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James Brown Quotes

James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, organist and bandleader. A progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century popular music and dance, he is often referred to as the "Godfather of Soul". In a career that spanned six decades, he influenced the development of several music genres.

Brown began his career as a gospel singer in Toccoa, Georgia. He joined an R&B vocal group, the Gospel Starlighters , in which he was the lead singer. First coming to national public attention in the late 1950s as a member of the singing group The Famous Flames with the hit ballads "Please, Please, Please" and "Try Me", Brown built a reputation as a tireless live performer with the Famous Flames and his backing band, sometimes known as the James Brown Band or the James Brown Orchestra. His success peaked in the 1960s with the live album Live at the Apollo and hit singles such as "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag", "I Got You " and "It's a Man's Man's Man's World". During the late 1960s he moved from a continuum of blues and gospel-based forms and styles to a profoundly "Africanized" approach to music-making that influenced the development of funk music. By the early 1970s, Brown had fully established the funk sound after the formation of the J.B.s with records such as "Get Up Sex Machine" and "The Payback". He also became noted for songs of social commentary, including the 1968 hit "Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud". Brown continued to perform and record until his death from congestive heart failure in 2006.

Brown recorded 16 singles that reached number one on the Billboard R&B charts. He also holds the record for the most singles listed on the Billboard Hot 100 chart which did not reach number one. Brown has received honors from many institutions, including inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame. In Joel Whitburn's analysis of the Billboard R&B charts from 1942 to 2010, James Brown is ranked as number one in The Top 500 Artists. He is ranked seventh on the music magazine Rolling Stone's list of its 100 greatest artists of all time. Rolling Stone has also cited Brown as the most sampled artist of all time.

✵ 3. May 1933 – 25. December 2006
James Brown photo
James Brown: 22   quotes 14   likes

Famous James Brown Quotes

“Try me. Try me.
And your love will always be true.
Oh I need you (I need you).
Hold me. Hold me.
I want you right here by my side.
Hold me. Hold me.
And your love we won't hide.”

James Brown

Try Me, from Please Please Please (album) (1959)
Song lyrics

“To make it in life, you and your wife need to be in the same business. That has been my problem all along. My wives didn't know what I was doing. I would come back home from the road to a stranger. That's no good.”

James Brown

Brown, J. & Tucker, B. (2003). James Brown: The Godfather of Soul, p. 266. Thunder's Mouth Press: New York. ISBN 1-56025-388-6

“This is a mans world.
This is a mans world.
But it would be nothing, nothing
Without a women or a girl.”

James Brown

It's a Man's Man's Man's World, written with Betty Jean Newsome, from It's a Man's Man's Man's World (1966)
Song lyrics

“I'm the most sampled and stolen. What's mine is mine, and what's yours is mine, too … I got a song about that … But I'm never gonna release it. Don't want a war with the rappers. If it wasn't good, they wouldn't steal it.”

James Brown

"Being James Brown," Rolling Stone Magazine, 2006-06-12.

“I'm going away tonight.”

James Brown

Last words as quoted by James Brown to Charles Bobbit, his longtime personal manager, just minutes before death on December 25 2006

“Sometimes you struggle so hard to feed your family one way, you forget to feed them the other way, with spiritual nourishment. Everybody needs that.”

James Brown

Brown, J. & Tucker, B.B. (1986). James Brown: The Godfather of Soul. Macmillan: New York. ISBN 0-02517-430-4

James Brown Quotes about people

“Look a'here, some people say we got a lot of malice
Some say it's a lotta nerve
I say we won't quit moving
Til we get what we deserve.
We've been 'buked and we've been scourned
We've been treated bad, talked about
As just as sure as you're born
But just as sure as it take
Two eyes to make a pair, huh
Brother, we can't quit until we get our share.Say it loud,
I'm black and I'm proud.”

James Brown

Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud, written with Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis (1968)
Song lyrics

“When I'm on stage, I'm trying to do one thing: bring people joy. Just like church does. People don't go to church to find trouble, they go there to lose it.”

James Brown

Brown, J. & Tucker, B.B. (1986). James Brown: The Godfather of Soul. Macmillan: New York. ISBN 0-02517-430-4

“Mama, come here quick,
Bring me that lickin' stick.
Mama, come here quick,
Bring me that lickin' stick.
People standin',
Standin' in a trance.
Sister out in the backyard
Doin' the outside dance.”

