James Joseph Brown, Jr, mostly known as James Brown, died on Christmas Morning in an Atlanta hospital .
He was 73 years old and suffering from pneumonia when he died.
His greatest contributions to the world of music are undeniable.
His sound, was the inspiration to a lot of today's artists.
But still, was something far away for me to understand, until....
I started to learn about the man,the shoeshine boy,the hustler, the juvenile delinquent,the singer , the band leader, the illegal drug user, the political activist and on and on..
The artist who played several instruments proficiently, including guitar, piano, drums, organ, but like many other popular musicians, never learned to read music.
In spite of that , he amassed 800 songs in his repertoire .
With 114 total entries on Billboard's R&B singles charts and 94 that made the Hot 100 singles chart.
He was for R&B music, what Elvis Presley was to rock and roll.
James Brown had many personalities, some of them good, some bad, but the one that most impacted me, was the one that presented me with the dreamer that never stopped believing in himself, against all odds.
Perhaps, in an effort to understand his determination, his drive to succeed , we have to remember the motherless child without clothes, being dressed in potato sacks for grade school , living in the rural South.
Or the juvenile delinquent, chased by the police for breaking into cars, diving in a trench and hiding underwater with an upraised reed for breathing.
From there, flash forward to "The Godfather of Soul" , "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business", "Soul Brother Number One".
James Brown was a truly American Music Legend
My thanks to different resources used for this post:
http://en.wikipedia.org
http://www.rollingstone.com
http://www.rockhall.com/
He was 73 years old and suffering from pneumonia when he died.
His greatest contributions to the world of music are undeniable.
His sound, was the inspiration to a lot of today's artists.
But still, was something far away for me to understand, until....
I started to learn about the man,the shoeshine boy,the hustler, the juvenile delinquent,the singer , the band leader, the illegal drug user, the political activist and on and on..
The artist who played several instruments proficiently, including guitar, piano, drums, organ, but like many other popular musicians, never learned to read music.
In spite of that , he amassed 800 songs in his repertoire .
With 114 total entries on Billboard's R&B singles charts and 94 that made the Hot 100 singles chart.
He was for R&B music, what Elvis Presley was to rock and roll.
James Brown had many personalities, some of them good, some bad, but the one that most impacted me, was the one that presented me with the dreamer that never stopped believing in himself, against all odds.
Perhaps, in an effort to understand his determination, his drive to succeed , we have to remember the motherless child without clothes, being dressed in potato sacks for grade school , living in the rural South.
Or the juvenile delinquent, chased by the police for breaking into cars, diving in a trench and hiding underwater with an upraised reed for breathing.
From there, flash forward to "The Godfather of Soul" , "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business", "Soul Brother Number One".
James Brown was a truly American Music Legend
My thanks to different resources used for this post:
http://en.wikipedia.org
http://www.rollingstone.com
http://www.rockhall.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment