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Friday Funk #12 – ‘You Can Have Watergate Just Gimme Some Bucks And I’ll Be Straight’ by The J.B.’s
Friday Funk #12 – ‘You Can Have Watergate Just Gimme Some Bucks And I’ll Be Straight’ by The J.B.’s
Friday Funk #12 – ‘You Can Have Watergate Just Gimme Some Bucks And I’ll Be Straight’ by The J.B.’s
Doing It To Death was a 1973 album by The J.B.’s, James Brown’s band. ‘You Can Have Watergate’ was a highlight, and before its appearance as the last track on the album, was previewed twice as a 14-second snippet on tracks 3 and 6.
Some vinyl releases credited the album to Fred Wesley & The JB’s. By this time, Wesley was leading Brown’s band. The original J.B.’s, featuring Bootsy and Catfish Collins, had had been disbanded. Brown wrote in his autobiography that he “revamped my group with Fred Wesley as the leader”, with Wesley, Jabo Starks, St. Clair Pinckney and Bobby Byrd as “the real nucleus.”
Wesley, who Brown called “a real innovator and a real creator as an arranger”, would soon be credited on several albums, such as Damn Right I Am Somebody and A Blow for Me, a Toot to You (the latter an album by Fred Wesley and the Horny Horns featuring Maceo Parker, during the pair’s time with P-Funk). Wesley would later release solo albums, most famously 1980’s House Party.
The call-and-response plays on Curtis Mayfield’s ‘Freddie’s Dead’, which was a big hit from the Super Fly album of the previous year. Brown sings, “Freddie’s dead!” and the band chant back, “No, he ain’t!” Brown says, “There’s Fred!” which cues Fred Wesley’s trombone solo.
The song is in five sections, alternating keys. The first section is built on upbeat dual guitars, and the second a lone guitar playing tenser chords over which the horn players solo.
Those dual guitars are mixed in opposite speakers and likely played by Hearlon “Sharp Cheese” Martin and Jimmy Nolen. These parts aren't quite as polyrhythmic as some Brown guitars, but the fact they vary in rhythm yet both play on the One adds extra emphasis to that beat. The guitar on the left leaves space in each bar after letting a chord ring, meaning the One is further emphasised when that guitar comes back in.
After introducing the refrain, “You can have Watergate / But gimme some bucks and I’ll be straight," there's an instrumental passage before it returns, allowing the riffs to become familiar.
Over the second section with the guitar playing uneasy, slightly distorted chords, Brown chants, “I need some money,” before a saxophone solo (which sounds more like Pinckney than Parker). Brown’s dragged out first syllable in “money” and the more sustained saxophone notes contrast with the scratchy guitar.
The third section returns to the dual guitars and the vocal refrain.
The fourth is back to the uneasy guitar, with Brown grunting on the One, then the "Freddie's dead!" call-and-response. Wesley plays a bluesy solo full of trademark energising phrases that make you want to wriggle. Then Brown’s grunts and Fred’s stabs of horn play off each other in a manner similar to ‘Make It Funky’.
The fifth section is an outro, returning to the dual guitars and the refrain.
The song is an example of how Brown discarded pop’s typical verse-chorus structure and was influenced by the space jazz arrangements gave to soloists, but is more structured than a loose jam like ‘Make It Funky’.
It’s mere speculation, but the title and refrain might have something to do with Brown’s work ethic. Brown was a hard worker by necessity, having been born into poverty, and worked since he was a child. He wrote of his first years, “I guess we lived about as poor as you could be.” When he was four years old, his parents split up, with one of his earliest memories being of his father saying, “Take your child,” and his mother replying, “You keep him, Joe, because I can’t work for him.”
Brown didn’t see his mother again for twenty years. He lived in shacks with his father as he moved from job to job. Brown started playing a ten-cent harmonica his father gave him when he was “about five years old”, and called it, “The best thing I remember from that time”.
Of course, later, one of Brown's several nicknames was The Hardest Working Man in Show Business.
Doing It To Death was a 1973 album by The J.B.’s, James Brown’s band. ‘You Can Have Watergate’ was a highlight, and before its appearance as the last track on the album, was previewed twice as a 14-second snippet on tracks 3 and 6.
Some vinyl releases credited the album to Fred Wesley & The JB’s. By this time, Wesley was leading Brown’s band. The original J.B.’s, featuring Bootsy and Catfish Collins, had had been disbanded. Brown wrote in his autobiography that he “revamped my group with Fred Wesley as the leader”, with Wesley, Jabo Starks, St. Clair Pinckney and Bobby Byrd as “the real nucleus.”
Wesley, who Brown called “a real innovator and a real creator as an arranger”, would soon be credited on several albums, such as Damn Right I Am Somebody and A Blow for Me, a Toot to You (the latter an album by Fred Wesley and the Horny Horns featuring Maceo Parker, during the pair’s time with P-Funk). Wesley would later release solo albums, most famously 1980’s House Party.
The call-and-response plays on Curtis Mayfield’s ‘Freddie’s Dead’, which was a big hit from the Super Fly album of the previous year. Brown sings, “Freddie’s dead!” and the band chant back, “No, he ain’t!” Brown says, “There’s Fred!” which cues Fred Wesley’s trombone solo.
The song is in five sections, alternating keys. The first section is built on upbeat dual guitars, and the second a lone guitar playing tenser chords over which the horn players solo.
