James Brown was like most of the truly great artists and creators in the world. When he was good, he was brilliant and when he was bad, man, that cat was super bad. Through his many trials and tribulations, no artist ever so richly deserved the title “the hardest working man in show business” as James Brown, and few, if any, will leave the impact on popular music and culture that he did. He changed the way people thought about rhythm, about song structure, language, and the importance of giving 110% on stage every time. There will never be another like him.

Some people will probably be offended by the following clip being posted on the heels of his death, but I would say to those people that this clip from Sonya Live in L.A. just goes to show his humanity and his ability to demonstrate complete confidence in the face of aversion.

I mean, when you’re eulogizing someone, you can’t just look at all the good things they did in life — you gotta laugh about the crazy shit they did that made them who they were and how it didn’t change your respect for their gifts. James Brown was more than just a musician and a performer — his public persona, his career highs and lows, had dramatic impact. I don’t want to focus on the negative and I’m not speaking ill of the deceased — far from it in fact. I mean, I didn’t know the man. But I hope that in retrospect, Brother James might be laughing at us from up on high that we remain fascinated by things like this — that people who cared about him might still see it and go, “Yep, James sure did do some crazy things and we still loved him in spite of it all.”

I found it on YouTube, and I share it with you because it makes me laugh and smile when I see this almost every single time. I’m not really laughing anymore.

Maybe James Brown just finally said, “You know what? They want to have me on CNN to talk about this? Well, I’m going to take control of the conversation and talk about what I want to talk about.” God rest your soul and thank you for the blessed and wonderful gifts you gave to us, for your humanity, for the struggle, for it all.

Listen To James Brown - Living In America

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