LITTLE WILLIE JOHN / JAMES BROWN ~

 

JAMES BROWN SINGS LITTLE WILLIE JOHN ~

It gets no better when you have James Brown 

& 

Little Willie John together

JAMES BROWN ~

Spiegel & Grau (Random House)

2016

Pulling the curtain back on James Brown

with respect

THIS IS A MAN'S WORLD ~

WITH ME ~

It doesn't get much better than this — James Brown ratcheting it up through a Little Willie John tune, complete with lazy horns which sometimes pop like flashbulbs or downtown traffic horns, the maestro's voice deep in the groove. The ultimate song to discover as you start to settle into a music store's bins and this beauty comes on. It could change your life's direction. As Emily Dickinson was said to have said when she heard this song in a leafy Amherst, Massachusetts used music store: "It took off the top of my head."

I first heard this song years ago on a King LP I covet (own) titled Thinking About Little Willie John and A Few Nice Things — to die-for covers by JB.

The hardest working man in show business was born in South Carolina in 1933. An African American with Apache descent and Asian ancestry. Brown had a rough childhood: very poor, his mother hightailed it off with another man by the time he was ten, that left him with his father who taught him how to play harmonica and an aunt running a house of prostitution. In that house came Tampa Red who gave JB his first guitar lessons. Otherwise, he was hustling friends, survival on the streets, and answering life's messages — locked-up at age sixteen for armed robbery being one. While in lock-up he met another servant of gospel and rhythm & blues: Bobby Byrd, and really the rest is music history. Both men would pass away at age 73.

James Brown & Bobby Byrd in the groove

photo JB : emiliogrossi.com

TARHEEL SLIM ~

Not many speak any longer about Tarheel Slim (Allen Bunn).

Born in North Carolina in 1924, he played the circuit cutting songs with various groups, under either of his names, and with Little Ann.

Unforgettable records, like Wildcat Tamer/Number 9 Train
on the Fury label from 1958.

Rock 'n' roll was never finer. Wilder.

Tarheel Slim passed away in 1977.

Here are a few songs (all dynamos) that run through my mind when in the presence of Tarheel Slim ~




Ben E. King after The Drifters and playing into the upper reaches of R & B ~








Shuggie Otis, son of Johnny Otis, teenage wizkid musician via dad's great act, Al Kooper, Zappa, his own solo recordings done the same youthful ages Rimbaud worked his poetry. If anything, Shuggie Otis is a prelude to Prince to come ~








James Brown takes a few words and a few chords and the party is on ~











photos
tarheel slim: pete lowry
ben e. king: areavoices.com
shuggie otis:soundunwound.com
james brown: philspector.wordpress.com