Those dual guitars are mixed in opposite speakers and likely played by Hearlon “Sharp Cheese” Martin and Jimmy Nolen. These parts aren't quite as polyrhythmic as some Brown guitars, but the fact they vary in rhythm yet both play on the One adds extra emphasis to that beat. The guitar on the left leaves space in each bar after letting a chord ring, meaning the One is further emphasised when that guitar comes back in.
After introducing the refrain, “You can have Watergate / But gimme some bucks and I’ll be straight," there's an instrumental passage before it returns, allowing the riffs to become familiar.
Over the second section with the guitar playing uneasy, slightly distorted chords, Brown chants, “I need some money,” before a saxophone solo (which sounds more like Pinckney than Parker). Brown’s dragged out first syllable in “money” and the more sustained saxophone notes contrast with the scratchy guitar.
The third section returns to the dual guitars and the vocal refrain.
The fourth is back to the uneasy guitar, with Brown grunting on the One, then the "Freddie's dead!" call-and-response. Wesley plays a bluesy solo full of trademark energising phrases that make you want to wriggle. Then Brown’s grunts and Fred’s stabs of horn play off each other in a manner similar to ‘Make It Funky’.
The fifth section is an outro, returning to the dual guitars and the refrain.
The song is an example of how Brown discarded pop’s typical verse-chorus structure and was influenced by the space jazz arrangements gave to soloists, but is more structured than a loose jam like ‘Make It Funky’.
It’s mere speculation, but the title and refrain might have something to do with Brown’s work ethic. Brown was a hard worker by necessity, having been born into poverty, and worked since he was a child. He wrote of his first years, “I guess we lived about as poor as you could be.” When he was four years old, his parents split up, with one of his earliest memories being of his father saying, “Take your child,” and his mother replying, “You keep him, Joe, because I can’t work for him.”
Brown didn’t see his mother again for twenty years. He lived in shacks with his father as he moved from job to job. Brown started playing a ten-cent harmonica his father gave him when he was “about five years old”, and called it, “The best thing I remember from that time”.
Of course, later, one of Brown's several nicknames was The Hardest Working Man in Show Business.
Doing It To Death was a 1973 album by The J.B.’s, James Brown’s band. ‘You Can Have Watergate’ was a highlight, and before its appearance as the last track on the album, was previewed twice as a 14-second snippet on tracks 3 and 6.
Some vinyl releases credited the album to Fred Wesley & The JB’s. By this time, Wesley was leading Brown’s band. The original J.B.’s, featuring Bootsy and Catfish Collins, had had been disbanded. Brown wrote in his autobiography that he “revamped my group with Fred Wesley as the leader”, with Wesley, Jabo Starks, St. Clair Pinckney and Bobby Byrd as “the real nucleus.”
Wesley, who Brown called “a real innovator and a real creator as an arranger”, would soon be credited on several albums, such as Damn Right I Am Somebody and A Blow for Me, a Toot to You (the latter an album by Fred Wesley and the Horny Horns featuring Maceo Parker, during the pair’s time with P-Funk). Wesley would later release solo albums, most famously 1980’s House Party.
The call-and-response plays on Curtis Mayfield’s ‘Freddie’s Dead’, which was a big hit from the Super Fly album of the previous year. Brown sings, “Freddie’s dead!” and the band chant back, “No, he ain’t!” Brown says, “There’s Fred!” which cues Fred Wesley’s trombone solo.
The song is in five sections, alternating keys. The first section is built on upbeat dual guitars, and the second a lone guitar playing tenser chords over which the horn players solo.
Those dual guitars are mixed in opposite speakers and likely played by Hearlon “Sharp Cheese” Martin and Jimmy Nolen. These parts aren't quite as polyrhythmic as some Brown guitars, but the fact they vary in rhythm yet both play on the One adds extra emphasis to that beat. The guitar on the left leaves space in each bar after letting a chord ring, meaning the One is further emphasised when that guitar comes back in.
After introducing the refrain, “You can have Watergate / But gimme some bucks and I’ll be straight," there's an instrumental passage before it returns, allowing the riffs to become familiar.
Over the second section with the guitar playing uneasy, slightly distorted chords, Brown chants, “I need some money,” before a saxophone solo (which sounds more like Pinckney than Parker). Brown’s dragged out first syllable in “money” and the more sustained saxophone notes contrast with the scratchy guitar.
The third section returns to the dual guitars and the vocal refrain.
The fourth is back to the uneasy guitar, with Brown grunting on the One, then the "Freddie's dead!" call-and-response. Wesley plays a bluesy solo full of trademark energising phrases that make you want to wriggle. Then Brown’s grunts and Fred’s stabs of horn play off each other in a manner similar to ‘Make It Funky’.
The fifth section is an outro, returning to the dual guitars and the refrain.
The song is an example of how Brown discarded pop’s typical verse-chorus structure and was influenced by the space jazz arrangements gave to soloists, but is more structured than a loose jam like ‘Make It Funky’.
It’s mere speculation, but the title and refrain might have something to do with Brown’s work ethic. Brown was a hard worker by necessity, having been born into poverty, and worked since he was a child. He wrote of his first years, “I guess we lived about as poor as you could be.” When he was four years old, his parents split up, with one of his earliest memories being of his father saying, “Take your child,” and his mother replying, “You keep him, Joe, because I can’t work for him.”
Brown didn’t see his mother again for twenty years. He lived in shacks with his father as he moved from job to job. Brown started playing a ten-cent harmonica his father gave him when he was “about five years old”, and called it, “The best thing I remember from that time”.
Of course, later, one of Brown's several nicknames was The Hardest Working Man in Show Business.