The death of one of America’s most celebrated soul music artist, James Brown, last Sunday in Augusta, Georgia, marked the end of a long musical career starting a life journey of a modest shoe shine boy.

James who rose from the slums and doldrums of chequered life trying his hands in the trade or profession of boxing finally landed in the arena of music.

James music had a tremendous impact on young Ghanaian musicians rising up at the time during the 1960 and 70s music groove. The impact was so great on our music landscape that it caused the emergence of early local soul singers like the late Elvis J. Brown, P. P. Dynamite and Ray Otis of the defunct Black Beats Band, led by Tommy Darling.

This same impact on our music scene influenced a spot in Accra to be named Apollo Theatre which still functions today as a centre of entertainment especially for live shows.

James Brown will be remembered for the role he played as a spokesperson for blacks in racial disturbances in the early sixties.

He was not being called Godfather of Soul for nothing, nor can we imagine the rise of funk in the seventies with Brown ground breaking grooves without his exemplary band, the JBS, in the sixties.

Along with his revolutionary slogan ‘Say it loud I am black and proud,’ James Brown became a medium for messages of black pride during the volatile late 1960s, that he became a spokesman and a role model for African Americans and found himself being consulted by influential politicians to call publicly for peace during nation wide rioting in 1968.

His debut track when he was with the Flames freaked up at the R and B charts and became a soulful tune mixed with the secular realism of the blues laced with emotional flavour of gospel.

Source: Spectator