James Brown: Mr Dynamite

LIVE CONCERT MUSIC STARTS

James Brown!

Yes! Yes!

James Brown, there you go!

The hottest rockin' man in the world!

Jam! Jam!

Jam! Jam!

Yes! Jam!

Jam! Jam!

James Brown, what have you got?!

-# Soul power!

-Soul power!

-# Soul power!

-Soul power!

-# Soul power!

-Soul power!

-# Soul power!

-Soul power!

# Soul power!

-# Soul power!

-Soul power!

-Soul power!

-# Soul power!

-Soul power!

-# Soul power!

-Soul power!

# Yeah!

# Yeah! Yeah!

# A-a-a-ah!

# Aow!

# Better get with

# The project

# Going on you... #

A lot of people have tried to define exactly what soul music is.

How would you define it?

It's the word "can't" that makes you a soul singer.

"Can't".

I reckon one thing is that maybe the black man is more heavier

for soul coming from the States is cos of the fact that he's had

extra-hard knocks...

and he's lived with the word "can't" for so long.

So, every time he can sing about it, it kind of erm...

comes out a little bit stronger.

# Georgia... #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

# Oh, Georgia

# No, no, no, no, no

# Peace I find

# All right

# Just an old sweet song

# Keeps Georgia

# On my mind-d-d-d... #

I want to tell you a little story.

This is the thing that they don't write in the newspaper

or you hear on the record, cos I'm sure it wouldn't sell.

# I said Georgia, hey

# Maybe it's because I'm from Augusta, Georgia... #

My father, being a very, very poor man, under-educated -

he only got a chance to finish Grade Two.

# A song

# A song of you

# Comes so sweet and clear-r-r-r-r

# Like the moonlight... #

There was just was no way for me to dream of becoming

anything but trying to be a labourer or just trying to work.

Cos that's all I saw... That's all I could see around me.

My father was a labourer.

I dreamed, then, of eating.

# Other arms

# Would reach out to me... #

When I was a kid, we'd go out on the hustle.

The men. For the women, it was pregnancy and prostitution.

# And other eyes

# Would smile... #

And I had to buck dance, for the soldiers.

They would throw quarters and nickels, to see me dance.

# Still

# In peaceful dreams... #

'And I used to sing a lot. I'd make up songs.'

# Dreams

# The road

# Leads back to you... #

The story of it touched me so deeply.

You were a shoeshine boy?

-In Augusta, Georgia.

-In Augusta, Georgia.

And you carry the shoeshine box around with you and, in one thing

I was reading not too long ago, you held it up

as an example to kids. Would you tell that story?

I said, "With all of the success..." and everything you said,

"it still don't get me away from the fact that I come from the ghetto

"and I got my shoeshine box on my mind."

And it knocked people out. They were very glad that I still remembered.

-# Bobby!

-Yeah!

-# Get up to the bridge!

-Take it to the bridge!

# Shake your moneymaker

# Shake your moneymaker

# Shake your body! #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

It was Bobby Byrd's family that took

young James Brown in when he got paroled

and really kind of helped him find his feet.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

And then they went on to create music together,

with the Famous Flames, and Bobby Byrd

had to be humble enough to understand,

"This used to be my group, but now I got this young guy

"coming in here just kind of taking over.

"Well, he's got that thing,

"so I'm going to let him have it."

He got out of prison and, at my home,

I asked him to join the group. Had a lot of dissention in the group,

because they didn't know what type of person he was

and they noted he was kind of rowdy, but when he started

doing some songs that he knew -

gospel songs, of course, during that time -

something about it was different.

The rowdy type of an idea - the up-tempo, gutsy stuff, you know?

And the reason we knew it was good was, when we started rehearsing,

the porch would be full of people, anybody peering through the windows

and that kind of thing. They didn't do that for no other groups.

So I knew we had something.

GOSPEL SINGING

# Yeah, I went to the church last night

# I know! Oh! #

At that time, we were more or less a church of slang, you know?

They found that most of the relevant blues singers

had come out of the church by the name of soul singers.

When James Brown and Bobby Byrd decided to put together

the first version of the Famous Flames,

they took great care to not let

the people in the church know that they were doing this secular music

on Saturday night and coming in and singing in church on Sunday night,

cos that was taboo.

JAUNTY SWING MUSIC

A lot of people I liked from the past - Louis Jordan.

# Stand on you!

# Stand on you!

# I want to be hit so hard! My mother says... #

Mr Brown says Louis Jordan was my biggest hero, because he could sing,

he could dance, he could act, he could play.

And he had good hair and good teeth.

It's the longevity of Louis Jordan's career

that had an impact. The way he handled his own business.

The fact that he was doing a music that was a hybrid of blues,

swing music, be-bop.

That music was the R&B, the rock and roll,

the hip-hop, of its time.

And James actually considered himself a jazz man, at heart.

It's a pleasure to present to you the one and only

Duke Ellington.

APPLAUSE

SWING MUSIC STARTS

James Brown, he liked

big bands. He liked the big horn section

and he liked instrumentals.

He liked arranging.

He liked to be a band leader.

He carried some of that past of the swing era, in a funny way.

INDISTINCT SINGING

It's always been soul with me, ever since I've been singing, you know?

It was my opportunity. It was my knock on the door.

Soul is...survivor.

And a lot of days I sang and we got 25 cents.

But I knew it was something I had to do.

Every time I got the opportunity, I did everything I could,

but the hardest part was being black and being allowed to perform.

Not even black that time - coloured.

That's what you call the segregated years.

I came up through those years

and I never will forget some things that happened with us.

It's behind me, but I won't forget them.

You've got to keep the white and the black separate.

James Brown, he was the father I never had, in many ways.

He said, "You didn't know about sitting in the back of the bus,

"I used to have to perform in clubs

"that I'd have to get dressed in the bus

"cos I wasn't allowed to use the dressing room."

They didn't like black folks. Yeah, they didn't like black folks.

You played what you called the "chitlin' circuit".

