A JAMES BROWN CHRISTMAS

Remembrances of Who He Was and Who We Were

It is always tougher to hear the news of a death near the holidays. My mother, two years ago, ten days before Christmas, not wholly unexpected, but devastating nonetheless.

This year, while lying in bed peacefully, ears focused on the early morning drizzle from the North Carolina skies, blurry eyes adjusting to the TV's glare, I saw his picture. At least I thought it was him, in the far right hand corner over ABC newsman Ron Claiborne's talking head. By the time my eyes realized who it was, I saw the two dates: 1933 - 2006, and heard the words, "James Brown the Godfather of Soul..." and started saying, "no, no, no!"

It was totally unexpected and as devastating as any loss of any person whom I have never met.

On Christmas morning, how cruel I thought, until Rev. Al Sharpton remarked that "Mr. Brown himself "would have picked the biggest day of the year to take his final bow. But small comfort to a generation (or two or three) who felt his death as a personal loss and a loss to the culture (as we define it) never to be replaced.

How many more Black male bona-fide music icons from that R&B/Soul/Rock&Roll era are left standing?

Smokey Robinson.

Stevie Wonder.

Jerry Butler.

Isaac Hayes.

Al Green.

And of course the old heads: Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, B.B. King and Johnny Mathis.

There are also the groups: The Dells (remarkably in tact with original members after 50 years), two remaining original members of the Four Tops and one last original Temptations member.

Lost already in the past year, Lou Rawls and Wilson Pickett. Not long before them Barry White and Luther Vandross.

James Brown. Mr. Brown. The Godfather.

Everybody has a James Brown story -- whether you actually met him or even seen him perform live, somehow he played a role in our existence. We all share a memory about him like we would a family member.

When I returned to New York City a few days later, the impact was deep. The radio tributes from the Black and Black-oriented stations was a constant drumbeat of his music, his words, his philosophy and the way James Brown lived his life, warts and all.

Who else could get radio (especially in today's canned, formulaic, corporate radio) to play his music nearly non-stop? And how few, if any, artists had that much good music over more than five decades?

Felix Hernandez, who hosts the "Rhythm Revue" for non-commercial WBGO-FM specializes in classic and the more obscure, "classic soul" in his shows. Hernandez dedicated his entire show to Brown's music. He came on the air somberly and said: "I really hadn't planned to do this show today. Didn't plan to do a James Brown tribute..." He added "[Someone] asked me how I could squeeze all of his music into four hours, and I said, 'I can't.'"

During his twenty-year run of "Rhythm Revue," now available on line and on commercial WRKS-FM radio, Hernandez said he doesn't believe he has ever had a show without playing at least one James Brown record.

Other stations played interviews of Brown from the past, including one from WBLS-FM in 1996 hosted by the late Frankie Crocker, an icon in his own right in the development of FM radio music formats. WRKS played interviews from people lined up outside the Apollo Theater in Harlem, where he took the stage for the last time, lying in state like the royalty he was to many. I walked past there myself, just feeling the energy of the crowd. I ran into many folks I knew, most in their 50s, but saw all ages in the crowd. As I walked by a subway exit I saw three teenaged girls (who I will assume are not candidates for Rhodes scholarship) and overheard one say: "All this is for James Brown?" I turned to her and said, "It ain't for Gerald Ford!"

People flooded radio stations with calls about their remembrances of Brown -- celebrities, former staff people, persons who even the briefest of encounters with him. Longtime radio personality Gary Byrd, who brought Black history and Black pride along with music in the late 1960s, talked of meeting James Brown when he first worked as a DJ at WWRL. Brown, touring in NYC at the time, asked the fledging DJ if he had found a place to live yet. Byrd laughed and, said, "Yes, now I've got to furnish it!" Brown liked that Byrd was bringing a message of Black pride to his shows. After they talked, Brown squeezed, as Byrd put it, "enough money in my hand to furnish two apartments!" Brown said that, "If you don't have to worry about money, you won't ever have to compromise yourself."

James Brown was truly an original. Who else would get this kind of outpouring of love and attention by even the national mainstream media? Few among even the very best who have gone on.

James Brown was rapping before rap. He was speaking out unabashedly against drugs ("King Heroin") and for education ("Don't be a dropout"), and for racial pride and independence ("Say it Loud!") and ("I Don't Want Nobody To Give Me Nothing, Open Up the Door -- I'll Get It Myself"). He could care less what the radio stations and record companies wanted to hear -- his message was for the people.

Not always the most successful businessman, Brown made several significant inroads into Black self-determination by buying several radio stations and even one TV station. He also had several other business ventures with varying degrees of success. But one thing he never sold was James Brown. You couldn't buy him.

His well deserved tributes poured in from all over -- except of course, from our Rapper friends. All of this praise seemed to be lost on them. Yet they have sampled his music to death -- and probably beyond. Brown's music is the most sampled of any artist among rappers, and Brown has appeared on stage with many and in many videos despite the fact that he had major issues with some of the content he found offensive.

Not one peep from them. Where were they? Did even one show up at any of the tributes? Did one speak? Even Michael Jackson came out of hiding long enough to show up and speak about him at his funeral. Where were all the tough guys?

I have always said that in life it matters not who the tough guys are -- but rather -- who shows up for the fight!

It took a long time to start this piece and even longer to finish. In a way that is good. Because there have been several significant developments since I began it: Sen. Barack Obama has all but officially announced that he wants to be head of the free world. And "Dreamgirls" racked up several Golden Globe Awards, paving the road for similar success in the Oscar nominations.

If you don't understand the connection, you haven't been paying attention -- not for a few decades.