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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0James Brown lived by \u201cThe One\u201d. \u00a0He learned his rhythmic chops from drummers who learned them from the African traditions of their ancestors. \u00a0The emphasis on what Brown referred to as \u201chitting the one\u201d gave him his unique brand of music. \u00a0Whether it was called \u201csoul\u201d or \u201cfunk\u201d, it was a pulsing, drum propelled musical style based on hitting the first beat of the measure as opposed to emphasizing the two and four beats. \u00a0Brown always expected his band to take their cues off of him and if they knew where the one beat was, they could follow him anywhere he wanted to go. \u00a0Some scoff at this notion because Brown himself had a hard time describing the magic of \u00a0\u201cThe One\u201d, but in the end, it worked for him so he didn\u2019t really have to explain it. \u00a0He just had to feel it and get his band to feel it so they could follow him.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Brown had a series of jobs and musical groups to keep him occupied after being paroled from the Industrial Training Institute in Toccoa, GA. \u00a0He soon had a wife and three sons. \u00a0The first band he was in that gained a regional reputation was The Flames. \u00a0By 1954, they were working the so called Chitlin Circuit of black clubs throughout Georgialina. \u00a0Gigs for white college kids broadened their audience. \u00a0Their show was geared to whoever hired them to play. \u00a0We may not be able to envision the Godfather of Soul singing Roy Acuff and Hank Williams tunes, but it was exactly this kind of diversity that kept them in demand. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0At some point, James Brown became the man in charge. \u00a0It didn\u2019t happen overnight, but when it did, they became James Brown and the Famous Flames. \u00a0Brown was known as the \u2018Hardest working man in show business\u2019 but there was also a dictatorial side to his leadership. \u00a0He would punish his band members for not polishing their shoes or not playing a good show. \u00a0He would fine them for various offenses and the band knew it was coming from the small gestures he made on stage. \u00a0The audience would rarely notice there was anything going on, but when the show was over, he often subjected the band to brutal rehearsals right after a night on stage. \u00a0Surrounded by his friends, handlers, and fixers, JB got into and out of many dust ups either with his charm or wads of cash. \u00a0He was married many times over, but he abused both his wives and girlfriends with equal ferocity. \u00a0Publicly, he was the Godfather of Soul. \u00a0In private, he could be a monster. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0James Brown had several top notch bands walk out on him. \u00a0If they tried to put pressure on him to get their pay or better working conditions, he would just as soon fire them as negotiate. \u00a0One group planned a rebellion to protest their treatment and JB got wind of it. \u00a0He got on the horn and summoned a band of young musicians he had jammed with periodically at his record label\u2019s studio (King Records) in Cincinnati, Ohio. \u00a0The imported band included future George Clinton \/ Parliament \/ Funkadelic side men Catfish and Bootsy Collins. \u00a0When the new guys arrived, Brown fired his old band on the spot and proceeded to play the scheduled show cold with a whole new band. \u00a0This pattern of slash and burn band formation would be repeated over and over. \u00a0Sometimes a few of the old band would be retained to school the new guys. \u00a0Drummers and guitar players came and went, but he would hang on to the good ones if he could. \u00a0The band with the Collins brothers lasted longer than some because they dealt with Brown\u2019s controlling nature by hitting the door and going home to Cincinnati between gigs. \u00a0It worked for a while, but the revolving door into and out of JB\u2019s band was never still for long.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Clyde Stubblefield was typical of the drummers that Brown would find for his bands. \u00a0He played on many of the famous tracks Brown recorded in the 1960s and 1970s like <\/span>Cold Sweat <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>Say it loud, Say it proud<\/span><\/i>. \u00a0His solo on <\/span>Funky Drummer<\/span><\/i> is so widely known that it has been sampled on countless hip-hop tracks over the years. \u00a0As important as he was to the James Brown sound, he saw few royalties. \u00a0Stubblefield was widely admired in the music field. \u00a0In 2000, Prince found out that Stubblefield was deeply in debt from a fight with bladder cancer. \u00a0Prince considered Stubblefield to be one of his favorite drummers, so he personally wrote a check to pay off $90,000 of Clyde\u2019s medical bills. \u00a0In his later years, Stubblefield lived in his wife\u2019s home town of Madison, WI. \u00a0When he died in early 2017, his wife said he didn\u2019t expect to see royalties from his time with Brown, but he was okay with it. \u00a0He remained active in the Madison music scene even as Brown schooled his new drummers to play <\/span>Funky Drummer<\/span><\/i> the way Clyde had.