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Posted: 2007 02-12
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Christina Aguilera channels James Brown at the 2007 Grammy Awards in LA
Listen to this clip LOUD!
If there’s a better single-song vocal performance this millennium I’d like to see it.
At age 26, just six weeks after The Godfather of Soul joined the great revue in the sky, the music industry’s governing body chose, of all living singers, a hundred-pound, five-foot, half-Irish “white” girl to pay the industry’s final respects to a guy who pretty much invented an entire idiom of music. It’s not Aretha?? Nope. Not Whitney? Not Stevie? Not Bootsy, Prince or Michael? They picked who? What?
And out from the smoky history of soul, strides this tiny white girl, in white clothes, with white hair to deliver the benediction to the blackest man in show business. “The Grammys suck,” you’re thinking as you reach for the remote, not sure if this is Britney or Paris or whichever of those ridiculous teen tarts . . . but as you do, you notice this sorta Sinatra swagger. “Huh?” And just before your fingers reach the buttons she reaches the mike and delivers that first line — then throws the microphone aside with this commanding confidence that so belies her years . . . and the audience she’s performing in front of . . . and the significance of the tribute she’s about to deliver.
First, she serenades the tender prelude, then launches into this vocal growl more manly and menacing than Ike Turner. “How does this voice come out of that body?” about 30 million people are asking at once.
And you can see her just bouncing within the song, hardly able to keep the explosives un-lit, dancing a double beat through every pause, just dying for that next line like a junkie.
And suddenly you start noticing the mike technique, especially after hitting and holding the opera high note, and how she’s gotta pull the thing as far away from her as she can and she’s STILL speaker-poppin' loud! As she lets fly, and cracks and snaps but never breaks — and you’re thinking of every James Brown scream you ever heard — and how the heavens of unbridled joy break free in every exaltation, she’s not only delivering the song, she’s delivering the man, into the house, bringing him home, making him live beyond his day — almost breaking down, but not breaking a sweat — and the only thing missing is James himself.
Then it reaches this point where she actually does break down to the ground, and you can tell by the camera miscues it wasn't rehearsed, and she just goes, looses it, transcends, goes to that other place. And her bouncing between lines! You can see her exploding within the song, thrusting her conductor’s baton of a mike stand to every beat, and all over the world mouths have dropped open, not sure they’re seeing what they’re seeing — and then POW!
She hits the climax! The final line — when she gets to the word “nothing” and holds it for about a week, and THEN after she’s delivered this note that James could never have held in his healthiest years, she STILL has the breath to deliver the final phrase — articulately, soulfully and goosebumpingly scary.
I've never seen anyone do that, big or small, black or white, male or female. Even Aretha — and she had some lungs!
And you’re just like, “This isn’t possible. Sumpthin’s not right.” And then you watch it again. And again.
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Retrieved from Wikipedia:
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3 days 16 hours ago
Read the original article on Wikipedia
It's A Man's Man's Man's World on Wikipedia
| "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Single by James Brown | |
| from the album It's a Man's Man's Man's World | |
| B-side | "Is It Yes or Is It No?" |
| Released | April 1966 (1966-04) |
| Format | 7" (mono) |
| Recorded | February 16, 1966, Talent Masters Studios, New York, NY |
| Genre | Rhythm and blues, soul |
| Length | 2:52 |
| Label | King |
| Writer(s) |
|
| Producer | James Brown |
| James Brown singles chronology | |
"It's a Man's Man's Man's World" is a song by James Brown and Betty Jean Newsome. Brown recorded it on February 16, 1966 in a New York studio and released it as a single later that year. It reached #1 on the Billboard R&B chart and #8 on the Billboard Hot 100.[1][2] Its title is a pun on the 1963 comedy film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
The song's lyrics, which Rolling Stone characterized as "almost biblically chauvinistic",[3] attribute all the works of modern civilization (the car, the train, the electric light) to the efforts of men, but claim that it all would "mean nothing without a woman or a girl." Brown's co-writer and onetime girlfriend, Betty Jean Newsome, wrote the lyrics based on her own observations of the relations between the sexes. In later years, Newsome would claim that Brown didn't write any part of the song and argued in court that Brown sometimes forgot to pay her royalties.[4]
The composition of "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" developed over a period of several years. Tammy Montgomery, better known as Tammi Terrell, recorded "I Cried", a Brown-penned song based on the same chord changes, in 1963. Brown himself recorded a demo version of the song, provisionally entitled "It's a Man's World", in 1964. This version later appeared on the CD compilations The CD of JB and Star Time.