James Brown

Licking Stick – Licking Stick, written with Bobby Byrd and Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis (1968)
Song lyrics

“My expectations of other people, I double them on myself.”

James Brown

James Brown Quotes

“When you kiss me,
And ya miss me.
You hold me tight,
Make everything all right.
I break out - in a cold sweat heh!”

James Brown

Cold Sweat, written with Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis (1967)
Song lyrics

Kiss

“It doesn't matter how you travel it, it's the same road. It doesn't get any easier when you get bigger, it gets harder. And it will kill you if you let it.”

James Brown

Brown, J. & Tucker, B.B. (1986). James Brown: The Godfather of Soul. Macmillan: New York. ISBN 0-02517-430-4

Travel

“Don't terrorize. Organize. Don't burn. Give kids a chance to learn … The real answer to race problems in this country is education. Not burning and killing. Be ready. Be qualified. Own something. Be somebody. That's Black Power.”

James Brown

Statement on national TV during the 1968 riots in Washington, DC after the Martin Luther King assassination. http://likethedew.com/2010/04/26/james-brown-and-his-changing-times-rockin-the-white-house-8

Education , Problem , Learning , Chance

“When I hold you in my arms,
I know that I can't do no wrong.
And when I hold you in my arms,
My love can't do me no harm.And I feel nice, like sugar and spice
I feel nice, like sugar and spice.
So nice, so nice, well I got you.”

James Brown

I Got You (I Feel Good), from I Got You (1966)
Song lyrics

Love , Feeling

“Our love is kind of stalled, baby.
But it ain't about the sex.
I'd trade the roses and the negligees
If we could just connect.
I go deeper when you look into my eyes.
There's a place where neither one of us can hide.
And it's up to us to reinvent the game.
Love it when you call my name.”

James Brown

I Got the Feelin (1968)
Song lyrics

Love , Sex , Game , Baby

“Get up,
Get on up.
Stay on the scene.
Get on up,
Like a Sex Machine.
Get on up,
Get up.
Shake your arm,
Then use your form.
Stay on the scene, like a Sex Machine.
You gotta have the feeling,
Sure as you're born.”

James Brown

Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine, written with Bobby Byrd and Ron Lenhoff (1970)
Song lyrics

Sex , Feeling

“I would warn against anyone marrying a person with more than a ten-year age difference. It almost never works. It is difficult to find things to talk about, to use similar reference points, and to operate at the same speed of life. Another problem is that both sides usually don't want the same things at the same time.”

James Brown

Brown, J. & Eliot, M. (2005). I Feel Good: A Memoir of a Life of Soul , pp. 247-248. New American Library: New York. ISBN 0-45121-393-9

Life , Age , Problem , Time

“Come here sister… Papa's in the swing.
He ain't too hip… about that new breed babe.
He ain't no drag,
Papa's got a brand new bag.”

James Brown

Papa's Got a Brand New Bag' (1965)
Song lyrics

Sister

“This is an issue couples have to be straight on and agree on before they walk down that aisle; otherwise there is no way their marriage will survive.”

James Brown

On having children — as quoted in Brown, J. & Eliot, M. (2005). I Feel Good: A Memoir of a Life of Soul, p. 248. New American Library: New York. ISBN 0-45121-393-9

Marriage , Way

“Watch me … watch me!
I got it!
Watch me … I got it.
HEY!I got somethin' that makes me wanna shout.
I got somethin' that tells me what it's all about.
Huh, I got soul and I'm super bad!”

James Brown

Super Bad (1970)
Song lyrics

Soul

“Hair is the first thing. And teeth the second. Hair and teeth. A man got those two things he's got it all.”

James Brown

Brown, J. & Tucker, B.B. (1986). James Brown: The Godfather of Soul. Macmillan: New York. ISBN 0-02517-430-4

“Manhood is what we profess, and what we try to get across.”

James Brown

Pop Chronicles: Show 51 - The Soul Reformation: Phase three, soul music at the summit. (Part 7) https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc19832/m1/#track/5, recorded 1.7.1970 http://archive.is/w3aj.

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