticate the sound, and the pair encouraged Kleinow to join their Flying Burrito Brothers project in 1968, once it had become apparent that the remaining Byrds weren’t up for such a departure in style. This - plus his increased demand as a session man -enabled Kleinow to give up animation for the next dozen years. His unique stylings can be heard on the Burritos’ albums
Gilded Palace of Sin
(1969),
Burrito Deluxe
(1970) and
The Flying Burrito Brothers
(1971) - though by the last of these, Parsons had left for the turbulent solo career that was to precede his premature death (
September 1973).

After leaving The Burritos in 1971, Kleinow’s distinctive pedal steel was featured prominently in the work of Frank Zappa, Joan Baez, Leonard Cohen, The Bee Gees, Joni Mitchell, The Everly Brothers, Neil Sedaka, Gladys Knight, Jackson Browne, Fleetwood Mac … the musician himself must have struggled to keep up with his own credits. Nevertheless, Sneaky Pete managed to issue a couple of records of his own, the excellent
Cold Steel
(1974) and its eponymous follow-up (1979).