All of the gigs that you played were for black audiences.

A lot of down-home Southern places that were kind of rough, you know?

I remember being in Mr Brown's dressing room,

and something happened with the promoter, didn't want to pay,

and everybody started pulling out their guns and everything.

And, you know, I was frightened to death.

That was definitely the chitlin' circuit at that time.

James Brown said, "You have to remember, Reverend,

"when I was coming up, you had to be tall, light-skinned,

"long wavy hair like Jackie or Smokey Robinson.

"I was short, had African features,

"and I didn't have any of what was considered beautiful at that time.

"I was determined I was going to out-dance and out-sing

"everybody out there, and I was going to work every night."

James actually said Little Richard

and Hank Ballard And The Midnighters were probably the two greatest

influences on him and really that whole generation.

Moving out of gospel and moving into what was called rock and roll, or R&B.

# Come on over, baby Whole lotta shakin' goin' on

# Come on over, baby You can't go wrong... #

I was in Georgia, and Little Richard came down from Macon and saw me,

and told his management about me, and went back to Macon.

I got to give Little Richard that credit, you know?

Little Richard got a big contract to record in Los Angeles,

and he left behind about 30 dates that the management was

committed to, so they had the bright idea to have James Brown go out

and impersonate Little Richard.

And so they let him do a little bit of Little Richard

and then he'd do a little bit of James Brown.

That's where James Brown really learned to scream,

being Little Richard for about two weeks.

# Come on over, baby Whole lotta shakin' goin' on

# Whoo! #

It was before television, so nobody knew what Richard really looked like.

He said, "My goal was, I was going to be bigger than Richard."

# Please, please, please, please

# Please, please, please, please

# Honey, please

# Yeah, yeah, I love you so

# Yeah Baby... #

The word is that when Syd Nathan, who ran King Records,

heard them rehearsing a song, he fired the A&R guy.

He could not hear it being a hit. He said, "All the guy does is say

"'Please, please, please,' like, 17 times."

Mr Brown snuck it out, got it to the radio stations,

it became a hit, and Syd Nathan just had to swallow his disdain.

# Please, please, please, please

# Please, please, please, please Please, please

# Honey, please... #

I guess my all-time favourite tune would be Please, Please, Please now,

-because that's the tune...

-That's the one that did it.

-Yeah. It gave me that extra meal.

-Do you think he wanted success so badly at the time

that you were REALLY singing "please, please, please"?

I wanted to eat - period, man! That's why I made it.

# Please, please, please, please Please, please, please, please

# Please, please

# Hey Yeah, yeah,

# I love you so Yeah

# Please... #

He's begging. "I got to have you, I need in my life.

"You've got to come. My heart is shattered."

And the woman would go, "Somebody really hurt that man.

"Oh, they hurt him so badly. I feel so sorry for him."

It worked all over the world.

# I love you so. #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

The first time I saw James Brown perform live

was in the fall of 1963,

and I had never experienced anything like it.

The energy that was in the room,

it was like going into another dimension.

In the '50s and '60s, black music and pop mainstream music,

the segregation was even more rigid than it is today.

The black music industry was entirely dependent on black radio.

And the whole goal became, how do we cross these records over?

Because a hit on pop radio represented as much as

1 million, 1.5 million more sales.

-# Try me

-Try me

-# Try me

-Try me

# Darling, tell me

# I need you... #

After I got Please, Please, Please, it took me three years

to get another hit, but I wouldn't give up.

My next hit was a tune entitled Try Me.

# And your love

# Will always be true Oh... #

Somebody like Elvis, one record would sell 10 or 15 million.

And, see, I always had to come through the race era,

when my records were classed as R&B and race music.

-# Hold me

-Hold me

# Hold me...#

I was just trying to figure out the market, like a stock man, I guess.

Trying to see what the people would go for.

I always worked hard on the stage,

but you still need that record, as a performer, you know?

Everyone needs a hit record.

-FATS GONDER:

-So now, ladies and gentlemen, it is star time.

-Are you ready for star time?

-CHEERING

Thank you, and thank you very kindly.

It is indeed a great pleasure to present to you

at this particular time, national and international known

as the hardest working man in show business,

here to sing I'll Go Crazy...

Try Me...

Mr Dynamite, the amazing Mr Please, Please himself,

the star of the show - James Brown and the Famous Flames.

BAND PLAYS

You'd go to the Apollo Theatre

and they'd be standing around the Apollo Theatre for the next show

and it would be around

from one end of the Apollo around to the other end.

And that's around the block.

And they'd be standing there for the next one.

That next show let out, they'd lead them people in,

and then another line was there, waiting to get in.

Unbelievable. And those blocks are not short.

They made MONEY.

James Brown is just so linked with the Apollo in terms of

the standard that was set, you know, in the '60s onward.

It was the peak of the chitlin' circuit,

so the bands would be touring around, and they would arrive

in New York City to show off what they had been honing on the road.

You'd play about six shows a day. Each show is about two hours.

And that's a lot.

I remember going there, and I sat in the balcony.

And there was a sort of older lady sitting next to me

smoking a big joint.

And I didn't know that older ladies... You know, I was a kid.

The James Brown show. It was like a revue show.

The band would play instrumentals, a female singer would come on,

Bobby Byrd would come on and sing.

Then he would come on eventually and do his show.

I mean, apart from the fact that it was very entertaining,

I was obviously learning from it, you know?

Trying to steal everything I could possibly do.

Seeing him dancing and doing the audience rapport.

# I... AUDIENCE SCREAMS

# I lost someone... AUDIENCE SCREAMS

# A million to one... #

Especially very young girls would go to the front and be screaming

and carrying on in all those places where he's...

he's teasing them to do, you know? He's in total control of them.

# I want to hear you scream

# I want to hear you say, "Ow!" AUDIENCE SCREAMS

# I want to hear you say, "Ow!" AUDIENCE SCREAMS

# Don't just say, "Ah", say, "Ow!" AUDIENCE SCREAMS

# And I believe my work will be done. #

Danny Ray was the so-called cape man.

