James Brown is DEAD! This effects me sooooo much! Heck, I even had
a party years ago when he got out of jail! Friends, I am crushed. The first time I ever danced at a party it was to James Brown. James had the power and strength as a supreme being to move me, an over protected, self conscious adolescent, to cut loose from the wall and dance! He set me free...
I saw him once be the half time entertainment at a University of Georgia football game. He performed "Dooley's Junkyard Dogs" (which he wrote for the Georgia Bulldogs) wearing a red jumpsuit on a flatbed trailer in the middle of the field all by himself. EVERYONE in that huge stadium was dancing and screaming! WOW.
James Brown, the dynamic, pompadoured "Godfather of Soul," whose
rasping vocals and revolutionary rhythms made him a founder of rap,
funk and disco as well, died early Monday, his agent said. He was 73.
Brown died of congestive heart failure related to pneumonia,
according to entertainment lawyer Joel Katz, who announced the cause
of death at a brief press conference at 4:30 p.m. Monday at the Hyatt
Regency in Atlanta. Brown had been sick with what appeared to be a
chest cold for several weeks. It had worsened over the last few days.
Brown was hospitalized with pneumonia at Emory Crawford Long Hospital
over the weekend and died around 1:45 a.m. Monday, said his agent,
Frank Copsidas of Intrigue Music.
His longtime friend and personal manager Charles Bobbit said he was
with Brown in the hospital room at Crawford Long when he died. Bobbit
said at one point on Christmas Eve, Brown said "I'm going away tonight."
At about 1:45 a.m. on Christmas Day, Bobbit said Brown "sat down on
the bed, laid back on the foot of the bed, and sighed three times.
Then he closed his eyes and he was dead."