The released version of "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" was recorded quickly, in only two takes, with a studio ensemble that included members of Brown's touring band and a string section arranged and conducted by Sammy Lowe. A female chorus was involved in the recording sessions, but their parts were edited out of the song's final master.[5]
"It's a Man's Man's Man's World" became a staple of Brown's live shows for the rest of his career. Its slow, simmering groove and declamatory vocal line made it suitable for long, open-ended performances incorporating spoken ruminations on love and loss and sometimes interpolations from other songs. It appears on almost all of Brown's live albums starting with Live at the Garden. Brown also recorded a big band jazz arrangement of the song with the Louie Bellson Orchestra for his 1970 album Soul on Top.
In 2004, "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" was ranked number 123 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.
Personnel
- James Brown - lead vocal
with studio band:
- Dud Bascomb - trumpet
- Waymon Reed - trumpet
- Lamarr Wright - trumpet
- Haywood Henry - baritone saxophone
- Ernie Hayes - piano
- Billy Butler - guitar
- Bernard "Pretty" Purdie - drums
Other players, including trombone, bass and strings, unknown
Arranged and conducted by Sammy Lowe[6]
Cover versions
The song has been recorded by many artists in various idioms over the years.
- Lucio Dalla included it in the 1966 (the same year of its first recording by James Brown) in his album '1999'.
- The MC5 covered the song in 1970 on their live album Teen Age Lust, the song is also on the soundtrack to The Runaways movie.
- It was the first hit single for Australian singer Renée Geyer, who recorded it for her 1974 album It's a Man's Man's World.
- Grand Funk Railroad covered the song in 1983 on their album "What's Funk?".
- The Residents covered the song in 1984 to promote their album George and James,[7] despite it not appearing on that album. A music video was also created.
- Van Morrison released a live version on his double album A Night in San Francisco in 1994.
- Cher recorded it on her 1995 album It's a Man's World.
- Mountain recorded it on their 1996 album Man's World.
- Marla Glen recorded it on her album Our World in 1997.
- Sekouba Bambino,[8] a Guinean singer well known in West Africa, released a cover version on his 2002 album Sinikan.
- Natacha Atlas recorded it on her 2003 album Something Dangerous under the simplified title "Man's World".
- Christina Aguilera performed a critically acclaimed rendition of the song as a posthumous tribute to James Brown at the 2007 Grammy Awards. Her performance has been voted as the 3rd Most Memorable Grammy Performance of all time.
- Celine Dion performed the song as a part of her 2008-2009 Taking Chances Tour.
- Seal recorded the song for his 2008 album Soul and released it as the second single from the album.
- Michael Lynche sang the song during the ninth season of American Idol.
- The cast of Glee, featuring Quinn Fabray (Dianna Agron) covered the song during season one's twenty-first episode, entitled "Funk", and released it as a single. Quinn was trying to represent the suppressed feeling women feel from men.[9]
- The song was covered by Mary Byrne during the first live show of series seven of The X Factor. Fellow finalist Paije Richardson had also performed it as his second audition song after judge Louis Walsh gave him a second chance following his colleague's refusal to put Richardson through to the next round.
- It is also a popular song for live performances, having been performed in concert by such artists as Govt. Mule and The Grateful Dead.
- Tom Jones recorded it, and it's available on the album The Soul of Tom Jones
- Dave Meniketti, the frontman of the hard rock band Y&T covered this song on his solo album "On The Blue Side".
- Joss Stone recorded it on her first album The Soul Sessions" live at Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., on December 7, 2003.
- Tom Andrews a UK YouTube contributor performed the song during The Ellen DeGeneres Show on 16th September 2010. This followed a short interview and preceded Ellen's announcement of him being the second signing to her record label eleveneleven.
- Gienek Loska, the winner of the first series of Polish X Factor, sang the song several times during the season.
- Shannon Noll, Australian pop/rock musician has recorded a version of the track for his upcoming fourth studio album A Million Suns
- Etta James, covered the song in 2006 on her album "All The Way"
- Bebi Dol covered the song in 2006 on her album Čovek rado izvan sebe živi.
- Karen Cartwright (Katherine McPhee) sang the song on the Smash episode Let's Be Bad.
