James Brown – Living In America (1985 Mix)
James Brown – Living In America (1985 Mix) (mp3)
James Brown – Living In America (Extended Dance)
James Brown – Living In America (Extended Dance) (mp3)
James Brown – Living In America (Dubstramental)
James Brown – Living In America (Dubstramental) (mp3)
James Brown – Funky Drummer (Bonus Beats)
James Brown – Funky Drummer (Bonus Beats) (mp3)
James Brown – Funky Drummer (In The Jungle 9-Min Version)
James Brown – Funky Drummer (In The Jungle 9-Min Version) (mp3)
Personal History…
Summer 1984 … 13 years old … by listening to Eddie Murphy‘s stand-up comedy tape Delirious, I’ve learned about James Brown for the first time.
Watch the video clip here.
Summer 1985 … 14 years old … the only thing I knew about James Brown is what Eddie said … but I still haven’t heard any of his music.
Fall 1985, Toronto, Canada … I went to see Rocky-IV movie.
Let’s go back to that night in the movie theatre … below is the scene that I’m currently watching in 1985:
What a way to expose me to James Brown music for the first time … LIVING IN AMERICA. The electric funk blew the sandals off my feet.
I didn’t hesitate to leave the movie theatre right after that scene (half-way through the movie) and ran to Starsound record store, looking for the 12-inch of that track. I was screaming out loud, “LIVING IN A AMERICAAAAAAAA, AMERICAAAAA,” like Eddie’s comic tale ice screeeeeaaaam.
Some dude understood me and pointed to the wall. And there it was … the very same one which I’m holding in my hand (pictured above).
12-inch vinyl cover of Living In America
James Brown In The Jungle Groove…
The most famous and most sampled funky track is Funky Drummer.
I am proving all you people with two original hi-rez source files (top of this page) to comprehend and pay respect to the man who brought you such killer track which spawned loop-sampling to be where it’s at today. Where would D&B and other genres be today if there was no Funky Drummer!?!
I say go out and buy this rare, full album! I shit you not, it’s the funkiest masterpiece ever. So much to sample from … especially the horn stabs and hits.
Front cover of James Brown In The Jungle Groove
Me and the vintage 1983 keytar (Yamaha KX-1 controller)
While the norm for most tracks go anywhere between 3:30 to 6:00 minutes in length, I prefer 15:00 minutes or longer, like the four seasons. Give me 4 long tracks to fill the hour, and I’ll be one very happy Iraqi. I love tracks that take me on long journeys through various movements. One of my all-time favorite synth-pop groups is PROPAGANDA from germany … who sound like twisted ABBA + Industrial + TechnoPop + Darkness. My favorite Proganda track is P:Machinery. I’ve taken two 12-inch vinyl versions of that track and conjoined them together as one … the way I want to listen to P:Machinery by:
Propaganda
Although he produced only a handful of tracks of renown and disappeared into obscurity almost as quickly as he had emerged from it, Manny ( Man ) Parrish is nonetheless one of the most important and influential figures in American electronic dance music. Helping to lay the foundation of electro, hip-hop, freestyle, and techno, as well as the dozens of subgenres to splinter off from those, Parrish introduced the aesthetic of European electronic pop to the American club scene by combining the plugged-in disco-funk of Giorgio Moroder and the man-machine music of Kraftwerk with the beefed-up rhythms and cut’n'mix approach of nascent hip-hop. As a result, tracks like “Hip-Hop Be Bop (Don’t Stop)” and “Boogie Down Bronx” were period-defining works that provided the basic genetic material for everyone from Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys to Autechre and Andrea Parker — and they remain undisputed classics of early hip-hop and electro to this day.
Man Parrish
What made Trevor Horn’s productions stand out was his unique and genius production techniques and the heavy use of state-of-the-art pro-audio gear, which made him become the torch-bearer for the kind of technology-led pop music which was hip and incredibly disciplined. Trevor Horn’s 12-inch remixes were uniquely long (anywhere from 8 to 13 minutes in duration) and told stories which took the listeners through long instrumental journeys at the begenning of tracks until the climax is reached (around the 5/6 or 7 minute mark). After the climax, the original or alternate full vocal version of the track takes over from that point on to the end, lasting additional 3.5 to 5 minutes in length.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Trevor Horn is the guy who produced and performed “
The Buggles
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