“The foundation of James Brown’s music is his dancing.” While watching a documentary — Mike Judge presents…Tales from the Tour Bus — I heard writer RJ Smith uttered that statement and it kinda blew my mind. Filmmaker and writer Nelson George followed with “That’s how James Brown created funk…because the music was tied into his movement. Everything was tied into his body.”
As a young boy, Brown danced on street corners in Augusta, Georgia, where soldiers from a nearby camp would toss him coins in appreciation, which Brown claimed helped pay the family’s rent. Later, performing in bands as a teenager, bandmate Bobby Byrd would recall: “The dancing y’all seen later on ain’t nothing to what he used to do back then. James could stand flat-footed and flip over into a split. He’d tumble, too, over and over like in gymnastics. We’d say, ‘What’s wrong with you? When it’s time to record, you’ll have killed yourself.'”
Often we think of the music driving the dancers, with rhythmic changes leading to new and evolving dance styles. The idea that the funky power of James Brown’s music originated and was at its core emanating from his magnificent movement, however, turns that notion on its head.
See you on the dance floor. —Sean Donovan