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Friday Funk #18 – ‘My Thang’ by James Brown
Friday Funk #18 – ‘My Thang’ by James Brown
Friday Funk #18 – ‘My Thang’ by James Brown
Today would have been James Brown’s 91st birthday. This Friday Funk celebrates The Minister of New New Super Heavy Funk, with one of his heaviest funk tracks ever.
James Brown’s album Hell is 50 years old this year, and still sounds fresh as a daisy. (Wait – there’s probably a less 18th century way to describe something fresh.)
‘My Thang’ is one of several tracks on Hell to open with a mysterious gong sound. "Mysterious" because nobody on the entire internet has an explanation for the gong. James Brown doesn’t explain it in his autobiography – he doesn’t even mention the album. That would be fairly understandable, given he released over 50 studio albums, if it wasn’t for Hell being one of his best. (Hell includes other difficult things to explain, like a funk version of ‘When The Saints Go Marching In’.)
The album’s full of potent bass lines, bouncy drums and hungry vocals from Brown, as well as a seven-piece (probably – details are scant) horn section contributing plenty of foot-tapping riffs.
‘My Thang’ is one of the finest examples of Brown utilising the One, with the bass, horns and his short “Squeeze me / Hold me” lines in the bridge section all hitting that first beat hard. Brown’s short phrases and the two-note horn riff allow for space, meaning when the notes do come they hit heavier. Rolling drums throughout the bridge and a double-time bass fill towards the end do the legwork, ensuring each bar has forward momentum.
From 5 seconds in, after the gong, 'My Thang’ is hard funk. It might be the heaviest funk Brown ever laid down. Unlike a track like ‘Hell’ (ironically, given the title), which has moments of levity and even sounds jolly at times, ‘My Thang’ is scew-your-face-up nastiness. The bass is unignorable, mixed front and centre and driving the song. In the verses, it leaves a couple of beats every two bars for the drums to carry the song, adding extra impact to each One on the bridge sections.
The guitar during the bridges has an unusual amount of sustain for a Brown track. In the verses, the chords are short and tight, but in the bridges the chords ring out. From 3:10, the guitar actually switches to that bridge part earlier than the rest of the instruments, anticipating the change of section. It may have been a deliberate decision, but given Brown’s tendency to capture ideas when they were new, it suggests that the song wasn’t fully worked out before its recording.
Shortly before the fadeout, Brown repeats a new phrase. Multiple sources online have this down as "Help me close". Drummer Clyde Stubblefield (who played on songs such as ‘Sex Machine’ and ‘Say It Loud - I’m Black and I’m Proud’) discussed how Brown would record without fully fleshed out lyrics. At first, this might appear to be a case where even Brown doesn't know what the words are, but on repeated listening and with insight from another track, 'Can I Get Some Help', it becomes clear he's actually singing, "Help me cross."
Of course! We should have known: James Brown loved bridges. "I wanna cross that bridge", "Lemme cross the bridge", "Lemme cross it" he sings on 'Can I Get Some Help'. It's likely that 'My Thang' was originally a longer song – Brown tracks were often cut down from longer takes. Another bridge section may have followed.
Asides from adding to the bulging collection of James Brown lyrics about bridges, is any of this important? Brown’s annunciation may have sometimes been sloppy, but his vocals on ‘My Thang’ sound incredibly urgent. He cries during the bridge and snarls “Satisfied” in the last verse, and even those “Help me cross” lines have an intensity that mean it doesn’t matter what the words are.
In the final few seconds, Brown conjures a new melody that could be the basis of another song: “Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme.” Even James Brown's fadeouts had hooks.
Today would have been James Brown’s 91st birthday. This Friday Funk celebrates The Minister of New New Super Heavy Funk, with one of his heaviest funk tracks ever.
James Brown’s album Hell is 50 years old this year, and still sounds fresh as a daisy. (Wait – there’s probably a less 18th century way to describe something fresh.)
‘My Thang’ is one of several tracks on Hell to open with a mysterious gong sound. "Mysterious" because nobody on the entire internet has an explanation for the gong. James Brown doesn’t explain it in his autobiography – he doesn’t even mention the album. That would be fairly understandable, given he released over 50 studio albums, if it wasn’t for Hell being one of his best. (Hell includes other difficult things to explain, like a funk version of ‘When The Saints Go Marching In’.)
The album’s full of potent bass lines, bouncy drums and hungry vocals from Brown, as well as a seven-piece (probably – details are scant) horn section contributing plenty of foot-tapping riffs.
‘My Thang’ is one of the finest examples of Brown utilising the One, with the bass, horns and his short “Squeeze me / Hold me” lines in the bridge section all hitting that first beat hard. Brown’s short phrases and the two-note horn riff allow for space, meaning when the notes do come they hit heavier. Rolling drums throughout the bridge and a double-time bass fill towards the end do the legwork, ensuring each bar has forward momentum.
From 5 seconds in, after the gong, 'My Thang’ is hard funk. It might be the heaviest funk Brown ever laid down. Unlike a track like ‘Hell’ (ironically, given the title), which has moments of levity and even sounds jolly at times, ‘My Thang’ is scew-your-face-up nastiness. The bass is unignorable, mixed front and centre and driving the song. In the verses, it leaves a couple of beats every two bars for the drums to carry the song, adding extra impact to each One on the bridge sections.
