James Brown – You Mother You
James Brown – Can Mind
James Brown – Sho Is Funky Down Here
How have I not featured this record before??? It’s only my favorite mysterious funky record of all-time. I first heard about it through a mix-tape from the Bay Area’s Funky Riddms where he linked up classic tracks from Hip-Hop’s golden era with the samples. He’d mixed this massive acid rock break with the closing of Main Source’s epic anti-police brutality song “Just A Friendly Game of Baseball” and I just had to know what the original was. Luckily I’d been in the Bay Area long enough to have met Riddm a few times and I was able to track him down and figure out the original. To my shock and dismay he said it was a James Brown break from this LP.
What remains sorta shocking is just how hard this album rocks. It sho is funky, but it’s almost a straight acid rock/blues LP. Not the kind of thing you’d expect in the James Brown catalog. The reason for that is mysterious enough. A number of people who dig this record are convinced that James isn’t really involved with the session at all (aside from a few minor vocals and bit more of a rap on “Sho Is Funky”) and that this is the second “secret” album from the Grodeck Whipperjenny, a psychedelic group out of Cincy that was headed up by David Matthews (and not that OTHER Dave Matthews, no relation at all). I can vaguely remember Matthew Africa intimating as much during a conversation at KALX, that the album was really all David Matthews. While it’s clear from comparing the Grodeck’s only LP to this that it’s the same backing group, I still think there’s a chance that some of the keyboard playing on the LP is from James Brown, sometimes matched up with David Matthews. Some of the lines have that sorta stunted punchy phrasing that James had on the keys, but until someone finally spills the beans about this session we’ll likely never know.
Ultimately I don’t even care, all I care is that the album smokes because of Kenny Poole’s fuzz guitar and the massive drums from Jimmy Madison. The best representation of the sonic fury on this LP is “You Mother You,” I’ve talked about this song before here, and I still haven’t heard many tracks that are heavier than this one, especially when it comes to the break that got flipped by Main Source and even on the first example of sampling JB’s music, by James Brown himself for the rock version of “Talkin’ Loud And Sayin’ Nothing.” Massive Massive Massive! With only 6 tracks, it’s just a shame there weren’t more sides from this session, but who knows, somewhere there might be a few instrumental tracks related to this LP and this band.
One other thing that really surprises me about this album, is how Grand Pupa pulled the sample for “One For All” from “Can Mind” off this record.
Even after I knew “Can Mind” was the break I couldn’t seemingly never find it in the song. Eventually I realized that he pulled it by taking the final note from the organ and the few seconds of clean drums that follow to make that loop. It’s almost like a secret break, which is fitting given the “secret” nature of the LP. Fantastic anyway you cut it.
Cheers,
Michael