Sleep In Heavenly Peace

James Brown

1933-2006

Anybody who can claim to know me well can tell you that funk music courses through my veins and pretty much keeps me upright and mobile throughout my waking days. So there is nothing I can say to accurately capsulate my feels on the loss of someone who made such an impact on my musical life.

My early teens first hearing "Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine, Pt.1" and "Get Up Offa That Thang", his minimalist funk style unlike anything I had ever heard. Memories of Christmas 1987 being home from college and dancing for hours in the glow of my parents' Christmas tree to "Think" and trying to do the splits just like James did. How for awhile in 1990 I didn't let a single day go by without blasting "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag", which even as a diehard P-Funk fan I had still never heard anything so earth-skaking funky in my whole life. I saw James live in 1993, and of course by then he was an old man and couldn't quite bring the energy that once fueled the performances of his youth. But I remember sitting behind an older man who spent the entire concert on his feet, flailing his arms arms and screaming "PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE!" until I thought he was going to pass out right in front of me. The influence he had on others of many generations was palpable in that venue that night.

I hope you finally find some peace.

Love,

Your Funk Soul Sister