The Worst Christmas Ever

James Brown Dies On Christmas Day 2006

James Brown died today. James Brown died today? Impossible. The father of the UNSTOPPABLE GROOVE? Died? This man...



... died?

As I write this, exactly thirteen hours have passed since I heard the news on Temple's 90.1 while opening presents with my family this morning. I am now listening to one of those Urban reissue LPs that includes "Give It Up or Turnit A Loose", an alternate take of that song, "Get On The Good Foot", and "Make It Funky." All at once, I recall all the many happy memories that I have had listening to and enjoying James Brown's music. I remember listening to "Sex Machine" with Crazy Carl in the original Publications Office and breaking out into a series of awkward thrusting gyrations that would later come to be known as "The Mrs. Day Dance." I remember bringing a copy of In the Jungle Groove to some hip kids' dorm room in college and getting immediate respect. I remember getting drunk that night and dancing on one of their beds to "Funky Drummer." There was the time when Chris, Nick and I freaked out to "Get On The Good Foot" at one of Nick's Lampoon parties. I remember staying up until three one morning listening to the entirety of The Payback. I couldn't get over the record's peculiar beauty. It was so fucking real.

This hurts too much. James had a way of just making you feel better about yourself, a way of putting a little smirk on you face. Somehow, I felt safer knowing that he was still around. Knowing that for all the terribly egregious Bono performances, James Brown was still grooving. But now the groove has died, and Soulwax have become the deepest assholes in the world.