THIS MAN CAME UP IN PURE POVERTY,SO WHEN YOU WITNESS HIS PERFORMANCES HE’S EXPRESSING WHAT HE’S LIVED,BY FAR, PEOPLE NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT THAT, HE’S ACTUALLY TELLING YOU HIS LIFE’S JOURNEY THROUGH HIS FOOT WORK,BODY CARISMA, BORN IN THE EARLY 30’s THE GREAT PRESSION,HE WITNESSED SOME REAL HARD TIMES, HE SET A STANDARD FOR STAGE PER- FORMERS,JAMES BROWN A TRUE TRAIL BLASER,RIP.
1968 was also the year I discovered James. I'm a little White boy with a new transistor radio. The usual Top 40 wasn't doing it for me one afternoon so I started flipping through channels and came upon 'There Was A Time'. I was compelled to bop to the beat. I'd never heard anything like this. My mother was not amused hearing that come from my room and requested I find a 'station where they play good music'. Yeah, right. I don't entirely know how visible James was to White audiences then. I know my parents had never heard of him. When I scanned this audience, they appear predominantly White. I'm betting very few people had any clue who he was. Later, a friend of mine had me over to is house to listen to records. His way older brother, who was in a band at the time, had a sizeable collection of James' records. Great! I managed to become acquainted with several of his tracks. Legendary.
THANK YOU MY BLUE EYED BROTHER! I MEAN THAT FROM THE HEART. I FOLLOWED JAMES BROWN FROM 1962 LIVE AT THE APOLLO 1962 WAS THE FIRST ALBUM MY DEAR FATHER BOUGHT ME. THAT WAS IT I WAS HOOKED
I live my life by the title of this song. If you don’t want anybody to “give you something “ you quickly realize that you have to get it yourself. That means you gotta work! That and only that makes you a man! No matter how you flip it. God blesses the man that realizes this. No “hook a brother up.” No “lemme hold sutin.” Begging if for the unfortunate. If you physically can’t earn then ima look out. Otherwise… earn. Blacks would have BEEN in position if they knew this. Sure, they held you back dang right they did. So! So what!!!? Where they at now? Where you at? In your late sixties? So! You still got it! Many fortunes were made after 60. Most important line JB says…” we got talents we can use on our side of town, let’s put our heads together, build it up from the ground!
A few years later when I started going to local dances in church halls and such, we had a local band who, when they took the customary break to rest the band and dancers, would signal the break by playing a sample of this number. It was like their signature. It took me decades to be illuminated as to what I was hearing. That band was a lot cooler than I.
