Remembering James Brown

This may very well be one of the saddest days of our life...
Along with many other people who have left us throughout this year, I was stopped dead in my tracks, when I learned of the death of the "Godfather of Soul," James Brown.
There are people who come into our lives and move us, then there are people who by the very mention of their name create images of positiveness, joy and light. James was in that group.
I was in high school, and can remember vividly where I was when I heard him for the first time, while coming through a locker room in my dormitory..."say it loud, I'm Black and I'm proud."
You have to understand, Negroes (as we were referred to back then) didn't say things like that, not openly, and most assuredly not in a public forum such as music. But you see a few years before we lost Malcolm X, then we lost Bobby Kennedy, then Dr.Martin Luther King, and Black America was reaching a boiling point that may have spilled out and scorched everyone. They were killing our leaders, and trying to hold us back, they were turning us on each other, then all of a sudden, out of seemingly nowhere comes a man from poverty, who faced the same demons we did, and who looked like us, and through 8 words changed us all forever..."SAY IT LOUD, I'M BLACK AND I'M PROUD.
Let me tell you, it changed everything from the ballot to the bullet. For many many years to come those 8 words caused mankind to see us as human beings, and not as chattel.
Throughout his life, James Brown would be an example to us all, good, bad ,and indifferent. We watched as his life unfolded before our eyes, and he didn't hide it from us...the pleasures of excess, and the pain of success, he showed it all, and told us the difference.
He entertained us true, but he also educated us, on so many levels...a debt that we'll be forever paying back.
When we think about how we feel good in our lives today, we must always remember to stop and say thanks to "Soul Brother Number One," the hardest working man in show business," Mr Dynamite," and because of people like him we are "living " in America.

James Brown 1933-2006
Good night Brother.

Get on the good foot... Support Live music today tomorrow and always, and when you do, remember that "this is a man's world, but it wouldn't be nothing without a woman or a girl."