Old-Time Rock ‘n’ Roll:
How The 1980s Embraced 1950s and 1960s Oldies Music
James Brown
Photo: "Spectacle de James Brown à la Place des Nations, 2 août 1969, VM94-TH9-242-011" by Archives de la Ville de Montréal is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Like Aretha Franklin, James Brown, The Godfather of Soul,
hit it big in the sixties with his singles I Got You (I Feel Good)
and Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag.
However, by the late seventies, disco, hard funk, and sweet soul had left James Brown in the dust. Like Aretha Franklin, Brown has a cameo appearance in the 1980s blockbuster movie The Blues Brothers. Brown plays Reverend Cleophus James and sings gospel James Brown style; lots of energy and passion with a great female background chorus. The movie put The Godfather
back in the limelight. However, unlike Franklin, Brown’s celebrity in the eighties came from movie appearances. In the movie Dr. Detroit, a new version of Get Up Offa That Thing
is performed. Brown’s big hit of the decade Living in America
retains the James Brown sound and infuses American patriotism and greatness, a major theme of the Ronald Reagan era. Brown performs the song in Rocky IV. The song made it to the Billboard Top 5 and won him a 1986 Grammy for Best Rhythm & Blues Vocal Performance, Male. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inducted him that year, making him one of their first ten inductees.
Unfortunately numerous domestic disputes with his wife Adrienne, addiction to PCP, and tax issues dragged Brown into trouble. On 18 May 1988, Aiken County, South Carolina Police pursued James Brown in a high-speed car chase due to a domestic dispute call from his wife. Authorities charged Brown with assault on a police officer and possession of PCP, with Brown sentenced to performing at a benefit concert. On 24 September 1988, while high, he threatened attendees of an Augusta, Georgia insurance conference with a gun because he though one of them used his neighboring office’s restroom without his permission. Fleeing the scene, he led police on a car chase into neighboring South Carolina, his second chase with Aiken Country police since May. Brown stopped for police, a negotiation started, but some overzealous officers broke his windows, freaking him out even more, and he attempted to flee the scene almost running over several officers. They shot at his vehicle, blowing out a tire. James drove back to Georgia, at a slower pace than his departure. He gave up when he pulled into a friend’s house.
Fortunately, no one got hurt. However Brown endangered the Augusta community the next day by driving drunk with police stopping him and charging him. James Brown’s 15 December 1988 sentence for the Aiken County, South Carolina charges of aggravated assault and failure to heed police lights and sirens was six years in prison, five years on probation, and a $6,000 fine for his actions. For the numerous misdemeanor traffic and weapons charges brought by Georgia, he received a 6 years and three months sentence after pleading guilty. Many found the sentencing harsh. A Free James Brown movement formed. Other celebrities like Zsa Zsa Gabor, who had slapped a cop during a 1989 police stop, didn’t get the same jail time given to Brown. Gabor’s sentence involved three days in jail, $12,000 in fines, and one hundred twenty hours of community service. James Brown received parole on 27 February 1991, after serving over two years in prison. He passed away Christmas 2006.