What a drag on Boxing Day to find out James Brown passed away overnight.James Brown, the singer, songwriter, bandleader and dancer, who indelibly transformed 20th-century music, died early today at Emory Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta, where he been admitted on Saturday with pneumonia, his agent, Frank Copsidas, said. Mr. Brown was 73 years old and lived in Beech Island, S.C., near the Georgia border.Everything I know about funk, he taught me.
Mr. Copsidas said in an interview that Mr. Brown had participated in his annual Christmas toy giveaway in Atlanta on Friday, but had been hospitalized after a dentist he saw on Saturday for a routine visit advised him to see a doctor.
Mr. Brown’s condition did not seem to be life-threatening, Mr. Copsidas said. On the contrary, after cancelling performances planned for mid-week, Mr. Brown on Sunday night got his doctor’s approval for going ahead with a show on Saturday in New Jersey and one on New Year’s Eve at B.B. King’s nightclub in New York.
He said Mr. Brown used one of his best-known expressions to convey his determination to perform, saying, “I’m the hardest working man in show business, and I’m not going to let them down.”
Mr. Brown died at 1:45 am today as a result of congestive heart failure caused by the pneumonia, Mr. Copsidas said.
Along with “the hardest working man in show business,” over a career that lasted more than 50 years, Mr. Brown called himself "Mr. Dynamite," "Soul Brother No. 1," "the Minister of Super Heavy Funk" and "the Godfather of Soul," and he was all of those and more.
Mr. Brown’s music was sweaty and complex, disciplined and wild, lusty and socially conscious. Beyond his dozens of hits, Mr. Brown forged an entire musical idiom that is now a foundation of pop worldwide.
"I taught them everything they know, but not everything I know," he wrote in an autobiography.
So long, the Godfather of soul, and rest in peace!
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