He was the guy during Please, Please, Please

who would drape that cape over Brown.

James told me that

he was watching Gorgeous George, the wrestler, one day.

After the match, they'd throw a cape on him, he said he liked that.

Between that period of Please, Please, Please and Try Me,

there were a gazillion singles released,

and none of them were really catching on.

He felt like, "Man, if people knew what I was offering on stage,

"they would come in droves."

# I found someone to love me... #

Syd Nathan, who ran King Records, didn't want to back it.

Mr Brown says, "No, this has got to happen.

"I know better than this guy, you know, about my audience, about my business."

Mr Brown paid for the recording himself.

# I found someone to love me

# I know it's true... #

That was a huge album,

and it was the worst album.

Strings and stuff all over, cymbals falling,

and they put that out just like that.

MUSIC: I'll Go Crazy

# If you leave me, I'll go crazy

# If you leave me... #

Every black household had Live At The Apollo, Volume One.

Mine included. Like, that album was so powerful,

DJs would love to play the entire side.

# If you quit me, I'll go crazy

# If you forget me I'll go crazy... #

His first million-seller was Live At The Apollo, Volume One.

It really just kind of blows up on the national marketplace.

# You've gotta live for yourself... #

For an R&B record to be released in England, it had to be quite big.

Everyone had that record and they played it to death.

# If you leave me, I'll go crazy... #

He did want the benefits of crossing over.

He resented being pigeonholed as a race artist,

but he embraced what that meant emotionally and culturally,

so it was a very, very thin line he was walking.

# You gotta live for yourself Yourself and nobody else

# You gotta live for yourself Yourself and nobody else... #

Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights

of meeting physical force with soul force.

We're nonviolent with people who are nonviolent with us.

My fellow Americans, I am about to sign into law

the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

This Civil Rights Act is a challenge to all of us

to eliminate the last vestiges of injustice in our beloved country.

The James Brown tour was able to do

hundreds of shows all over black America,

grossing about 1 million a year.

We're talking about '63, '64. He became a millionaire quietly,

so a lot of what the civil rights movement was trying to do in terms of

the hope of economic justice, he's already been to the top of that mountaintop.

He's a civil rights movement of one.

I'd been in the black community ever since '56,

but it really started happening for me in 1964.

I had the pleasure of doing The TAMI Show

with The Rolling Stones, Gerry And The Pacemakers, The Supremes.

All the major acts, you know?

And made white America, for me it was James Brown, and what he was doing.

The TAMI Show was a major breakthrough.

It pitted Brown, who had largely

been confined to the chitlin' circuit,

against all these artists who were tearing the country up at that time.

CHEERING AND SCREAMING

# How do you do what you do to me?

# If I only knew

# Then perhaps you'd fall for me Like I fell for you. #

-MICK JAGGER:

-The TAMI Show is not really a show, it was shot like a movie.

You break for an hour, and then the other act comes on,

then they break for an hour,

then they relight and change the audience, the other act comes on.

SCREAMING

# Round, round, get around I get around

# Get around Round, round, I get around... #

The story goes that James Brown is annoyed that he's not closing the show,

and so I was asked by the producers of the show to go

and talk to him, because I knew him.

I said, "Sure." You know, I was, what, 20 years old.

I was supposed to talk him down and say,

"Don't worry, it's a movie, you don't know what's going to happen in the movie,

"they might cut it whichever way." Which was all true.

But, I mean, that wasn't really the point as far as James Brown was concerned.

He wasn't really that mad, but he was a bit pissed off, I think.

CHEERING AND SCREAMING

He apparently said something like, "I'm going to kill", you know?

Well, fine.

That... That's good.

He did.

SCREAMING AND CHEERING

MUSIC: Out Of Sight

# Got your high-heeled sneakers on

# And your slip-in mules

# You got your high-heeled sneakers on

# And your slip-in mules

# All right

# You know you're out of sight. #

Baby...

Baby...

# Don't leave me... #

It was definitely an apotheosis.

You were distraught to where you're just collapsed and begging.

But somehow the strength sweeps you up

and then you rise like a phoenix again.

And people you could watch in the audience would go through this,

probably reliving their own lives.

SCREAMING DROWNS OUT SINGING

# I, I

# I, I

# I, I

# I, baby... #

HE SCREAMS

# No

# No

# No-o-o

# Baby... #

You know, the idea is that he's got to be taken away

against his own will because it's not good for him to do any more.

It's obviously an act, but you worry about him.

Then people would... "Hell, don't take him.

"He must be looked after," you know,

"I want to be the one to look after him," you know?

# Are you ready for the Night Train? #

When we get to Night Train, Sam the bass player whispered in my ear,

saying, "Melvin, let's see

"if those guys are going to be able to keep up with this."

Night...

Night...

He said, "Night, night... Train!"

BAND PLAYS VERY QUICKLY

And it was off to the races. Boom, bah! Boom, bah!

And you know, there's that famous story of Mick Jagger

standing off the side of the stage watching Brown

and just being devastated and traumatised.

No, that's bullshit, because the whole place was cleared

and, like, they relit the whole thing.

# Well, baby used to stay out

# All night long

# She made me cry

# She done me wrong

# She hurt my... #

Now you're onto another audience and screaming teenage girls.

I don't think they'd even seen James Brown, and it was hours later.

# Because I used to love her

# But it's all over now. #

So what I said to him was actually true, but if you

watched the film, you'd see us up against him, so to speak.

Did he go, "Well, yeah, they're not quite as good as James Brown"?

Probably, but...

but you know, whatever.

We were performing at the Howard Theatre and we were on stage

and it was such a big ruckus in the audience, you know,

and I said, "No, we must be getting down,

"the people are getting crazy out there in the audience, making all

that noise, jumping up and down." Of course, James Brown in the audience.

So it was so exciting to meet James Brown. 1965, he was at his peak.

He asked us, would we like to travel with him? It was like, oh, my God.

And he gave me the name High.

