MERGED ----> James Brown hospitalized + R.I.P. James Brown.... + James Brown Dead...

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europop2005

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James Brown hospitalized

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- James Brown, the legendary singer known as "the Godfather of Soul," is being treated for "severe pneumonia" at an Atlanta hospital, his agent told CNN Sunday.

Brown -- who is 73-years-old -- was admitted to Emory Crawford Long Hospital on over the weekend. He is not in intensive care, said Super Frank, his agent.

Brown is one of the pioneers of soul music, famous for his frenetic dance moves and his piercing vocal style.

"Papa's Got a Brand New Bag," "Please Please Please" and "Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud" are among his many hits.

The singer canceled shows this week in Waterbury, Connecticut, and Englewood, New Jersey, but is expected to be ready to perform again on Saturday at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey, Super Frank said.

Brown is scheduled to perform two shows New Year's Eve at the B.B. King Blues Club & Grill followed by a stint across Canada in January.

He will also be performing a song for Anderson Cooper's New Year's Eve special on CNN.

Super Frank said Brown was in Atlanta for an appointment with his dentist when his health problems were detected.
 
this all so sad.... the godfather of soul has passed away folks...


This is what was on CNN's ticker at the top of the page tonite..


Entertainer James Brown, the "Godfather of Soul," has died, his manager confirms. Details soon


:sad: Rest in Peace JB!
 
Wow... I actually did a double-take reading the headline. He's one of those guys I thought would live forever. lol.
 
Oh my. That happened fast...I just read that he was in the hospital, but expected to perform on New Year's Eve.

:(
 
R.I.P James Brown.....

Well, the godfather of soul has gone to that great concert venue in the sky......may he rest in peace.

+++++++++

From the CNN website:

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- James Brown, the dynamic, pompadoured "Godfather of Soul," whose rasping vocals and revolutionary rhythms made him a founder of rap, funk and disco as well, died early Monday, his agent said. He was 73.

Brown was hospitalized with pneumonia at Emory Crawford Long Hospital on Sunday and died around 1:45 a.m. Monday, said his agent, Frank Copsidas of Intrigue Music. Longtime friend Charles Bobbit was by his side, he said.

Copsidas said Brown's family was being notified of his death and that the cause was still uncertain. "We really don't know at this point what he died of," he said.

Along with Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan and a handful of others, Brown was one of the major musical influences of the past 50 years. At least one generation idolized him, and sometimes openly copied him. His rapid-footed dancing inspired Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson among others. Songs such as David Bowie's "Fame," Prince's "Kiss," George Clinton's "Atomic Dog" and Sly and the Family Stone's "Sing a Simple Song" were clearly based on Brown's rhythms and vocal style.

If Brown's claim to the invention of soul can be challenged by fans of Ray Charles and Sam Cooke, then his rights to the genres of rap, disco and funk are beyond question. He was to rhythm and dance music what Dylan was to lyrics: the unchallenged popular innovator. (Watch the "hardest working man in showbusiness.")

"James presented obviously the best grooves," rapper Chuck D of Public Enemy once told The Associated Press. "To this day, there has been no one near as funky. No one's coming even close."

His hit singles include such classics as "Out of Sight," "(Get Up I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine," "I Got You (I Feel Good)" and "Say It Out Loud -- I'm Black and I'm Proud," a landmark 1968 statement of racial pride.

"I clearly remember we were calling ourselves colored, and after the song, we were calling ourselves black," Brown said in a 2003 Associated Press interview. "The song showed even people to that day that lyrics and music and a song can change society."

He won a Grammy award for lifetime achievement in 1992, as well as Grammys in 1965 for "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" (best R&B recording) and for "Living In America" in 1987 (best R&B vocal performance, male.) He was one of the initial artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, along with Presley, Chuck Berry and other founding fathers.

He triumphed despite an often unhappy personal life. Brown, who lived in Beech Island near the Georgia line, spent more than two years in a South Carolina prison for aggravated assault and failing to stop for a police officer. After his release on in 1991, Brown said he wanted to "try to straighten out" rock music.

From the 1950s, when Brown had his first R&B hit, "Please, Please, Please" in 1956, through the mid-1970s, Brown went on a frenzy of cross-country tours, concerts and new songs. He earned the nickname "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business."

With his tight pants, shimmering feet, eye makeup and outrageous hair, Brown set the stage for younger stars such as Michael Jackson and Prince.

In 1986, he was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And rap stars of recent years overwhelmingly have borrowed his lyrics with a digital technique called sampling.

Brown's work has been replayed by the Fat Boys, Ice-T, Public Enemy and a host of other rappers. "The music out there is only as good as my last record," Brown joked in a 1989 interview with Rolling Stone magazine.

"Disco is James Brown, hip-hop is James Brown, rap is James Brown; you know what I'm saying? You hear all the rappers, 90 percent of their music is me," he told the AP in 2003.

Born in poverty in Barnwell, South Carolina, in 1933, he was abandoned as a 4-year-old to the care of relatives and friends and grew up on the streets of Augusta, Georgia, in an "ill-repute area," as he once called it. There he learned to wheel and deal.

"I wanted to be somebody," Brown said.

By the eighth grade in 1949, Brown had served 31/2 years in Alto Reform School near Toccoa, Ga., for breaking into cars.

While there, he met Bobby Byrd, whose family took Brown into their home. Byrd also took Brown into his group, the Gospel Starlighters. Soon they changed their name to the Famous Flames and their style to hard R&B.

In January 1956, King Records of Cincinnati signed the group, and four months later "Please, Please, Please" was in the R&B Top Ten.

While most of Brown's life was glitz and glitter, he was plagued with charges of abusing drugs and alcohol and of hitting his third wife, Adrienne.

In September 1988, Brown, high on PCP and carrying a shotgun, entered an insurance seminar next to his Augusta office. Police said he asked seminar participants if they were using his private restroom.

Police chased Brown for a half-hour from Augusta into South Carolina and back to Georgia. The chase ended when police shot out the tires of his truck.

Brown received a six-year prison sentence. He spent 15 months in a South Carolina prison and 10 months in a work release program before being paroled in February 1991. In 2003, the South Carolina parole board granted him a pardon for his crimes in that state.

Soon after his release, Brown was on stage again with an audience that included millions of cable television viewers nationwide who watched the three-hour, pay-per-view concert at Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles.

Adrienne Brown died in 1996 in Los Angeles at age 47. She took PCP and several prescription drugs while she had a bad heart and was weak from cosmetic surgery two days earlier, the coroner said.

More recently, he married his fourth wife, Tomi Raye Hynie, one of his backup singers. The couple had a son, James Jr.

Two years later, Brown spent a week in a private Columbia hospital, recovering from what his agent said was dependency on painkillers. Brown's attorney, Albert "Buddy" Dallas, said singer was exhausted from six years of road shows.
 
:ohmy: One of the few times in my life that I'm at a loss for words.... just found this out as I read this thread 3 seconds ago
 
Oh no...

What a sad day for the world of music.

The "Prime Minister of Blues" (according to B.B. King), Dutch Mason, also died last night.

:sad:
 
I know his personal life seemed to be in tormoil but it did not let it affect his relationship with his fans. Back in 1993 or 1994 I was coming home to LAX from Atlanta. Just before they closed the door, James Brown got on the plane in the first class section. From what I could see in the back of the plane he was very gracious and gave everyone autographs that asked.

RIP.
 
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