The One: The Life and Music of James Brown

Drawing on in-depth interviews with Brown%E2%80%99s many friends and music partners, journalist Smith powerfully chronicles Brown%E2%80%99s rapid rise from his early days in Augusta, Ga., singing gospel through the pinnacle of his fame in the late 1960s and early 1970s to Brown%E2%80%99s sharp fall from grace in the 1990s with headline-grabbing arrests for domestic battery. Brown loved the spectacle of religion that the famous religious itinerant preacher, Daddy Grace, put on at the United House of Prayer in Augusta, and he learned rhythm from the house band there. Later, in his own shows, Brown got so caught up in the spectacle of entertaining that he became a force unto himself whose hungry passion and energy%E2%80%94expressed forcefully and fitfully through his trembling dancing and call-and response singing%E2%80%94transformed his audiences. Brown%E2%80%99s music still sounds so alive and continues to mystify because Brown brought others into a world he created that made his art a total experience. Through the pulsing rhythms of %E2%80%9CPapa%E2%80%99s Got a Brand New Bag,%E2%80%9D the funky, hypnotic beat of %E2%80%9C(Get on the) Good Foot,%E2%80%9D and the Black Power anthem, %E2%80%9CSay It Loud,%E2%80%9D Brown, as Smith demonstrates, reshaped rhythm and blues, pumping it full of an energy that moved listeners to ecstasy. Smith%E2%80%99s compelling and detailed portrait of one of our greatest musicians reveals affectionately and honestly the reasons we jump up every time %E2%80%9CI Feel Good%E2%80%9D comes on the radio. (Mar.)