I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
Album: # 329
Album Title: In The Jungle Groove
Artist: James Brown
Genre: Funk
Recorded: Four U.S. Studios (1969 - 1971)
Released: August, 1988
My age at release: 4-5 when recorded, 23 when released
How familiar was I with it before this week: One Song
Is it on the 2020 list? No
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Funky Drummer
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| Album Cover for In The Jungle Groove James Brown (1988) |
J.B.
The Godfather of Soul
The Hardest Working Man in Showbiz
Mr. Dynamite
The Godfather of Funk
Soul Brother Number One
James Brown had many nicknames. He was a complex man with a complicated history that was both admirable and, at times, contemptible. In a career that spanned five decades, Brown was a multi-instrumentalist, musical pioneer, songwriter, record producer and powerhouse front-man whose influence is still felt in contemporary music.
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| James Brown performing circa 1977 |
He was a social activist, encouraging young people to stay in school while supporting social service programs for the poorest neighborhoods in America. He met two U.S Presidents, Lyndon Johnson (a Democrat) and Richard Nixon (a Republican), to advocate positive change for African Americans in the 1960s and 70s.
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| Brown meeting with Richard Nixon to advance the cause of America's Black people |
He was also credited with creating the genre of Funk music -- a style that evolved from soul, jazz and R&B. Funk features steady, infectious, drum grooves along with syncopated bass lines. It is a driving and danceable musical form, particularly because the heaviest thump falls on the first downbeat in each musical measure.
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| Brown performing in concert |
Although a powerhouse on the music scene, as reflected in the assortment of memorable names assigned to him, Brown was also a flawed man. Married four times and arrested for domestic abuse on multiple occasions, he struggled with drug addiction. He was incarcerated for theft, drug possession, weapons charges and assault throughout his life. The most notorious incident occurred in 1988 when the then 65-year-old was charged with assault, battery and intent to kill following a high-speed, armed and drug-fueled police chase in Augusta, Georgia. Sentenced to six and a half years, he served only 15 months in a prison near Columbia, South Carolina.
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| Prison mug shots of Brown (1989) |
The same year as this conviction, a new generation of music listeners was discovering Brown's catalogue. He capitalized on this renewed interest with the release of the compilation record, In The Jungle Groove, composed of unreleased singles, alternative takes and remixes from recording sessions that took place between 1968 and 1971. The record also contained the first album release of the single Funky Drummer. This is a monumental track in the history of modern music and requires some explanation.
As I have discussed in previous posts, much of my understanding of the history of hip-hop music comes from a Canadian-made television series, Hip-Hop Evolution. In the first episode, the foundations of the genre are explored, beginning in the late-70s. At the time, Club & House Party disc jockeys (DJs) in the Bronx, New York, began experimenting with ways to keep their audiences on the dancefloor. They recognized that certain disco, R&B, soul and funk records had rhythmic drum sections, or breaks, which appealed to dancers. Their clever solution was to put the same record on two turntables and, as one record played the popular "break", the other record could be cued-up to repeat it. When the second record played the "break", the first turntable was muted and spun backward to the start of the same "break" again. Consequently, a rhythmic section could be played repeatedly -- much to the delight of the fans.
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| Single Release of Funky Drummer (1970) |
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| Grandmaster Flash - a pioneer in hip-hop DJ-ing |
A popular record used by those DJs was Funky Drummer. The drum break in the middle of this nine-minute funk jam was an improvised performance by Brown's regular drummer, Clyde Stubblefield. As the "break beat" phenomenon grew in popularity in clubs throughout the United States, so did the popularity of the song Funky Drummer, as well as Stubblefield and Brown. This week's record, In The Jungle Groove, was released to capitalize on that cultural currency. Not only would the record be purchased by James Brown fans, it was also snatched up by many young DJs -- perhaps replacing their worn copies from the 1970 pressings.
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| Clyde Stubblefield |
Stubblefield was never given writing credit for the drum beat he created. Consequently, Brown, and eventually his estate, received all the royalties. Stubblefield told the New York Times in 2011.
"It didn’t bug me or disturb me, but I think it’s disrespectful not to pay people for what they use."
Stubblefield died on February 18, 2018 -- coincidently four years to the day I began writing this post. And if you're keeping score in the James Brown morality conundrum I mentioned at the start -- not compensating your fellow bandmate goes under "contemptible".
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| A section of the drum score from Funky Drummer |
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