My name is Martha Harvin.

But he said to me one day, "Martha Harvin...

"That's not a name for the stage.

"I've got to come up with a name for you.

"Let me see, what should I call you?

"I know!

"I will call you Martha High."

I said, "Martha High?" "How you like that?"

And I said, "Oh, OK."

"Martha High, that's what it's going to be."

He wanted everything, he wanted your all, and he gave his all.

# Come here, sister

# Papa's in the swing

# Ain't too hip

# But that new breed babe

# Ain't no drag

# Papa's got a brand new bag... #

Up until Papa's Got A Brand New Bag in 1965,

all of the James Brown stuff seemed pretty traditional, like,

kind of coming out of this blues, gospel kind of feel.

That, coupled with his love for jazz and embracing the unknown,

it came together as the early ingredients of what we call funk.

# Doing the Jerk

# Fly

# Don't be ashamed

# You know he ain't shy

# The Monkey

# Mashed Potatoes

# Jump Back Jack

# See You Later Alligator

# Come, oh

# Papa's in the swing

# Ain't too hip

# About that new breed, babe... #

Papa's Got A Brand New Bag had the guitar sound.

James heard it - "Jimmy, give me this." Jing-a-ling-a-ling-yah! Bang.

I mean, the funk was just there.

# Come on

# Come on

# Said you're uptight

# You're out of sight

# Oh, na, na

# All right now... #

Now, what you had was called a vamp.

Vamps were only used mostly in live performances.

The vocalist wanted to kind of talk to the audience and jive around.

# I said I'm gone

# I'm gone

# I'm going

# I'm going

# Nowhere. #

Now, of course, in his live shows, he vamped all the time

but nobody would ever think to go in the studio and record the vamp.

You don't take a two-bar phrase and repeat it ad nauseam

and call that a song, but that's exactly what James Brown

wound up doing through that period.

# See what you know

# Come on

# See what you know

# That's for you to play on

# Some... #

I think, without question, Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis is

one of the most important copilots of the James Brown sound.

Pee Wee's seriousness and his sense of jazz

and understanding what Mr Brown was going for, I think

the two of them really were quite a formidable team.

I got drafted.

James mentioned to me that he was thinking about

getting Bobby Bland's drummer, Jabo, to join the group.

I said, "Yes, that's what you do!"

James Brown had been listening to Bobby,

and he sent one of his people

to ask me if I wanted to join his band.

He said, "Whatever they are paying you over there with Bobby,

"I will double that."

But then you have to understand when I joined that band

what was going on when I first got there, too.

Five drummers on stage.

Maybe two weeks after that, he hired Clyde.

HE CHUCKLES

He took me out on stage and there was five drum sets.

Five drummers on his show. I went, "Oh, my God!"

You know, "All these drummers, what do you want me for?"

He says, "Pick out a set of drums.

"We're going to do a little jam, see what you do."

And I was scared, number one. I was totally scared.

I'm going, "God, what am I doing?"

And I left out of there and went to the dressing room,

where the band was dressing, and there was Jabo sitting in there.

I said, "Who you used to play with before you came here?"

He says, "Bobby Bland." I said...

"You play with Bobby Bland?!"

That was one of my favourites!

And that's when Jabo said, "Man, we're not playing enough,

"we got to get rid of some of these drummers."

I go, "Yeah, man, we got to get rid of them!"

So we start knocking them off till it got down to Jabo and I.

Jabo's style is more of a blues shuffle...

HE TAPS A REGULAR BEAT

My style is...

HE TAPS AN IRREGULAR FUNK BEAT

He plays jazz and blues more, and I played funk and soul.

We took it over. We had it.

# I feel good... #

Attention, everyone. James Brown is coming to your area.

This show everyone has been waiting to see,

the dynamic king of rock and roll,

star of stage, screen and television,

James Brown and his big variety show for '66,

featuring Bobby Byrd,

the Famous Flames, James Crawford,

TV Mama Elsie Mae, The Jewels...

In the early '60s, he worked almost constantly.

362 days, probably.

HE LAUGHS

Thank you, and greetings, salutations, ladies and gentlemen.

I'm your MC, Danny Ray.

I would like to name a few tunes of the past and the present,

such tunes as Try Me, Signed Sealed And Delivered...

Out Of Sight, Papa's Got A Brand New Bag,

I Feel Good!

Introducing the King of Soul, recently been crowned

as one of the hardest working entertainers in the world,

the living legend, the fantastic Mr Dynamite, James Brown!

BAND PLAYS

Once he walked on stage, the band, we pay attention to James Brown.

Nobody else but him.

HE SCREAMS

You never took your eye off of him.

Because, see, he had things that he was doing.

# Kansas City... #

I had to keep the time going to the music,

but really, at any time,

to accent his move.

# 12 Street and Vine... #

Hits, that's what we call hits.

# Standing on the corner... #

He'll make the hits, we love to do that, you know,

we would hit with him

and he would try to trick us, you know, and we would get him.

# I'm gone! That's what I tell you... #

If he would see that you're not watching him,

he would change the song just like that to throw you off

and then he'll fine you.

He would do like this, you know, that would be like 5, 10,

15, 20, and he'd look at a guy and fine him 15, 20, like that.

# You've got to change your mind... #

Oh, God, yeah! That's 30 coming out of your pay,

but what you don't know...

There's one more thing I want to say right here... Tighten up, Clyde.

I guess you could say James Brown was a tyrant, maybe because

he fought so hard to learn what he was doing

and learn every aspect of his business,

he set the bar very, very high.

INAUDIBLE OVER MUSIC

There was nobody in the business, period,

that dressed no better than James Brown's band.

Oh, man!

We would play seven days a week,

change your uniform twice a gig,

show up every gig pressed, clean,

I don't know how we did it, I can't even remember how we did it.

He would look me up and down and say, "Miss High...

"That dress is getting tight."

He was very particular about what you wore or how you look.

We had fines if you didn't have creases in your clothes,

fines if your shoes weren't together.

