Weirdest and Best James Brown Cover Versions
Sorry I haven’t put out a newsletter yet this week! I’m traveling on the East Coast (going to Readercon this weekend) and haven’t had time to write anything new. So please enjoy this thing I wrote ages ago, which I never got around to publishing before…
Weirdest and Best James Brown Covers
James Brown made some of the most influential, irresistible music of all time, along with some brilliant musicians like Clyde Stubblefield, Fred Wesley, Maceo Parker and Jimmy Nolen. So it's not surprising that his work has been blessed with some wonderful cover versions — as well as some distinctly odd novelty recordings.
First of all, if you haven’t hunted down a copy of Chuck D & the Slamjammz Artist Revue’s James Brown tribute Tribb to JB (pictured above), do yourself a favor and get a copy now. It’s chock full of JB covers that rock super hard, featuring vocals by Kyle Jason. Also! Bootsy Collins went on tour in 2008 with a James Brown impersonator named Tony Wilson and did some incredible shows featuring kick-ass versions of songs like “Soul Power” and “Superbad” featuring former JB sidemen like Fred Wesley and Johnny Griggs. For a while there was a DVD for sale, but now I can’t find it. But there is a YouTube video:
Fred Wesley himself also released a JB tribute album featuring Bootsy and some others, which has some terrific moments. But leaving those explicit tribute projects aside, here are the best and weirdest JB covers of all time, according to me…
Best James Brown covers:
Living Colour, "Talking Loud and Sayin' Nothin'". This song started off as a rocker, and Living Colour brings it back there. Also highly recommend Lucky Peterson's cover version.
Snoop Dogg & Soopafly, "Jimmy's Revenge". From the Bones movie soundtrack — this is actually a brilliant cover of "The Payback"
Albert King, "Cold Sweat". This song was covered by everybody, but Albert King's version just smacks the shit out of the rest.
Grant Green, "Ain't It Funky Now" and "I Don't Want Nobody To Give Me Nothin' (Open Up the Door, I'll Get It Myself)". Jazzy grooves only bring out the grittiness of these late-60s gems. Also highly recommended: George Duke's "Ain't It Funky Now."
P-Funk All Stars, "It's Too Funky In Here". This B-side feels like a lost Fred Wesley and the Horny Horns jam, and it just does not quit.
The 103rd St Watts Rhythm Band, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag". Yeah yeah, Otis Redding's cover of this song is iconic, but as previously discussed in this newsletter, the 103rd St. Watts Rhythm Band had the greatest rhythm section of all time. And this track proves it. (Also great in a different way: Roger Troutman's bouncy synth-funk "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag")
The Jackson 5, "There Was a Time". George Clinton used to say that Michael Jackson had mastered James Brown's vocal stylings, and this cover goes a long way toward proving it.
Aretha Franklin, "Money Won't Change You". An underrated James Brown banger about upward mobility gets a whole new lease on life from the Queen of Soul.
D'Angelo and Tom Jones, "(Get Up, I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine". Seriously, just listen. Tom Jones is Bobby Byrd here. It's wonderful.
Jaco Pastorius, "The Chicken". Couldn't really leave this one out — though honestly pretty much any cover version of "The Chicken" is worth savoring. (See also: Walter "Wolfman" Washington covering "The Chicken" at New Orleans Jazz Fest.)
Weirdest James Brown Covers:
The Human League, "Rock Me Again and Again and Again and Again and Again and Again". J.B.'s duet with Lyn Collins becomes a synth-pop song with robotic vocals, and... it almost works? (Skip to about 4:08 in the video below.)
The Flying Lizards, "(Get Up, I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine". More robotic vocals. Someone in the 80s really thought it was funny to replace James Brown's famous growl/squeal/shout with a flat monotone.
Information Society, "Make It Funky". Okay, fine, these are almost all robotic vocals from the 1980s. There was a moment, and it was very odd.
Lassigue Bendthaus, “Superbad”. Thanks to John for alerting me to this one. Lassigue Bendthaus is the name producer Uwe Schmidt used for his electro/industrial projects, and this cover version from his 1998 Pop Artificielle album is another one with electronic vocals, proclaiming a robot’s absolute superbadness.
Don Fleming, "People Wake Up And Live". But here, at last, is a non-robot-based James Brown cover that is still exceedingly weird. From a tribute CD called Superbad @ 65, this is a cover of an obscure song from one of Brown's late 70s albums. The original version is basically one long rant over an instrumental backing, and Sonic Youth producer Don Fleming takes the rant to new levels of screaming, eventually sounding as if an overdose is happening in the studio. I got rid of my copy of Superbad @ 65 years ago, and alas this track is unfindable online, but I remember it being a LOT.
OK that’s it from me. Please let me know YOUR favorite JB cover — or if I overlooked a bizarro moment in Brown covers, please do share.
If you’re at Readercon, I’ll see you this weekend. Otherwise, I’ll be back with a proper full-length newsletter next week!