Tuesday, February 15, 2005

James Brown and Funky Memories

According to nme.com, the highly Advanced James Brown will be playing the Oxygen Festival. Other acts are The Streets, Kasabian, Foo Fighters, Prodigy and Ian Brown "who are all playing the festival at Punchestown Racecourse, Ireland on July 9 and 10." One of my great memories of living in New York was accidentally seeing James Brown in concert. I was in Central Park with a five-year-old kid I used to take care of, and as we were throwing a ball back and forth, I heard music coming from a venue in the park. I thought it sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite make out who it was. After some convincing, the five-year-old consented to go check it out. As we got nearer, I realized that it must be James Brown. Sure enough, it was the Godfather of Soul himself. You needed a ticket to get in, but I could just make out what was happnening onstage. I put the kid on my shoulders so he could get his first glimpse of the legendary James Brown, and I tried to explain to him the significance of it all. He didn't really grasp it, and I'm sure he has forgotten all about it now, but it's still a good memory.

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