It nearly got to where you had to ride on the bus in a suit and tie.

Because he always said, "You can't never tell what might happen," or,

"Somebody might be there, you know, and you'll be already dressed."

He preached stage decorum, punctuality,

Mr this, Mr that. Pride. It was all positive.

As the years went on, and I said,

"So, the Mr thing, where did that come from?

He said, "Alan," he says, "you got to understand something.

"Where I grew up, when I grew up, I was always Jimmy.

"My name ain't never been Jimmy.

"If they wouldn't call me James,

"you knew they really weren't going to call me Mr.

"But I reached a point where if you were wanting to do business with me,

"you had to call me Mr

"and the only way to do that is set the example."

I realised how that really had contributed

to his relationships with white people,

again, particularly in the South, who controlled a lot of the venues.

Business is a part that you've got to adapt yourself to,

so you can be prepared for whatever might come up.

I work with the artists and I'm...

..for ever and ever talking

and trying to get the fellas to get their business together.

HE LAUGHS

James was in charge of whatever happened with his organisation.

The manager that he had, Ben Bart,

it still was James

made the decisions as to what happened

because everything had to come through him.

He saw people like Berry Gordy and what they were accomplishing

and he wanted to be part that.

He didn't want to just be that guy who sings and dances,

but then there was The Ed Sullivan Show.

I was talking to young Jim Brown, he was born in Augusta, Georgia,

where he worked on a farm, picked cotton, worked in a coal yard

and always sang his songs.

So we are delighted to present James Brown on our stage on this show,

so let's have a fine welcome for a very fine talent.

APPLAUSE

MUSIC: Papa's Got A Brand New Bag

# Come down here

# Papa's in the swing

# He ain't too hip, now... #

I remember when James Brown was booked to play

Ed Sullivan for the first time.

Black radio was promoting it like a major event.

# Papa's got a brand new bag... #

# Oh! I feel good

# I knew that I would, now

# I feel good... #

Now, understand that when black artists would come on Ed Sullivan,

they would usually come on and perform with Ed Sullivan's house band, who were excellent musicians

but you got no soul out of them at all.

# When I hold you in my arms

# I know that I can do no wrong... #

James Brown made it clear he was coming on one way and one way only,

and that was with his full band,

so you were going to see the James Brown show.

# Like sugar and spice

# So nice, so nice

# I got you

# Yeah!

# Oh! I feel good

# Ow!

# Ow! #

MUSIC: Ain't That A Groove

# Looky here... #

Sullivan was the kind of show where

the whole family sat in front of the TV on Sunday and watched together,

so my mum and dad, it's like,

"Oh, that's James Brown you always talk about."

# And you know that you're the only fella

# Ain't that a groove... #

It was like watching something from outer space for them.

And I imagine white America probably their jaws dropped.

# Please!

# Please!

# Please, please don't go... #

So The Ed Sullivan Show was the peak of American musical entertainment at that time.

# No!

# Don't leave me, baby!

-# Don't go!

-Yeah! #

The black community was very proud that he would be on the same show

that presented Elvis and the Beatles,

and that catapulted him to a whole new level.

APPLAUSE

# Please, please don't go

# No, don't go... #

'My act was so revolutionary, they couldn't believe it.

'I got so much applause in the dress rehearsal,

'they didn't know whether to keep the dress rehearsal or film it again.'

APPLAUSE

'I was "phew" myself. I knew what I had.'

-Great start.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank YOU very, very much.

'Singing was the first step to do the real things that I want to do.'

Thank you.

Programmes normally seen at this time will not be broadcast

in order to bring you this CBS News Special Report...

I plan to begin my voter registration march into Mississippi

on Sunday June 5th, 1966,

from the downtown Memphis Peabody Hotel.

-NEWSREADER:

-They call it the place where the delta begins,

the Mississippi Delta - rich soil and big plantation

and a population that is predominantly Negro.

"If I can walk through Mississippi without harm,"

Meredith told reporters, "other Negroes will see that they can too."

Not everyone was glad to see him.

Two miles further on, Meredith was felled by three shotgun blasts.

MUSIC: It's a Man's Man's Man's World

# This is a man's world... #

From the moment that the civil rights leaders rushed in to continue

James Meredith's march, there has been a struggle to see whose

philosophy would guide the steps, the moderates or the militants.

-What do you want?

-Freedom!

-When do you want it?

-Now!

-How much of it do you want?

-All of it!

We want black power! We want black power!

-What do you want?

-Black power!

# Man made the cars to take us over the road... #

As we went down the highway,

we recognised that we had to overcome our fears

and we also knew that we had to challenge the old tactics

and strategies of the civil rights movement.

It was just too slow for the younger generation.

We wanted our freedom and we wanted it then.

-Black power!

-What do you want?

-Black power!

-What do we want!

-Black power!

# This is a man's

# Man's, man's world... #

We had some situations where they used tear gas

and beat the hell out of a lot of people, but we began to recognise

that we were going to actually make it to the state capital,

and we said that we needed a major event,

and who was the better person to carry the message

we were trying to carry in but a soul singer like James Brown?

# And after man's made everything

# Everything he can

# You know that man makes money

# To buy from other man... #

Like a lot of black entertainers,

as the civil rights movement really begins to pick up steam,

they had to kind of pick a side.

He said, "You got to understand, brother,"

"I didn't believe in nonviolence. You grew up admiring Dr King.

"I respected him, but I carry two or three guns all the time,

"but I wanted to reflect the fervour of what was going on."

# He's lost

# In the wilderness... #

When we flew into Jackson,

they met us out there

and they had the dogs and the guns.

They surrounded his plane while we went in to do the concert.

I don't know if I had enough time to be afraid. It was touchy.

-NEWSREADER:

-At Tougaloo College,

just eight miles outside of Jackson, Mississippi,

Hollywood and Broadway's salute to the Meredith marchers.

The programme has just started, and on the stage right now, James Brown.

Let's join them there.

