Best moment from James Brown's 1988 interview with CNN.

Her response to "This is a maaaan's world" is priceless.

As much as I love the rest of the interview the opener is a blind-siding moment of comedy genius and I have to vote for it.

The interviewer here is superb btw.

I take "LIVIN' IN AMERICA" to be a legit answer to the interviewer's first question.

No way I could not vote for "I'm concerned 'cuz there's nothing wrong"

that JB was hardcore straightedge the entire time he was on top and only slid into sherm-smoking insanity in his old age is more depressing than anything else.

did not know that!

Yeah, he used to fire members of his band for drug abuse.

well, sure.

God I love this video. It's remained among my "4 or 5 best things that justify the existence of Youtube" since 2007-ish.

This is a nice HQ version that I haven't seen before.

"Out on love! ALONE FROM NIGHT TO NIGHT YOU'LL FIND ME!" vs "Let's talk about some music!" vs "The women love you out there" ... "Why's that, ladies?" vs "HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" vs "TED, WHERE Y'AT!?"

I read "The One" recently (great book btw) and it documents how, crazy and monomaniacal as he was, he was clean living until he started to slide into obscurity in the mid-80s. He didn't want to be an oldies relic, but there was no way he could stay on top commercially and critically either, and so at some point he just stopped giving a fuck and started smoking weed laced with angel dust on his farm and well it was all downhill from there. It's weird, I can't think of any other performer (certainly not of his stature) with no history of drug abuse, just becoming a crazed junkie in his old age. it's a bummer.

xp

Charlie Watts?

Like a closeted man beating up gay kids, teetotalism is an acknowledgment that alcoholic tendencies exist. It wouldn't surprise me if Prince became a bourbon man in his old age.

only things I can see you missed were one "dankeschoen" in the middle, and the ending "hasta luego".

Other than that, I guess I'll go with "I'm concerened cuz there's nothing wrong" just because he's even got himself twisted up by that point

I thought this was going to be the interview that went
Q: "were you high on crack?"
A: "I'm high on GOD! Haaah!"

Prince is not a teetotaler fwiw

xp

well he may be now but he wasn't always

As much as I love the rest of the interview the opener is a blind-siding moment of comedy genius and I have to vote for it.

man this interview plays like a dickie goodman record. the williams brothers were (are? it's been fifteen years seen i've seen them) a pretty great group. had to vote for the opener for it's noted blind siding quality plus 'funny cuz it's true'.

Also OTM:

Her response to "This is a maaaan's world" is priceless.

xpost

oh I dunno. He allegedly took a hit of X in '87 or '88. The bios I've read said he liked clean alcohol-free activities like ball and barbeques.

yeah prince apparently had a bad ecstasy experience around the time of the black album drama, was expecting something closer to 7-up iirc.

But every christmas he drinks banana daquiris til he's blind

fuck, i forgot that first line... "How did all of this trouble begin?" A: "LIVIN' IN AMERICA!"
that might actually be the winner. this poll is not easy.

"I'm concerned 'cuz there's nothing wrong"

As much as I love the rest of the interview the opener is a blind-siding moment of comedy genius and I have to vote for it.

Yep. Still ... "WAIT A MINUTE, I JUST GOT HERE!"

"HELLO TED! ... Huh? Whadjasay?"

"Other" vote FYC: "Joseph P. Young is the editor. And James Brown is one of the advisers."

he hired the editor of 'Loaded!' ?

Wow, how have I never seen this before? Thank you internets!

Three way tie for the opener, "concerned cuz there's nothing wrong" and HAAAAAAAAAA!!!!, but this is really wall to wall gold.

voted "thanks for reminding us of that" ("sometimes we forget") easy

I like his little look around the room when he says "Why's that, ladies?"

I really like the flat-out denial of this too:

"You're out on bond" ... "No I'm not!"

"AND MAKE LOVE GOOD!" getting too little love up in here. That TMI nugget was seared in my brain the first time I saw this clip.

I'm taken aback by how completely I'd forgotten about Dr. Sonya Friedman

She wants to give him the third degree, but she gets charmed by him anyway.

I'm having a tough time voting anything over

"Yeah, I'm eligible, I'm single... I wanna mingle!"

man this interview plays like a dickie goodman record.
^^this. I was thinking of posting a link to or an embed of "Mr. Jaws."

All right, for the youngsters:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIzkq0VC_A8

Voted for "SEX MACHINE, GET UP OFFA THAT THING, I FEEL GOOD! ... JAAAAM!"

same, primarily because of the way he annunciates JAAAMMMM

the part where he all of a sudden tries to talk about his gospel magazine is totally when you come home late in high school wasted and your parents are up waiting for you and you're all of a sudden trying to be all serious and adult but your mouth won't work

the part where he all of a sudden tries to talk about his gospel magazine is totally when you come home late in high school wasted and your parents are up waiting for you and you're all of a sudden trying to be all serious and adult but your mouth won't work

― dollar rave club (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, April 24, 2014 9:25 PM (54 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Hahahahahaha! Yes, totally this!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

same, primarily because of the way he annunciates JAAAMMMM

― lauded at conferences of deluded psychopaths (Sparkle Motion), Thursday, April 24, 2014 8:27 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yup, exactly this! :D

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

There was no real wrong answer to this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6V82PTJgDw

Aargh.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6V82PTJgDw

who were his minders at this point? or did he have any? don't get me wrong, i'm glad this happened, but if there was no one to pull JB aside and say, "JB, you're too fucking high to go on CNN" well... it explains a lot (i.e. what JB was up to in the 1980s and 1990s).

as far as soul singers' drug addictions go, I'm partial to ray charles's "yeah, I take heroin, fuck off" approach

my publisher used to work in the concert promotion and hates ray Charles so much said he was the meanest dude, just called her a bitch and treated her like shit for no reason

By the late 80s JB didnt have any handlers iirc. Not that he was ever one to take advice from anyone anyway, but by the late 80s he was pretty much constantly off the rails, preoccupied with a codependent self-destructive relationship w another addict, financially insolvent etc.

