Superbad

 

There was a time

 

I don't want nobody to give me nothing

Open up the doe

I'll get it myself

 

Get up off of that thang

Greedy man

Clinton vs Bush

That's what we are offered and asked to choose

Although it seems like it would be a hoot and a half to have a republican run on the Democratic ticket along side a democrat running on the Republican ticket I guess we are just not sophisticated enough to have that much fun.

The thing that that is most galling about this system is seeing the highest office in the land passed back and forth between families like a gag fruitcake during the holidays.  I used to know that this was a bad thing. I thought democracy was supposed to facilitate a meritocracy. 

But as I get older I no longer know things that I thought I once knew for certain.

I thought it was no longer possible for large numbers of people to be convinced to follow a madmen

I thought that third world tyrants are always worse than the alternative.

I thought having only two dominant political parties limit the number of contenders for public office was a barrier to democracy.

In the end, we have an ignorance based democracy and I guess something has to protect us from ourselves.

I feel good

There was a time

I may not do the dance
as well as you
But, baby you can bet your bottom dollar
You'll never hear me holler
I'll do the best that I can do

The Boss

There was a time

Please please please

All aboard

Come on, everybody, say it loud

 We sing and we talk

Make it funky

Payback is a mother

I was fortunate enough to see The Godfather of Soul once or twice live while he was still in his prime, with the full power and majesty of the JBs on display and in effect including half nekkid dancing girls. It was truly a thing to behold, especially for an impressionable and musically oriented young fellow.

I can tell you, I witnessed live shows for 99% of everybody who was anybody in the 70's and truly, James Brown was in fact the hardest working man in show business. I won't sit here and tell I remember how long the show lasted. But I can tell you by the time he took is last bow, I was exhausted and ready to go home.

It was loud, sweaty and funky beyond comprehension. There was shit happening that I had never seen before. The horn players were twirling horns, doing choreographed dance routines and playing syncopated hit it and quit it licks on their instruments that simply defied the laws of physics. Don't let anybody fool you, Walmart and Toyota didn't have shit on JB when they thought they invented Just In Time delivery. You literally found yourself rooting for them to get the horn to their lips and make it to the mic in time to hit that one one note. I mean there was so much going on on stage that the spectacle of it all was enough to give you an epileptic fit.

And there wasn't a whole bunch of talking to the audience either, about bullshit nobody didn't want to hear. It was just a man and his band, putting in work.

And to think that by the 80's it was all gone. Not just JB but the whole music scene was one big gelatinous pile of highly produced, under talented, over hyped crap. I really do pity young people today who have never seen a real band perform music so funky you had to burn your clothes after the show.

Sigh!

One mo for good measure

Get Involved

Not just a side man, but "THE" side man. Arguably, the greatest wing man of all time. Without Bobby Byrd there is no James Brown (several times over). Without James Brown the course of western civilization takes a completely different tack.

Sure JB was the hardest working man in showbiz, but the funk he rode to the top was not his own. The funk was in large part created and fueled by he of the call and response.