# Stand by me... #

Dr King and all the other civil rights leaders were working out

the programme for the next day, and Dr King said, "Look here, y'all,

"y'all can sit around here and have this argument if you want to.

"I'm going to see James Brown."

# I feel good

# I knew that I would, now

# I feel good... #

It was just euphoria all over the place,

that James Brown is here with us,

you know, and he said, "Here you are, you marched all the way through

"and you have fought back and gave a courageous fight."

He just galvanised the crowd.

CHEERING

We have Dr Martin Luther King right before the platform.

Dr King, what do you think of this rally tonight?

Oh, it's a marvellous turnout and I'm very happy about the fact that

so many of our outstanding entertainers have been willing

to take time out of their very busy schedules

to be a part of this struggle.

# Come on, now... #

On that particular occasion,

it was James Brown that made the difference.

He found a way to fit in and contribute, but also

to learn a lot about the people who were trying to change America.

Now, James Brown you just witnessed, the rest of the show,

this is black power, baby.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

In A Cold Sweat, cut one.

# One, two

# One, two, three

MUSIC: Intro to Cold Sweat

MUSIC STOPS

OK, let's get that.

# Bop hey-yop

# Bop ba-da-bop'm bop'm bop! #

Did you get it? That was a pop. OK?

# Uh! Uh-uh uh-uh

# Uh-uh uh-uh, uh-uh... #

HE LAUGHS

In A Cold Sweat, cut two.

# I don't care... #

# Ba-dooba-dooba-dooba-doo

# Dee-doo ba-dooba-dooba-dee

# Dee-doo. # So I took the "dee-doo"...

# Doo-dee'n dee'n doo

# Doo-dee'n dee... #

# When you kiss me

# Oh, you kiss me

# Hold my hand

# It makes me understand

# I'm in a...

# In a cold sweat. #

By 1967, when Cold Sweat comes out,

now he was officially away from the rest of the pack.

# I don't care... #

Cold sweat is a vamp.

# About your wants... #

But you had all these different parts.

There was this juxtaposition of something being extremely tight,

but very loose at the same time,

and that's what jazz really is all about.

# Make me, uh

# Uh!

# Come on, now... #

Maceo Parker is probably the most recognisable sound

of the James Brown Band.

# Make me, uh

# Uh!

# Make them play

# Or do the playing... #

When he got to the part where he started calling my name

to come out and play, this was like, "Wow!"

# Funky, funky... #

When I recognised that I could hear the funky side of stuff,

I said, "Well, I got to use that

"because everybody can't hear it like I do."

HE PLAYS A SAXOPHONE RIFF

And he appreciated that.

CHEERING

Now give the drummer some.

Give the drummer some.

Give him some. That what you got?

Now, Clyde Stubblefield, he was almost like part man, part machine.

Clyde had all these subtleties, this kind of bouncy left hand.

Hit it! Uh!

Music, and especially with soul and funk music,

it's based on a very simple emphasis

of the one.

Uh! Ah!

Now, in gospel music,

they'll be playing direct rhythm with a tambourine...

adding grace notes, just little small notes.

And that's the sound of church.

Uh! Ah! Hit it!

Clyde Stubblefield had the perfect grace notes on his snare.

Uh! Ah! Uh!

I never took lessons.

Music to me looked like

Chinese writing, so I don't know,

I just played from my heart and soul.

Come on.

Uh! Uh! Ah! Uh! Uh! Ah! Yeah!

Uh! Uh! Uh! Uh!

Uh! Uh! Uh! Uh! Uh!

That concept of the one, it changed the emphasis

from where it had been in jazz.

In jazz, it had been on the two and the four.

# Dee-do, dee-do

# That's one, two, four... #

Let me count it off. One!

You move into the funk period, they change the emphasis

to the one and the three and put it down on the bottom with the drums

to pick you up, drop you back down.

HE SCREAMS

Uh!

Uh!

# I don't care

# Uh!

# About your day

# Before the getting... #

HE SCREAMS

# I'm in a... #

Give the band a big round of applause.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

James had not trained at all,

which makes it difficult to understand

what he's talking about, you know.

He knows that he's working with musicians

who are the best at what they do. He doesn't care.

He's like, "Look, I know you can read music.

"I can't do any of that, but you still got to follow me

"because I'm the man."

Judge it, that's right, now tell you what we do, Waymond.

Stretch your note.

Well, part two of Get It Together, they're like,

they're having an open rehearsal right in the middle of the song!

Now, Pee Wee...

St Clair, I'm not going to ask you to play jazz, cos your arms are too big.

And you got too much horn.

I'm thinking, he left this on the record! This is brilliant!

"Engineer, I got to go, fade it out."

You don't say that on the record!

I was like, "Man, this is raw!"

Engineer, can you cut this thing down?

Fade me on out of here, cos I got to leave anyway.

Fade it on out, I'm gone.

MUSIC FADES OUT

When he gets through in the recording studio,

they would print up his records right there

next door in the King Studio, so everything was coming out in a day.

It didn't take no week or nothing. It's just, right there.

He owned King Studio, not money-wise, but talent-wise.

There was no other artist who had that kind of control

or those kinds of resources.

At that time, his manager, Ben Bart, passed away in 1968.

From that point on, James Brown was essentially self-managed.

All he talked about was how much money he was making,

how big he was. Sometimes he would start a conversation about football

or baseball, but he'd always

get right back to what songs we're going to do this time

and who messed up and stuff like that.

He never partied with the band. It was a matter of business with us.

He was mainly with his girlfriends

and one Sunday in a blue moon, he might ride the bus.

He didn't have any friends, no close friends,

he had to force people to be around him. I think he was lonely.

He grew up with a sense that you really can't trust anybody.

This is a guy who basically was taught at a very early age

you can't trust your mother.

Not saying he didn't love her, but you can't trust her,

because she's gone.

He was absolutely haunted by that.

I remember one night, we were riding around and I told him,

"Well, you know, I come out of a broken home. My father left."

He looked at me and said, "Your father left?!

"My mother and father left me!

