LIVING IN AMERICA

James Brown was born to Susie and Joseph Gardner in the small town of Barnwell, South Carolina in the Jim Crow South during the Depression era and his family lived in extreme poverty. Although Brown was to be named after his father, his name was reversed mistakenly on the birth certificate. Brown's name instead became James Joseph Brown, Jr and as a young child Brown was known to his family as Junior. When Brown was two years old, his parents separated after which, Brown continued to live with his father and his live-in girlfriends until he was six years old. Brown spent long stretches of time on his own, hanging out on the streets and hustling to get by. Brown managed to stay in school until he dropped out in the seventh grade.

 
SOUL SURVIVOR

As a youth Brown earned money shining shoes, sweeping out stores, selling and trading in old stamps, washing cars and dishes and singing in talent contests. Brown also performed buck dances for change to entertain troops from camp Gordon During the start of world war 2 as their convoys traveled over a canal bridge near his aunt's house. Between earning money from these adventures, Brown taught himself to play a harmonica given to him by his father, and he learned to play some guitar from Tampa Red, in addition to learning to play piano and drums from others. Brown was inspired to become an entertainer after watching Louis Jordan, a popular jazz and R&B performer.

 
HARDEST WORKING MAN

James Brown's performances were famous for their intensity and length. His own stated goal was to "give people more than what they came for — make them tired, 'cause that's what they came for.'" Brown's concert repertoire consisted mostly of his own hits and recent songs, with a few R&B covers mixed in. Brown danced vigorously as he sang, working popular dance steps such as the Mashed Potato into his routine along with dramatic leaps, splits and slides. In addition, his horn players and backup singers (The Famous Flames) typically performed choreographed dance routines, and later incarnations of the Revue included backup dancers. Brown's extravagant outfits and his elaborate processed hairdo completed the visual impression.

 
KING OF FUNK

A trademark feature of Brown's stage shows, usually during the song "Please, Please, Please", involved Brown dropping to his knees while clutching the microphone stand in his hands, prompting the show's MC to come out, drape a cape over Brown's shoulders and escort him off the stage after he had worked himself to exhaustion during his performance. As Brown was escorted off the stage by the MC, Brown's vocal group, The Famous Flames, continued singing the background vocals "Please, please don't go-oh-oh". Brown then shook off the cape and staggered back to the microphone to perform an encore. This act was often repeated several times in succession. Brown's cape routine was inspired by a similar routine used by the professional wrestler Gorgeous George.

 
FUNK ON AH ROLL

Brown demanded extreme discipline, perfection and precision from his musicians and dancers — right down to when performers in his Revue showed up for rehearsals all the way to whether members wore the right "uniform" or "costume" for concert performances. Brown also had a practice of directing, correcting and assessing fines on members of his band who broke his rules, such as wearing unshined shoes, dancing out of sync or showing up late on stage. During some of his concert performances, Brown danced in front of his band with his back to the audience although audiences thought Brown's dance routine was part of his act, this practice was actually his way of pointing to the offending member of his troupe who played or sang the wrong note or committed some other infraction.

 
I'M BLACK AND I'M PROUD

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, James Brown was renowned for his work with social activism. In 1966, he released the single "Don't Be a Drop-Out" as a lesson to young students who had thoughts of dropping out. He later made public speeches in front of dozens of children and advocated the importance of education in school. In 1967, he issued a patriotic single, "America is My Home", which was a "rap" about how he felt people, particularly in the African-American community, were neglecting the country that he said "could give (them) opportunities" explaining how at one time he was shining shoes and the next, he was greeting the President of the United States as he did when President Lyndon B. Johnson thanked him for donating money to school drop-out prevention programs.

 
SOUL SURVIVOR

On December 23, 2006, James Brown, in ill health, showed up at his dentist's office in Atlanta, Georgia several hours later than his appointment. During that visit, Brown's dentist observed that Brown looked "very bad ... weak and dazed." Instead of performing the dental work, the dentist advised Brown to see a doctor right away about his medical condition and so Brown checked in at the Emory Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia on December 24, 2006. Charles Bobbit suggests it was characteristic of Brown to never tell or complain to anyone that he was sick, and that Brown frequently performed during illness. On December 25, 2006, Brown died at approximately 1:45 a.m and according to Bobbit, Brown uttered "I'm going away tonight", and then Brown took three long, quiet breaths before expiring.

 
THE GODFATHER OF SOUL

During his long career, James Brown received several prestigious music industry awards and honors. In 1983, Brown was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, he was named as one of the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at its inaugural induction dinner in New York on January 23, 1986. On February 25,1992, Brown was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 34th annual Grammy Awards and exactly a year later, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 4th annual Rhythm & Blues Foundation Pioneer Awards.In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked James Brown as #7 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.