Bass discovered Little Willie Littlefield (who sang the original version of "Kansas
City," "K.C. Lovin"), Guitar Lewis, Big Jay McNeely, Johnny Guitar Watson, and the Platters (Bass recorded the original version of "Only You"). But his greatest discovery for Federal was James Brown.
Bass told Lydon, "I was in Atlanta . . . and I heard a dub . . . it was so different that it knocked me out. A disc jockey and I drove to Macon in a pouring rainstorm. James was out on parole to his manager, a Macon promoter and club owner named Clint Brandly. I was told to meet Brandly by parking my car in front of a barbershop which was across the street from a railroad station, and when the venetian blinds went up and down, to come in."
All of this intrigue was to avoid the potential unpleasantries of a white/black meeting in the Jim Crow Macon of 1956. There was an even greater sense of urgency than normal because Leonard Chess was on his way, but Leonard had to fly from Chicago.
"They had no radar and all that jive they have today, and so he was grounded . . . I gave the cat $200, and that was that."
Bass produced Brown's first hit "Please, Please, Please." "This was a very young James Brown," recalls Bass. "He was so browbeaten with that shit down there . . . he used to call me Mister Ralph . . . I says, Well man, don't call me no Mister Ralph. Either call me Mister Bass or call me Ralph."
That kind of world might give one a bit of an attitude, don't you think?
The other story comes from '88 when the production and writing team Full Force (Lisa Lisa, UTFO, Samantha Fox, themselves) was brought to work with Brown for the I'm Real album.
Full Force's Brian "B-Fine" George has very vivid memories of working with James Brown. "When we did James Brown, people told us it's going to be rough: 'Mr. Brown likes things done a certain way.' We were like, 'Well he IS the godfather of soul. If he wants it done a certain way then we'll make it work.' Our thing was not to change things around, but just to bring James Brown back - make James Brown now.
Article comments
1 - andy
awesome awesome post Eric. When I had an apartment downtown before the man beat me down and forced me to move home, we used to have James Brown dance parties all the time. The fellas in the band and I would groove for hours to his jams. A serious influence on my music he is!
2 - Eric Olsen
Thanks Andy, sounds like a great time. Wew've got to ease on over to PA one of these days and hear you guys play.