James Brown Dies In Georgia Hospital

Posted December 25, 2006 12:00 pm.

This article is more than 5 years old.

And he more than lived up to both monikers.

James Brown, the man who helped put the soul in soul music, died Christmas morning after a lifetime of triumphs and tribulations. He was 73.

Brown entered an Atlanta hospital with pneumonia on Sunday and succumbed at 1:45am the next day of heart failure.

A longtime friend was by his side when he passed away.

Brown leaves behind a legacy of hits like “I Got You (I Feel Good)”, “(Get Up I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine,” and “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” (1965’s Grammy winning Best R&B Single).

His last major mainstream chart success was 1987’s “Living In America, which also copped a Grammy for Best R&B Male Vocal.

But it was some of his other tunes that changed music and the world. “Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud,” became a statement about an emerging sense of black power in 1968.

“I clearly remember we were calling ourselves coloured, and after the song, we were calling ourselves black,” Brown recalled. “The song showed even people to that day that lyrics and music and a song can change society.”

He was a huge influence on other artists, ranging from Michael Jackson to Mick Jagger, who both owe much of their fancy footwork to the singer.

His rhythms are also credited with inspiring the roots of rap music, and he was copied by Prince and David Bowie.

And he took credit for inspiring several types of musical evolutions.

“Disco is James Brown, hip-hop is James Brown, rap is James Brown; you know what I’m saying?” he asked in 2003. “You hear all the rappers, 90 percent of their music is me.”

Those who followed in his gyrating footsteps acknowledge he was the master.

Little Richard, also something of pioneer, says a “great treasure is gone”.

And LL Cool J contends Brown was an inspiration when he was starting out.

“James has been a tremendous influence on my life as a hip-hop artist … There was a point in hip-hop where you couldn’t make a record or a song without using a James Brown sample, or borrowing a James Brown riff, or loop, or scream, or yell or something like that.”

But Brown’s personal life was less successful. He was plagued by a history of drug abuse and police were at his door often over charges he beat his wife.

All of those accusations culminated in his worst act of defiance in September 1988, when a drugged out Brown wandered into an insurance seminar next door to his Augusta office with a shotgun and asked the participants if they’d been using his private restroom.

When police arrived, he led them on a PCP-fueled chase through two states, which only ended when cops shot out the tires on his truck.

He was sentenced to six years in jail, but only served 15 months behind bars, another 10 on a work release program, and was paroled in 1991.

He was eventually granted a full pardon 12 years later.

It wasn’t his first brush with the law – after growing up on the mean streets of Augusta, he served 3½ years in a reform school for breaking into cars.

It was there he met a man who would eventually change his life. Bobby Byrd’s family took Brown into their home and he joined his friend’s singing group, who would morph into Brown’s back-up act, The Famous Flames.

His first hit, the pleading classic “Prease, Please, Please”, was an R&B hit in 1956.

Brown toured endlessly and put on a sweat-soaked show that earned him the “Hardest Working Man” nickname. It’s said he would be two or three pounds lighter every time he walked off stage.

“He’d always give it his all to give his fans the type of show they expected,” his lawyer Jay Ross, recalls.

He achieved a separate kind of immortality in the 70s when Eddie Murphy famously parodied his style ‘in the hot tub’, on a classic Saturday Night Live sketch.

He leaves behind his fourth wife and a son from that marriage, James Jr.

Brown was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, and was touring right up to the end.

He had two shows scheduled at Casino Rama on January 5th and 6th, dates he will now never be able to keep.

If you had tickets for those performances, they can be returned at the point of purchase. Call 1-800-832-7529 for more information or go online to Ticketmaster here.

Brown becomes the latest celebrity to die on Christmas. Only two other such famous names have passed away on the holiday. Charlie Chaplin died in his sleep in Switzerland in 1988 on this day. And Dean Martin passed on Xmas 1995 after a long illness. He was 78.

James Brown’s Hits

Many of his best songs placed in high positions only on the U.S. R&B charts. But James Brown leaves behind an impressive collection of hit records. Here’s the list:

Fiftes

Please, Please, Please, 1956
Try Me, 1959

Sixties

Think 1960
Baby You’re Right 1961
Bewildered 1961
I Don’t Mind 1961
Lost Someone 1962
Night Train 1962
Prisoner of Love (1963
Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag 1965
I Got You (I Feel Good) 1965
Ain’t That A Groove Thing Pts. 1 & 2 1966
Don’t Be A Drop-Out 1966
It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World 1966
Sweet Little Baby Boy 1966
Cold Sweat 1967
Let Yourself Go 1967
I Can’t Stand Myself (When You Touch Me) 1968
I Got The Feelin’ 1968
Licking Stick – Licking Stick Part 1 1968
Say It Loud, I’m Black & I’m Proud 1968
There Was A Time 1968
Ain’t it Funky Now 1968
Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose 1969
I Don’t Want Nobody To Give Me Nothing (Open Up The Door, I’ll Get It Myself) 1969
Let A Man Come In And Do The Popcorn – Part One 1969
Mother Popcorn (You Got To Have A Mother For Me) Part 1 1969

Seventies

Get Up (I Feel Like Being Like A) Sex Machine (Part 1) 1970
Santa Claus Is Definitely Here To Stay 1970
Super Bad – Part 1 & Part 2 1970
Escape-ism 1971
Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved – Pt. 1 1971
Hot Pants (She Got To Use What She Got To Get What She Wants) 1971
I’m A Greedy Man – Part I 1971
Make It Funky – Part 1 1971
Soul Power” – Pt. 1 1971
Get On The Good Foot – Part 1 1972
King Heroin 1972
Talking Loud And Saying Nothing – Part I 1972
Down And Out In New York City 1973
I Got A Bag Of My Own 1973
Sexy, Sexy, Sexy 1973
Funky President (People It’s Bad) 1974
My Thang 1974
Papa Don’t Take No Mess – Part I 1974
Stoned To The Bone” – Part 1 1974
The Payback – Part I 1974
Get Up Offa That Thing 1976
Living in America 1976