The guitar during the bridges has an unusual amount of sustain for a Brown track. In the verses, the chords are short and tight, but in the bridges the chords ring out. From 3:10, the guitar actually switches to that bridge part earlier than the rest of the instruments, anticipating the change of section. It may have been a deliberate decision, but given Brown’s tendency to capture ideas when they were new, it suggests that the song wasn’t fully worked out before its recording.
Shortly before the fadeout, Brown repeats a new phrase. Multiple sources online have this down as "Help me close". Drummer Clyde Stubblefield (who played on songs such as ‘Sex Machine’ and ‘Say It Loud - I’m Black and I’m Proud’) discussed how Brown would record without fully fleshed out lyrics. At first, this might appear to be a case where even Brown doesn't know what the words are, but on repeated listening and with insight from another track, 'Can I Get Some Help', it becomes clear he's actually singing, "Help me cross."
Of course! We should have known: James Brown loved bridges. "I wanna cross that bridge", "Lemme cross the bridge", "Lemme cross it" he sings on 'Can I Get Some Help'. It's likely that 'My Thang' was originally a longer song – Brown tracks were often cut down from longer takes. Another bridge section may have followed.
Asides from adding to the bulging collection of James Brown lyrics about bridges, is any of this important? Brown’s annunciation may have sometimes been sloppy, but his vocals on ‘My Thang’ sound incredibly urgent. He cries during the bridge and snarls “Satisfied” in the last verse, and even those “Help me cross” lines have an intensity that mean it doesn’t matter what the words are.
In the final few seconds, Brown conjures a new melody that could be the basis of another song: “Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme.” Even James Brown's fadeouts had hooks.
Today would have been James Brown’s 91st birthday. This Friday Funk celebrates The Minister of New New Super Heavy Funk, with one of his heaviest funk tracks ever.
James Brown’s album Hell is 50 years old this year, and still sounds fresh as a daisy. (Wait – there’s probably a less 18th century way to describe something fresh.)
‘My Thang’ is one of several tracks on Hell to open with a mysterious gong sound. "Mysterious" because nobody on the entire internet has an explanation for the gong. James Brown doesn’t explain it in his autobiography – he doesn’t even mention the album. That would be fairly understandable, given he released over 50 studio albums, if it wasn’t for Hell being one of his best. (Hell includes other difficult things to explain, like a funk version of ‘When The Saints Go Marching In’.)
The album’s full of potent bass lines, bouncy drums and hungry vocals from Brown, as well as a seven-piece (probably – details are scant) horn section contributing plenty of foot-tapping riffs.
‘My Thang’ is one of the finest examples of Brown utilising the One, with the bass, horns and his short “Squeeze me / Hold me” lines in the bridge section all hitting that first beat hard. Brown’s short phrases and the two-note horn riff allow for space, meaning when the notes do come they hit heavier. Rolling drums throughout the bridge and a double-time bass fill towards the end do the legwork, ensuring each bar has forward momentum.
From 5 seconds in, after the gong, 'My Thang’ is hard funk. It might be the heaviest funk Brown ever laid down. Unlike a track like ‘Hell’ (ironically, given the title), which has moments of levity and even sounds jolly at times, ‘My Thang’ is scew-your-face-up nastiness. The bass is unignorable, mixed front and centre and driving the song. In the verses, it leaves a couple of beats every two bars for the drums to carry the song, adding extra impact to each One on the bridge sections.
The guitar during the bridges has an unusual amount of sustain for a Brown track. In the verses, the chords are short and tight, but in the bridges the chords ring out. From 3:10, the guitar actually switches to that bridge part earlier than the rest of the instruments, anticipating the change of section. It may have been a deliberate decision, but given Brown’s tendency to capture ideas when they were new, it suggests that the song wasn’t fully worked out before its recording.
Shortly before the fadeout, Brown repeats a new phrase. Multiple sources online have this down as "Help me close". Drummer Clyde Stubblefield (who played on songs such as ‘Sex Machine’ and ‘Say It Loud - I’m Black and I’m Proud’) discussed how Brown would record without fully fleshed out lyrics. At first, this might appear to be a case where even Brown doesn't know what the words are, but on repeated listening and with insight from another track, 'Can I Get Some Help', it becomes clear he's actually singing, "Help me cross."
Of course! We should have known: James Brown loved bridges. "I wanna cross that bridge", "Lemme cross the bridge", "Lemme cross it" he sings on 'Can I Get Some Help'. It's likely that 'My Thang' was originally a longer song – Brown tracks were often cut down from longer takes. Another bridge section may have followed.
Asides from adding to the bulging collection of James Brown lyrics about bridges, is any of this important? Brown’s annunciation may have sometimes been sloppy, but his vocals on ‘My Thang’ sound incredibly urgent. He cries during the bridge and snarls “Satisfied” in the last verse, and even those “Help me cross” lines have an intensity that mean it doesn’t matter what the words are.
In the final few seconds, Brown conjures a new melody that could be the basis of another song: “Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme.” Even James Brown's fadeouts had hooks.