Record labels and live-music venues can't seem to pump out the instrumental funk fast enough these days. Bands such as the Greyboy Allstars and Galactic attract large followings by turning out the grooves in long-winded-jam form. Labelled everything from acid jazz to jam rock, the current crop of instrumental-funk artists owe their existence to the late-1960s-early-1970s work of James Brown.
The Godfather of Soul doesn't sing as much as offer well-timed exhortations and hypnotic repeated phrases delivered with passion and urgency. For the most part, he lets his super-tight JBs run the show, resulting in 73 minutes of irresistible, intoxicating, and exuberant funk.
Lyrically, Brown covers territory ranging from poverty, grief, corruption, greed, infidelity, and revenge to the simple pleasures of a good woman's love and "good food, warm bed, shoes, and clothes." A monotonous one-chord drone backs Brown's yells and screams on the title track. Brown was not only perfecting the funk groove, but also planting the seeds of rap and hip-hop. The ballad "Doing the Best I Can" returns Brown to his soul roots, carried by floating strings and buttery guitars, while the master delivers a stirring vocal performance.
On "Shoot Your Shot," the dueling horns of Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker move to the fore. Wesley (on trombone) and Parker (on alto sax) engage in two fierce battles as the band rolls on behind them. The boys bring it way, way down for the bluesy "Forever Suffering." Brown explodes while background vocalists provide eerie refrains. He injects a traditional African flavor into "Time is Running Out Fast." Brown's indecipherable chants and the surging bongos support powerful statements from Wesley and Parker. Both hornmen are masters at building intensity and sustaining excitement through long solo breaks. "Stone to the Bone" is the typical Brown "love vamp," as he boasts about his "good thing" and pounds on the organ. On the finale, "Mind Power," Brown steps out of character, as it were, to comment on the current (1973) state of affairs. Information, he says, is the key to escaping the ghetto.
Not only is The Payback an important political and social document, it also kicks some serious ass.
If you like James Brown, check out:
Funkadelic America Eats Its Young
The Meters The Meters
Sly and The Family Stone There's A Riot Goin' On
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion Xtra Acme USA
Parliament Mothership Connection
James Brown Live at the Apollo
Prince The Black Album
-- Marc Greilsamer
