James Brown

Mrs Shirt and I were embarrassed to watch a man who used to be good but now can't sing or move, has hired backing singers who were less than mediochre to do all the bits he used to sing and a band that were all over the place. What about the fat sax player's solo. That was something else. Just about the worst live band you could see on tv, and he's apparently headlining at Edinburgh Live 8 tomorrow Apart from that they were really good. I admire your irony Ralph.

I didn't know Ralph played golf!

It was corny sure. It was great showbiz though.

No. Justin. No. There was never anyone as good as him, let alone anyone better!!!!! Are you mad!!!!

The best thing JB ever did was to buy a jumbo jet and paint it black. Pissed off'white' americans no end. Shame to see him on his last legs but give the guy a break, he's an old 'un and needs all our respect. The guy is a legend!

There a positive side to everything. At least if he can't move his latest wife will be able to make a run for it if he gets violent.

I always hated his hairdo.

She'd have to outrun the bullets by all accounts, David.

Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday and Bessie Smith all did far more to popularise black music than James Brown ever did. They were all far better singers as well.

he has a son who's 50 and another who's 4! that's some sibling age gap, As for his stage appearance I thought it WAS very good regardless of his age and that he ALWAYs used to have a lot of input from his band/backing singers (maybe not as much) but he was still fully in control and every hand movement conducted every note at times. THe band were tight and he looked like he still had plenty of the JB magic.

I like Sam Cooke

Apologies Flashy, how could I have left out Sam, he was magical.

Nina Simone was fantastic as well.

Lest we forget Kenny Lynch.

I saw him at Glastonbury last year. I LOVE JB but he was pretty stiff. He only managed a kind of ten minute greatest choruses medley before being wheeled off stage for the band to play some solos and celebrate the godfather of soul (having a lie down backstage).

Does he still do that lovable cheeky chirpy cockney routine with the Bruvvers????

I never thought he was any good in the first place. There are many performers much better than JB even when he was in his prime.

What I want to know is: when they show the black and white footage of him in his prime, in the late fifties and early sixties, and his feet are a blur, and the music is like nothing you've ever heard before, and the only person to match him for sheer dynamism is Little Richard: Where the fuck is the rest of that concert footage, and why can't we see it, beg, steal or borrow it? There is a company in the States that seems to own all the Ready Steady Go shows; and when I've saved all my pennies from my sickness benefit, will send off for the programme when RSG devoted their whole hour to Otis Redding live! But they have nothing from James Brown pre 1968. Where has the footage gone? This is arguably the greatest black artist ever, and you're telling me that the person who wielded that cine-camera took just a few seconds of film? Where's the rest of it? This guy changed the face of black music - hence contemporary music. O.K. So he's 72 and fading, and yes I don't know who chooses the people he has singing his songs, but in Miss Pippi's words, 'They couldn't lick his boots.' But JB - you did change things. [%sig%]

>> ..This is arguably the greatest black artist ever... << Well I'll argue about that!

well me too but not for very long because JB DID kick the bottom of the music world and brought the stage back to the fore in live entertainment. ... didn't he once bring the vietnam war to a standstill?