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0James Brown was not overtly political. \u00a0That he was chummy with Senator Strom Thurmond surprises many people who don\u2019t know they shared Georgialina roots. \u00a0JB wasn\u2019t afraid to ask various presidents or presidential hopefuls for assistance in keeping the IRS at bay. \u00a0He parlayed his support for candidate Hubert Humphrey by asking HHH to support social and economic empowerment for Brown\u2019s people. \u00a0Brown was unabashed about his love for America and went to great lengths to get permission to travel to Vietnam to perform for the troops. \u00a0When his critics pointed out that he was condoning a \u2018white man\u2019s war\u2019, Brown countered by reminding them that there were \u2018a lot of brothers over there in need of support.\u2019 \u00a0He was upset that they had to take a stripped down band on the whirlwind tour, but he made sure they wouldn\u2019t forget that they had seen The James Brown.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Through good times and bad, James Brown was nobody\u2019s pawn: \u00a0JB did what he wanted to do when he wanted to do it. \u00a0When Hollywood called, he was able to turn his appearance in <\/span>The Blues Brothers<\/span><\/i> movie into a shot in the arm for his flagging career. \u00a0Had he taken the judge\u2019s advice at one of his earlier tax trials, he would have hired a good business manager and been much better off for it. \u00a0Of course, he didn\u2019t, because he would rather put his trust in himself. \u00a0Being a bit of a thief himself, he would rather have had an accountant who cooked his books a bit because he could understand that better than an honest bookkeeper. \u00a0Well into his career, his method of banking involved cardboard boxes and buried loot all over his yard.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Brown liked his drink, often mixing moonshine with grape juice, but he avoided hard drugs for much of his career. \u00a0Perhaps it was age creeping into his bones that lead him to try PCP (also known as Angel Dust – a drug that was intended for use on horses but it made them kind of crazy), but whatever the root cause, it added a new wrinkle to his sometime erratic behavior: \u00a0paranoia. \u00a0He hid or denied his drug use for a long time, but his band was pretty aware of the problem. \u00a0His handlers had their hands full when his temper would explode over real or imagined incidences, sometimes as insignificant as JB thinking someone had used the bathroom in his office. \u00a0The drugs may have given Brown the illusion that he could still perform like a younger James Brown, but how great a toll it took on his health and his bank book one can only imagine.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Just when it seemed Brown was going to slide into obscurity, something would always pull him back up. \u00a0Sylvester Stallone\u2019s <\/span>Rocky IV<\/span><\/i> needed a theme song to rival the earlier movie\u2019s <\/span>Eye of the Tiger<\/span><\/i> theme. \u00a0Song writer Dan Hartman (who had teamed up with Edgar Winter for some memorable tracks and had some top forty hits of his own) came up with <\/span>Living in America<\/span><\/i>. \u00a0Brown told Hartman, \u201cYou write the song but I will do it like James Brown.\u201d \u00a0It wasn\u2019t \u00a0like anything Brown had recorded before, but he made it his own and then kept playing it in his shows because it brought people back see him. \u00a0\u00a0James Brown\u2019s career, fortunes, and life style performed this yo-yo like ride for decades and those around him held on – you either went with him or got left behind!<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0James Brown was the man. \u00a0He had the tools, talent, and the charisma to walk into any hall and be the main attraction. \u00a0From the Chitlin Circuit to the Apollo to Madison Square Garden, he could give an audience what they wanted to see. \u00a0His insecurities, either from his humble beginnings or the drug use or some combination of the two, kept him looking in his rearview mirror to see who was coming after him. \u00a0He didn\u2019t need to. \u00a0There was no one there. \u00a0Only the disciples of funk and soul who wanted to learn from the Godfather and try to bring that element to their music. \u00a0He drove himself hard and in the end, he couldn\u2019t continue being James Brown. \u00a0\u00a0He had set the bar too high for too long to keep up with his own legacy. \u00a0Still, the music remains and in the end, we will still have \u2018The One\u2019 and that is the part of the Godfather of Soul that will endure when the troubled parts of JB\u2019s life fade from memory.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Top Piece Video – the glitzy JB\u00a0Living in America<\/em>