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James Brown...dead at 73
James Brown...dead at 73
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Steve19;696610; said:Fun story on his death.
My mother was a typical 1960s white, lower middle-class, housewife. Think "the hair", polyester, and no real experience of anything except Southern Ohio folks just like herself. Muhammad Ali, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, the civil rights movement -- these were things happening somewhere other than the then all-white Northland area of Columbus. I don't think she really understood anything about African American culture then...I'm certain that she would not have even heard of James Brown.
In the early 1970s, she and my father saved up for their dream vacation and went to Jamaica. They had a great time and on the way back, James Brown, the Godfather of Soul himself, sat in a window seat next to my Mom in economy class because he did not have a ticket and did not want to wait for the next flight.
To say that my mother is talkative is to say that Bill Gates has earned a little money. I have always wondered how this man lived through that flight from Jamaica to Detroit.
Her side of the story was about this "nice man" that she met who had the same name as Jim Brown, the Cleveland Browns legend and a favorite of hers (she was a keen sports fan). I remember her saying, "So, I told him, he can be Jim and you can be Jimmy. He really seemed to like that. He said he was a musician and that he played soul music."
My Dad said that other African American passengers asked him what it had been like to travel with "the Godfather of Soul". He could only say that James Brown "seemed like a really nice guy."
I had to leave the room about ten years ago when James Brown was on television and my mother called my Dad saying, "hurry, Jimmy is singing on TV."
Jimmy (link)
I am aware of the arrests and other problems that dogged the life of James Brown. To this day, I appreciate the kindness that James Brown showed to my mother, who must have been about as far from his fanbase as anyone in the world. It said a lot to me about who and what he really was.