000 Day Album Challenge (#38) James Brown: The Best of James Brown (1981) [07.02.24]

oh that I could will a radio here / James Brown singing / I Lost Someone or the Jesters and the Paragons…

so this is far from from my favorite James Brown record ever. it is probably decades since I last listened to it. I probably sold it or gave it away long before 2006 which is when I moved to Costa Rica and sold most of and gave away the rest of my 5000+ record collection. at the time, I’m sure I owned at least a half dozen other James Brown compilations in addition to quite a few of his studio albums.

The Best of James Brown is still quite important to my musical story and the development of my musical taste. buying this is when I began to scratch the surface of James Brown’s music. he is among the most important musical artists of the 20th Century. whole else you got – Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Ray Charles, Elvis, Chuck Berry, The Beatles, The Stones, Aretha, The Velvet Underground? for me, he sits atop that list. if you have him closer to the bottom that’s okay too. off the list? well then we ain’t gonna agree on much.

I’m not exactly sure when I bought this, but it was while I was at Bates College. I feel like I had spent some time checking out James Brown albums before buying this particular one. I didn’t really know for which songs I was looking. at the time, I think the songs I would have known were Cold Sweat, I Got You (I Feel Good), Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag, and It's A Man's, Man's, Man's World.

without a doubt, it was the inclusion of Lost Someone that tipped the scales for me. I had never heard it before buying this record, but I had listened to Piss Factory by Patti Smith dozens of times. it was her reference to “James Brown singing I Lost Someone” that made me want to hear it. I don’t know that I had specifically been looking for that. I just think that when I saw it on the cover I immediately thought, “hey that’s the song that Patti Smith sings about.” it then went in the buy pile.

Lost Someone is from the early sixties back when James Brown was establishing himself as “Soul Brother Number One.” he had not yet come down on the one to almost single-handedly create F U N K. Lost Someone is just one of at least a dozen R&B songs by James Brown from the fifties and early sixties that are absolutely essential listening. Try Me is another that is also included here. the rest are post-funk and likely on countless compilations.

so even though it might not be the best and there are many more that i will include on this list that I would recommend more highly because they are better programmed, better annotated, more exhaustive or all of the above, this one is the most important to me. it was the first and i will remember it always.

#1000DayAlbumChallenge #JamesBrown #TheBestOfJamesBrown #LostSomeone #PattiSmith #PissFactory