Obituary: James Brown

Such was James Brown's influence that when Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968, the order went out to broadcast Brown's show in Boston live across the United States.

Punctuated by his pleas for calm, the show helped to stem the tide of anger and Brown earned the personal thanks of President Lyndon Johnson.

James Brown was a great human being and he wanted to be known as great. He was both aware of his own greatnes and still a down to earth man. He hung around with Presidents and powerful people and yet I knew him as very human. I did not know him nearly so much as know about him. However my exeperiences confirmed the stories I heard. Let me explain.

My first brush with James Brown came in 1962. I was in a church group that was quite active in music, and a couple of the group leaders insisted we had to go see this new "performer" James Brown. I listened to one of his records and was blown away with its power. The place that we went on Saturday night was the skating rink in downtown Atlanta near the Atlanta University comlex. It is a part of town I had never been to. It was in those highly segregated days called the "black" part of town.

There we were. Eight white teenagers in a crowd that was otherwise totally black. While we were waiting for the show to start, a couple of the people sitting near us asked why we were there. Buddy, one of our group, said in a completely earnest way, we were there to hear the "great James Brown". It broke the ice. People started asking us about which James Brown songs we liked and why. We were offered a "spike" of bourbon for our cokes. We were accepted that night as fellow fans. We met another Christian music group in front of us and started talking with them about their music. We got their numbers before the night was over and later exchanged visits with them at their church and our church. For that night, color did not matter.

That was over fourty years ago and at least one thing that is sad is that we still have mostly segregated churches in America. My second brush with James Brown came nearly 3 decades later.

In 1987 I was in Nice on a business trip. The following week I was to stay in Germany but I spent the weekend in Nice to do some site-seeing. After a day trip to Cannes, I got back to my hotel in the middle of the afternoon not having had any lunch. It was a beautiful spring day and I planned to walk along the Mediteranean shore, the Cote d'Azur , after lunch. Sitting in the totally empty restaurant waiting for my food who should walk in but James Brown and his wife. I could not resist saying hello. James Brown walked over and said it was great to run into another American.

We chatted for a few moments. Spontaneously he asked if he and his wife could join me. He was as enthusiastic and energetic in person as I had expected him to be. He and his wife were very smart and we talked about travel in Europe, places to stay, music, French dislike for Americans and even politics. It was a relly enjoyable time.

When lunch was over he and his wife had to leave for another appointment. I realized I had completely forgotten about my walk. I also realized that the visit was such an improbable event. One of those crazy things that happen in life. I was just a fan and yet he had gone way out of his way to make me feel comfortable. He could just as easily have eaten on the other side of the restaurant and it would have been justified. I was alone. No one would have known.

The obituary above (click on the title to this posting) will tell you more about some of his accomplishments and even some of his problems.

This second obituary tells another great story I love about the way James Brown ended his shows. It was classic and unique and a part of the myth of the man.

Leave it to the London Times to title their obituary "The man who wrote the Kama Sutra of soul". It is the most enthusiastice of the articles I have found, and matches my feelings about the man and the myth.

Whatever the myths, James Brown was a decent, patriotic and down to earth human being. From my experiences all this is true. May God bless him . . . especially his family.