"My father gave me to my aunt. I was raised in a whorehouse."

He said, "I watched the church women come and turn tricks all day

"and leave at 4.30 so they'd be at home to cook dinner

"for their husbands, and they didn't know they were prostitutes."

To grow up like that, it's hard for you to trust anybody.

I think it also is why he was a loner,

and once he came of age, he could never shake that.

We were in Sacramento and we performed.

He left without making sure the bus could get us back to the east coast.

We basically quit.

Eventually everybody came back to him, but he was angry about it.

He would remind you, "You left me! You left me!

"I don't trust you because you left me."

And I think that was one of his reasons to...of not really

getting close to anyone in the band.

Didn't matter where I was. I was always strapped

because sometimes James had good days, sometimes he had bad days.

I didn't want to be a part of the bad day.

We were in Minneapolis, Minnesota, I can't forget that.

Gertrude Saunders, the wardrobe mistress, come down and said,

"Hey, Melvin, Maceo,

"he wants you guys up to the dressing room right now."

As we walked in the door, Tony Walker, the henchman,

is strapping on his .45.

James is doing his hair and looking in the mirror.

He says, "Maceo, tell me that you picking at me on the bus."

Put the comb down and he stood up and turned around

and started to walk toward us.

And he said, "When we come for you, you better be ready." I could see

with that left hand he was getting ready to punch Maceo in the mouth

so that he couldn't play his horn.

I pushed Maceo to the side and went in my pocket at the same time.

Pulled it out.

And when you have that automatic, you always keep one in the chamber.

Pump it.

Let him know that it's loaded.

When I hit it, that .32 shell went up in the air,

came down...it seems as if it was slow motion,

and when it landed on the floor, it hit, boom, boom, boom.

And I stuck it right in his nose and I said, "I'm ready now.

"What do you want to do? Huh? What do you want to do?"

He put his hands up and said, "No, no! I didn't mean that.

"Not like that."

I said, "You don't come for me. You don't come for my brother."

And that was that.

You have to approach him with strength.

You have to always be a man. And I really loved the guy,

but I could never say to him, "Hey, man, I love you, man,"

because he had a way of taking advantage of that

or taking that for a weakness.

With men, he ain't that super-tough guy. He wants to be. He's not.

He is with women.

Brown would be a super-tough guy with women,

and the women do what he wants, when he wants.

I do remember the lady that he was dating when I first joined him.

She only focused on him.

She would never turn and look at anyone, not unless he said,

"Baby, look."

And then she'll turn around.

"Hello." He was very jealous.

He was a very jealous man.

But I don't think any woman deserves to be beaten.

I know he was definitely arrested for domestic violence,

and he has told me he hit women.

I remember he got into one fight that I was in the hotel.

I walked him out of the room.

When I came in, they obviously had been fighting.

We went down and sat by the pool

and he looked at me and said, "Don't ever hit a woman.

"Don't be like me."

He said, "I come from generations of that. It's wrong."

# Hey, hey, hey

# There was a day, there was a time

# There was a time

# When I used to dance... #

Pillage, looting, murder

and arson have nothing to do with civil rights.

They are criminal conduct

and the federal government had no alternative but to respond.

# Teach the dance I used to do

# They call it the Mashed Potato... #

I think we've got to see that a riot is the language of the unheard.

And what is it that America's failed to hear?

It has failed to hear that the economic plight of

the Negro poor has worsened.

We've got to turn our back on this country.

This country has never cared about black people.

Soul is when a man has to struggle all his life

to be equal to another man.

Soul is when a man pays tax and still he comes up second.

Soul is when a man is judged not for what they do

or what colour they are.

The rebellions that we see

are merely dress rehearsals for the revolution that's to come.

THEY CHANT: Black power!

We've got some difficult days ahead.

But I want you to know tonight that we as a people

will get to the Promised Land!

# If I ruled the world... #

At 7.10 this evening, Martin Luther King was shot in Tennessee.

Martin Luther King, 20 minutes ago, died.

# Like the first day of spring

# Every voice would be a voice to be heard

# Take my word... #

Probably the most important show of James Brown's career is April, 1968.

Martin Luther King had just been assassinated

and all of American is erupting in violence.

# My world is such a beautiful place... #

We were on the way to Boston to a show.

We knew that Dr King had got shot, he was dead,

and we didn't know what that meant for us.

The band was kind of fearful.

The mayor really didn't want James to come and do that show.

But that city councilman told him up front,

"If you don't let him do that show,

"they're going to try and burn this city down." He was serious.

They were poised to do just that.

# There'd be happiness that no man could end... #

I think there's reason for apprehension, but not a line.

Boston has great hope.

I think we're a mature, patient community.

And I hope we're going weather this.

You've turned the Brown concert into a memorial service.

We're going to broadcast that live.

And I assume you feel that that will have an affect in the community.

I'm hoping it's one valve that will let off some steam.

And I think it's an appropriate place to have it

because it's a peaceful gathering,

and that's synonymous with everything that King did.

In Augusta, Georgia, I used to shine shoes on the steps of a...

Thank you.

..in front of a radio station called WRDW.

I used to shine shoes in front of that station.

I think we started off... I used to get three cents,

then up to five cents and I finally got to six cents.

But now I own that station.

CROWD CHEERS

You know what that is?

That's black power.

# When you touch me

# When you touch me

# Good God

# I can't stand it

# Can't stand it

# I can't stand your love

# Good God... #

Wait a minute. MUSIC STOPS

I'll be all right. I'll be fine.

I'm all right.

You want to dance? Dance.

People started rushing on the stage and we weren't playing no more.

But they came on, getting ready to come up on the stage.

And, uh...

the police was pushing them.

The guards and everything was pushing them off the stage

and Brown says, "Hold it!"

Wait a minute. They all right. It's all right.

INDISTINCT CHATTER

-MAN:

-You the man.

-Wait a minute.

Let me finish the show.

I didn't know what to say about that myself.

I'm sitting still just waiting.

