James Brown 1933 – 2006

Posted on December 25, 2006
Filed Under Music | 3 Comments

When I first heard James Brown on the radio when I was in junior high school, he did not, let us say, speak to my sensibilities. The fault was entirely mine, or at least the fault of my experience growing up white in working class Southern California suburbia. I was listening to the Beatles & the Beach Boys. More the former than the latter. And when my friend Orin tried to get me to understand Brown & Otis Redding, I couldn’t hear what he was doing. Too many Protestant hymns at the Grace Brethren Church had dulled my soul. Our version of Gospel music was . . . Never mind, it was just awful & as racist as Al Jolson singing jazz. It was only later, as an adult, after I had come to black music through the blues, that I had ears to hear James Brown. [NPR's story on James Brown; Washington post story by Richard Harrington; more good links via Boing Boing.]

Comments

3 Responses to “James Brown 1933 – 2006”

  1. Genevieve on December 29th, 2006 1:35 am

    Please don’t be too hard on the music you sang at your childhood church. Obviously, it sounded different than the Gospel music you heard later. Still, the music in that church was the music of a unique time and place, no doubt earnestly sung by many, and it is interesting and deserving of some respect for that reason.

  2. Joseph Duemer on December 29th, 2006 8:39 am

    Genevieve, I’m afraid that the suburban Grace Brethren congregation I was a member of as a boy had managed to take the great tradition of the Protestant hymn — the tradition that inspired Emily Dickinson — and completely drain it of passion, interest & intelligence. It was like singing with robots. Some earnestness would have helped, but I don’t remember any. So, sorry, but those are the facts, at least as they are registered in my memory.

  3. David on January 3rd, 2007 6:50 am

    Hey Joe-

    I grew up Catholic and they had a way of draining the spirituality out of music, too. Maybe it had something to do with old-arthritic fingers playing a church organ!

    Down the street from my childhood home in Ossining, NY was a black Baptist Church. On Sundays, after Mass I was always sent to the Italian bakery to pick up a loaf of fresh, HOT! semolina bread.

    By my tenth birthday I spent many Sunday mornings in front of this church listening to great Gospel music. And when I heard James Brown for the first time in 1966 it didn’t take too long to figure out where he learned his craft.

    Don’t be too hard on the beach boys though. You can trace their linneage back through the Everly Brothers, the Louvain Brothers and the Carter Family. All three families were raised on the Emily Dickinson-inspired Gospel music you alluded to.

    Happy New Year…lets break some bread together, soon.