Calling this the funkiest bassline in the history of recorded music. After it kicks into the main groove at 1:30, an entire universe with a six-billion-year history opens up between the beat and the delayed third note Michael Henderson plays each bar.
James Brown covering September Song by Kurt Weill. Oh hell yes. (via Alex Ross) See also Louis Armstrong’s rendition of “Mack the Knife”.
Ummmmm… James Brown got in a gunfight??!!?!!!
James Brown: Soul Brother No. 1 (1933-2006) | Creative Loafing Atlanta
Rock Steady – Aretha Franklin. Been too long since my last Soul Train post.
Not even Reich’s music is as exhilaratingly tense as “Doing it to the Death,” or “The Payback.” Reich’s pieces take long, extended journeys; they are exquisite processes which slowly unfold through time, irreversibly. Brown’s best music never takes a journey: it’s either just where it should be, or tantalizingly close to where it should be.
Strangely enough, I think that ”The Payback” has more in common with Tristan und Isolde than it does with Glass or Reich. It’s all about tension and release.
This whole post is straight-up brilliant.
Meadowlark Lemons.: James Brown and Wagner: Tension and Release
Mark Larson 