THE GODFATHER OF SOUL

10 — JAMES BROWN CHANGES THE RULES

There are few artists in popular music whose influence can be heard simply by listening to the drums.

James Brown is one of them.

Brown had started his recording career producing R6B in the late 1950’s for Federal records before moving across to the parent label King records.

Not to be confused with Roy James Brown, who began his career writing for King in the late 1940’s and provided the hit record ‘Good Rocking Tonight’, a Jump Blues 78 released on DeLuxe in 1947, which James Brown covered 20 years later in 67.

James Brown would go on to be known globally as the Godfather of Soul, but eventually, Soul wasn't enough.

Brown wanted rhythm. More rhythm, less decoration and less unnecessary movement.

The band had to lock together. Every musician had to understand exactly where the beat was and how to speak with the drummer.

And gradually, Brown began stripping his music down.

The melody became less important, with the emphasis placed on the groove.

The bass and drums became the focus and the guitar became percussion. The horns became rhythmic punctuation, and suddenly the band wasn't simply accompanying the singer. The band became a machine.

A rhythmic machine.

Listen to the progression. From "Please, Please, Please." to "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag."

Then check out "Cold Sweat.", "Mother Popcorn." and "Funky Drummer."

You can hear the transformation happening in real time.

Soul was being stripped down to expose the rhythm. And this was the birth of Funk.

11 — THE GROOVE BECOMES THE SONG

The revolutionary thing about Funk wasn't simply that it had a heavy beat. 

Lots of music had a strong beat but Funk changed the role of rhythm.

In conventional songwriting, rhythm supports the song, but In Funk, rhythm became the song.

The bass isn't just supporting the chords, the bassline is a hook. 

The guitar isn't playing the chords, It’s providing the percussion.

The drummer isn't just keeping time, he’s driving the groove.

The horns don't carry the melody, they punctuate the groove. 

And the musicians don't have to keep changing sections, they can sit comfortably inside the groove.

Repeat it. Push it. Pull it. 

Drop something in or cut something out, and keep the listener locked in the pocket.

That was revolutionary. The emphasis shifted from: "What happens next?" to "What’s happening now?"

And this is the point where Soul becomes Funk. 

Soul had given Funk its foundations.

Funk simply changed the priority.

Soul said: Feel this.

Funk said: Feel this groove.

12 — GIVE THE DRUMMER SOME

Perhaps the clearest example of this transformation can be heard in the work of Clyde Stubblefield.

Stubblefield joined James Brown's band in the mid-1960s alongside fellow drummer John "Jabo" Starks.

Together they formed one of the most important rhythm sections in recorded music.

Brown demanded precision. But he also demanded feel.

The drums weren't there simply to keep time. The Kick, Snare, and Hat needed to resonate with precision and power and together they had to create movement.

Tracks such as "Cold Sweat", "Mother Popcorn" and "Ain't It Funky Now" demonstrated how far the drums could be pushed while remaining locked into the groove.

Then came "Funky Drummer".

Recorded in 1969 and released in 1970, the track contained a relatively short drum break that would eventually become one of the most important pieces of recorded rhythm in modern music.

Brown famously tells Stubblefield to give the drummer some, and Stubblefield responds.

The result is a loose, syncopated groove full of ghost notes, accents and tiny imperfections.

Fun Fact: 

Clyde once said in an interview with Marley Marl, “We would be in the studio, just sitting around waiting. I’d start with something like that, then the bass joined in, then the guitar came in. We just had our groove on, when James comes in and says, ‘Let’s make a song out of that.’ He started singing and we had the song: nobody planned it!”

That imperfection was the magic, it sounded human and it sounded real.

And decades later, thousands of producers would discover that those few seconds could be isolated, looped, chopped and rebuilt into entirely new compositions.

At the time of its recording, nobody could have known what was coming.