Like, "Whoa! What's going on?"

This is no way. We are black! We are black!

Wait a minute.

Can't you all go down and let's do this show together?

We're black. Don't make us all look bad. Let me finish doing the show.

Come off the stage.

Get down. That's all right.

You're not being fair to yourself and me either.

I asked the police to step back

because I think I could get some respect from my own people.

And are we together?

CROWD CHEERS

Hit the thing, man.

I was like, "Oh, my God! You did not just stop the show?!"

Told people off and be like, "All right, let's get it together.

"Hit it."

# Good God

# Can't stand your love... #

If I were in the band, I would have been like, "That's my cue. Goodbye.

"See you. Looks like a riot about to break out. I'm out, James."

# Good God... #

He held that crowd like he was the king,

and they respected him.

He cleared 'em up

and there was no more fighting or nothing.

It could have been a turnout at that place.

He was damn good.

Boston was one of the few cities that avoided

any sort of retaliation in the inner cities.

Everyone stayed calm. Trouble was very minimal.

We would like to announce that the city is very quiet and calm.

And reports also say that

everyone is home watching their TV programme.

So, I think the fact that we do have the television cameras

here...I think it was a big success.

I wanted to see people get off the streets. I wanted them to calm down.

I didn't want to see no more bloodshed and lives lost

because I understood what they were fighting for.

Around the country I've been doing a lot of things.

I guess I'm real concerned about people.

Overlooking the city,

overlooking Harlem, I've seen all the torn buildings.

Buildings are still standing that should be removed.

You know who live there?

The black people.

In Washington,

the houses that we were walking in front of were condemned

and no-one can be living in these houses.

I went to Watts and found a lot of people

staying in the area that didn't have nothing to offer.

I went from black America and I started talking to white America.

And I was saying, "These are the things that have to be done.

"We need education."

We got to go to the people that are not even surviving.

My fight is just starting.

My fight is against the past, the old coloured man.

My fight now is for the black America become American.

Everybody thought when James Brown cut his hair

and went natural, that was it.

That was the height of the black power era.

James Brown was known for his hair.

He was absolutely fascinated with the conk, as we called it.

And for him to give it up was to show

he ultimately did feel that blacks needed to learn their natural pride.

Hello, this is Don Warden. You're on Black Dignity.

-WOMAN:

-I wanted to say that I'm glad that you got rid of the stuff

you had in your hair

and I wish everybody were a natural and be what they're supposed to be.

How you going to get respect? I'm black and proud.

# Uh, with your bad self

# Say it loud

# I'm black and I'm proud

# Say it loud

# I'm black and I'm proud

# Some people say we got a lot of malice

# Some say it's a lot of nerve

# I say we won't quit moving

# Until we get what we deserve

# We've been 'buked and we've been scorned... #

He told me, "I was in Los Angeles and there was all this infighting,

"this crime and all."

And he said that, "I'd looked and I said to myself, 'We've lost our pride.'"

He said, "I went to my room and I sat and started writing on a napkin."

On the spur of the moment, it became a song that literally changed

the social dynamics of the United States.

# I'm black and I'm proud

# I've worked on jobs with my feet and my hands

# But all the work I did was for the other man

# And now we demand a chance

# To do things for ourselves

# We tired of beating our heads against the wall

# And working for someone else

-# Say it loud

-I'm black and I'm proud... #

Mr Brown is the number one soul brother of the United States.

He's black and he's proud.

-He brings out the good in me.

-He's like the preacher.

The first thing, a man has to be a man, and when we said "Negro",

this is a term that's been used so many times,

but I don't care for that term.

I'd rather be a black man, cos that's identity.

A black man is a man who wants to pay his own way,

wants to earn his own keep, a man that stands up among men.

You see, when you stand up in the States, they say, "You're militant."

But I say, "You're a man."

# Say it loud

# I'm black and I'm proud

# Say it loud... #

As an eight-year-old, saying, "Say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud,"

was very clear.

I remember defining myself as these American terms of Negro

to coloured to black, because of that one song,

and black was beautiful, the beginning of being beautiful.

I was 13, and it was revolutionary,

because not only did some whites

look down on us, there were

many light-skinned blacks that looked down on dark-skinned blacks.

And overnight, dark-skinned girls became the thing you wanted.

Overnight, James Brown changed our whole teenage life.

# Say it loud

# I'm black and I'm proud... #

There was this fear that he had alienated his white audience

and white people began to be afraid to come to the shows.

I don't think that was his plan at all.

Brown's whole sound is an assertion of black beauty and black pride.

There is a black revolution taking place on many campuses now.

What is your feeling about this?

Well, that's very complicated.

The blacks on the campus in the first place

are complete separatists.

The campuses I've visited.

They don't associate with the whites,

they don't eat with the whites.

They advocate their own dormitories.

They seem to me to be going back in time to separatism

when there was a white society and a black society.

I got to disagree with you there.

I think it's wrong for blacks to eat with blacks

and whites to eat with whites.

-Wait a minute.

-We have been fighting for ever to get together.

Why can't I know about me if you know about yourself?

I know more about you than you do about me. You know nothing about me.

-That's probably true, Jimmy, but...

-But I have to know this.

Do you call yourself a man knowing that I paid taxes same as you?

Stay right here and use my sweat and blood to help build this country

and I got to be a second- or third-class citizen.

Do you call that American?

-I believe you ought to be as good as me and...

-Ought to be?!

I know I'm as good as you.

What do you mean, "Ought to be"?

But the conditions... You haven't had a fair crack at it.

A fair crack?! How long it take, man?

-I'm 36 years old. When am I supposed to be a grown man?

-Now.

I was a grown man at 21, man. Not 36.

-Jimmy, I'm on your side.

-Is there such a thing...?

Is there such a thing...?

I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed in you being ignorant

to what's going on. You just don't know what's happening.

This is not really a joke because you're laughing at something

that's going to be a big problem.

You've kids out there that can't eat and they're robbing

and stealing, doing what they have to do to make it.