Institute of Jurassic Technology: James Brown - Rare Vintage Clips, Bootie Shaking

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

James Brown - Rare Vintage Clips, Bootie Shaking

Check out James's moves. This video has lots of different clips from different eras, a great overview of his stuff. Seemed about time for some serious bootie shaking on this blog.

Enjoy what God gave ya,

Bp

6 comments:

Anonymous said...: I can remember the first time I heard "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag". I was in 7th or 8th grade and, in the suburb where I lived, and most people were listening to some combination of American pop (early Motown, Frankie Valli and the 4 Seasons, early Beach Boys, etc) and British Invasion ( Beatles, Stones, and the incredibly soulful Herman's Hermits, who covered Sam Cooke the way Pat Boone covered Little Richard -- blandly).
Here comes James, with a new bag for sure, with the beat on the one, a groove punctuated by a great horn section, and lyrics about ... what?
None of us knew what to think, but we did notice a heretofore unkown tendency to get up off of that thing and shake it!; October 11, 2007 at 7:18 PM
Openly Guarded said...: It's amazing how he ALWAYS looked the same.; October 11, 2007 at 10:11 PM
Bpaul said...: Stud Farmhand, those videos were dedicated to you, forgot to put that in the post.

Tony, yeah -- even with the moustacio yikes.; October 11, 2007 at 10:30 PM
Anonymous said...: The only things that changed about James were his hairstyle and, at least one, his musical style. Prior to introducing funk, James was a pretty tradidional R&B artist for his time (although a major one). he wore his hair in a processed pompadour. Later, he wore it in a straightened cut that fell about to his jawline.
His band at the time was known as the Famous (Fabulous? His later band, still one of the tightest I've heard, was called te JBs, and over time featured players such as Bootsy Collins, Maceo Parker, and "Friendly" Fred Wesley) Flames, and this is when he first earned the title 'The Hardest Working Man in Show Business'. James would sing and dance until he slumped down in a pool of sweat, apparently exhausted. One of the Flames would come over and drape the cape that James always wore when he came onstage over Brown's shoulders, and two of the band members would help the weakened singer offstage.
Just as they were about to enter the wings, James would throw the cape off and rush back to the microphone, the band would hit it, and he would finish the set going full bore.
Other notable bits of Browniana: James was a true social force in the black community -- "Say it Lound, I'm Black, I'm Proud" and "Soul Power" were anthems of the middle Black Power era, and Brown helped calm the crisis of the summer of 1967. Late in his career he began to embrace the then-nacent form of Rap, even making an album with Afrika Bambaata. And, for a real treat, check out his Christmas music; James recorded at least 4 of them, including versions of such chestnuts as 'The Christmas Song' (witht he afore-mentioned chestnuts roasting on an open fire) and my own favorite, "Souldful Christmas".
Late in his career, James became a bit of a cliche (as did Ray Charles and Louis Armstrong). But stop and think about it for a minute: Brown was a man who completely transformed a musical form (as were Armstrong and Charles).
And he did it right in front of us, on record, on AM radio, and on TV (his appearances on white dance shows such as 'Shindig' and 'Hulabaloo' were hilarious, and any time he appeared on 'Soul Train" was classic.)

OK, OK, in the words of James' heir, Geroge Clinton, "That's enough of that" ('Nubian Nut'). Are you up for the downstroke?; October 12, 2007 at 9:26 AM
Bpaul said...: Peter, I saw the name and figured I was going to have to "moderate" that comment. But holy cow what a great comment sir. Thanks for taking the time, awesome info.

You saw him live I assume?; October 12, 2007 at 1:26 PM
Anonymous said...: Thanks for writing this.; November 10, 2008 at 3:58 AM