- Juliet Simms performed the song on an episode of the The Voice (U.S.).
- Joshua Ledet and Elise Testone sang the song during the eleventh season of American Idol.
- Karise Eden performed the song on the Australian version of The Voice.
- This song was featured on the My Wife and Kids episode, "The Proposal".
- That Handsome Devil covered the song on their 2010 EP Hating New People.
- This is the song piece in the face-off between Judith Hill and Karina Iglesias on the Battle Rounds of The Voice (U.S.) Season 4
Sampling
- Michael Jackson samples the brass introduction from the song for "Bad".
- "It's A Man's World" by Ice Cube from his 1990 album AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted samples this song.
- The trumpet introduction was sampled by the Wu-Tang Clan for their 2001 song "Gravel Pit" and by Nigerian-Greek rapper MC Yinka in the song "Χαιρετισμός" (Chairetismos) from his album "Αλάνα" (Alana).
- 2Pac used a sample on the song "Tradin War Stories" from his 1996 album All Eyez on Me.
- Rapper Beanie Sigel used a sample for his song "Man's World" from his 2001 album The Reason.
- The song is also sampled on Alicia Keys' song "Fallin'".
- Macy Gray sampled on her song "Ghetto Love" on her album "Big".
- The song is also sampled on Guilty Simpson's song "Man's World" produced by J Dilla.[10]
- The song was most recently[when?] sampled in a live performance by Jennifer Hudson as the prelude to her cover of Aretha Franklin's classic, "Respect".
- The hip hop band Heavy D & the Boyz, sampled the musical introduction as the same on their track "You Ain't Heard Nuttin' Yet" for the album titled Big Tyme.
- Best version by Rachel Ara recorded live at Mas du Diable 2012
Answer songs
Neneh Cherry released the answer song "Woman" on her 1996 album Man in response to the chauvinism of the original.
The band Napalm Death released the song "It's a M.A.N.S World!", which attacks and parodies the ideas of chauvinism and patriarchy ideas, on their 1988 album From Enslavement to Obliteration.
References
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 84.
- ^ White, Cliff (1991). "Discography". In Star Time (pp. 54–59) [CD booklet]. New York: PolyGram Records.
- ^ It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World: James Brown : Rolling Stone
- ^ http://www.villagevoice.com/2007-12-18/music/it-s-a-woman-s-world/
- ^ White, Cliff, and Harry Weinger (1991). "Are You Ready for Star Time?". In Star Time (pp. 29) [CD booklet]. New York: PolyGram Records.
- ^ Leeds, Alan, and Harry Weinger (1991). "Star Time: Song by Song". In Star Time (pp. 46–53) [CD booklet]. New York: PolyGram Records.
- ^ http://www.theresidents.co.uk/discography/more/its_a_mans_world.html
- ^ http://membres.lycos.fr/sbambino/index.htm
- ^ http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003N079GW/
- ^ http://www.thewire.co.uk/articles/831/
External links
- Song Review from Allmusic
- Full lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
Brian,
My name is Jaime, and I would just like to compliment you on your accuracy & being so articulate in your review! You nailed it, everything about this performance. From her swagger, to "Delivering the man into the house, bringing him home, making him live beyond his day!"!
I loved every word of your writing as much as I loved every word of her performance! I can't remember the last time I read something so well written & full of passion! How good of you to give her as awesome a tribute, as she gave our Godfather Of Soul!
YOU ROCK, BRIAN=0)
I have had this utube video in my favorites forever now, and after watching it about 10 times today (each time tearing up as she hits that first note & then all the way through), I thought to myself I wonder if there's any footage of people's reactions to her performance. So I googled just that, & your article was the first thing to pop up. Even though I wanted to see people's live reactions at the Grammy's, I read on anyway.
Let me just tell you that you completely embodied every thought that I had, and every emotion I experienced, from beginning to end, the first time I watched that performance, & every time since! Thank you so much for writing this. She deserves this accolade, I couldn't imagine anyone else bringing our BIG DADDY OF SOUL into the house & home that night! I know he is proud of her and thankful that she helped him go out on a note like that!!!
And man can you write! You should be proud of yourself for expressing and putting into words what everyone else was thinking that night, including the Godfather himself. Bravo to you, Bravo to Christina, and Bravo to James Brown the man who started it all=0)