But yeah yuk it up guys

Yes I know you hate to disparage celebrities on the Internet

tbf shakey's always pretty respectful of the dead

Most celebrities are not the massive cultural force that James Brown was. If u had to distill 20th century music down to two people imo it would be Louis Armstrong for the first half and JB for the second. So yeah seeing him make such a mess of himself later in life is more depressing than funny. To me anyway.

a grown man whose bragged about having torture fantasies about female celebs and justified it w/ 'women shouldn't go on tv if they don't want this kind of attention' trying to claim the moral high ground over ppl laughing at an old youtube clip is hilarious. to me anyway.

Slander

hey he said we can yuk it up

Never gets old

not like the two winners here are empty poignancy-free lulz

And yeah go ahead and laugh I dont care. Comedy is not universal.

exactly how important or influential does someone need to have been before it's frowned upon to laugh at them being drugged out during a tv interview?

Most celebrities are not the massive cultural force that James Brown was. If u had to distill 20th century music down to two people imo it would be Louis Armstrong for the first half and JB for the second. So yeah seeing him make such a mess of himself later in life is more depressing than funny. To me anyway.

― How dare you tarnish the reputation of Turturro's yodel (Shakey Mo Collier), Saturday, April 26, 2014 12:51 PM (37 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is OTM.

Elvis isn't armstrong or JB, so fair game for mocking his rx pill-fueled goof ups, right?

I think the argument started when James Brown was lumped in with "celebrities." It's not as if that interview was the equivalent of a Lindsay Lohan interview -- unless you think JB and Lohan occupy the same cultural/historical space.

so since you worship the guy, you get to look down upon anyone who doesn't, awesome

kinda agree that it's more sad than funny but fuck playing the tsk tsk game

tarfumes you aiming to be the bianchi to shakey's buono?

I didn't say or imply that I'm looking down on anyone, nor am I admonishing anyone for laughing at this. I agree with Shakey that the interview is more depressing than anything else.

I think for a lot of people (myself included), any comic reaction to things like this is in large part a reflex/defense mechanism to the embarrassment-by-proxy initial reaction to the situation anyway

By the late 80s JB didnt have any handlers iirc. Not that he was ever one to take advice from anyone anyway, but by the late 80s he was pretty much constantly off the rails, preoccupied with a codependent self-destructive relationship w another addict, financially insolvent etc.

― How dare you tarnish the reputation of Turturro's yodel (Shakey Mo Collier), Saturday, 26 April 2014 16:21 (1 hour ago) Permalink

But yeah yuk it up guys

― How dare you tarnish the reputation of Turturro's yodel (Shakey Mo Collier), Saturday, 26 April 2014 16:22 (1 hour ago) Permalink

i feel bad

and here you get to feel that about both the interviewee and the interviewer, that slightly queasy fear of social awkwardness, now magnified by TV exposure

Anyone who beats their wife w a lead pipe and then goes on TV immediately after and act like this is fair game imo.

Yeah but she's not a cultural force

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7erl9k01C2M

That JB was by all accounts an awful person on a personal level is also depressing imo

Most celebrities are not the massive cultural force that James Brown was. If u had to distill 20th century music down to two people imo it would be Louis Armstrong for the first half and JB for the second. So yeah seeing him make such a mess of himself later in life is more depressing than funny. To me anyway.

― How dare you tarnish the reputation of Turturro's yodel (Shakey Mo Collier), Saturday, April 26, 2014 12:51 PM (37 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is OTM.

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Saturday, April 26, 2014 12:29 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah, but it's also funny. in addition to JB being high, the video also shows JB being legitimately eccentric and funny, which he was/could be throughout his career.

the video is _both_ depressing and funny. that should be possible, right?

Shit, the sunglasses he was wearing were depressing and funny.

Is there a thread of bands/artists that sound great but you wouldnt want to be a part of?

Im thinking Buddy Rich, Prince, James

The Beatles, The Byrds, oh wait.

Pretty much any band except the VU or the Modern Lovers, in which cases I would actually enjoy the psychodrama.

Black Flag seemed like a pain in the arse to be a part of

lynyrd skynyrd IIRC

You gotta be able to handle life in The Shed to be in Black Flag

Nobody said Necessary?

Well this was unnecessary:
https://youtu.be/oFLPz-wp-VA

It's weird, I can't think of any other performer (certainly not of his stature) with no history of drug abuse, just becoming a crazed junkie in his old age. it's a bummer.

― How dare you tarnish the reputation of Turturro's yodel (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, April 22, 2014 10:46 PM (three years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Charlie Watts?

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, April 22, 2014 10:49 PM (three years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Like a closeted man beating up gay kids, teetotalism is an acknowledgment that alcoholic tendencies exist. It wouldn't surprise me if Prince became a bourbon man in his old age.

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, April 22, 2014 10:50 PM (three years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

If only it was bourbon! :(

Herbie Hancock documented his struggles with crack, which he started getting into well into his 50s. Closer to the JB camp, Fred Wesley got caught up in it too, at a similar time. Neither one of them indicated they had addiction issues prior to that point, although neither were they exactly sober. Maybe there's something about being in the game for so many years, and past your prime, so to speak, where some boredom sets in and the money is there so it just kind of happens.