Post #92

Soul Brother Number One

2nd January 2004, early evening | Comments (7)

The other day my dad and I watched a documentary on the life of James Brown, The God Father of Soul. It’s not often that you watch an English-language documentary, interviewing English-speaking people and you find that subtitles are required:

Wua fuz starded sngng I wuaz all li Wazzu wuzzu! Yeah! Ha! Gotagetcha! Canigeta ‘Amen’! Owwww! bu den I spen tmein pruson an tukitto nuthr level, ha ha! Deysum good times, hmm hmm, yesir.

Obviously the programme makers also found Mr Brown’s speech a little tricky on the ear, because they’d thoughtfully provided translations for any scenes in which he spoke.

(P.S. As an aside, I think this is one of the best portraits I’ve ever seen of a him. It’s excellent.)

(P.P.S. Anyone remember Eddie Murphey’s impressions of JB on his Delirious tour? That was some funny stuff.)

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Comments (7)

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Colin D. Devroe:

Hit me! JB is the man! Yassaaah

Posted 3 hours, 18 minutes after the fact
Sian:

I actually understood most of that, well apart from "Wazzu wuzzu!". Hmm.

Posted 5 hours, 13 minutes after the fact

Inspired: ↓ Dunstan
Dunstan:

"Wazzu wuzzu!" is a direct quote from one of his performances - I kid you not :o)

Posted 6 hours, 23 minutes after the fact

Inspired by: ↑ Sian
Colin D. Devroe:

Get down, ah Get uppa! Get down, ah Get uppa!

Posted 9 hours, 35 minutes after the fact
Sian:

There's a knack to it. You have to sit yourself in front of the TV or in this case website, adopt the persona of James Brown, (uttering I'm a Sex-a-machine! Geddup, Getondown! and OWwwwww! will help with this). Tilt to your head to the left and there start mumbling (very much like Old Man from The Fast show), soon, the words start making sense and your talking James Brown style! Takin it ta nuther level brutha

Posted 21 hours, 29 minutes after the fact

Inspired: ↓ Anon
Anon:

Helloooo!!! Further to being directed here whilst chatting with the Diva, on reading this just to try and unlock that part of her brain which is, today, away with the fairies, I actually became aware that I was indeed tilting my head in the fashion instructed. Stopped short of the "wuzza".

Posted 21 hours, 35 minutes after the fact

Inspired by: ↑ Sian
Sarah:

Sorry, that's me, that Anon person, that's me that is... sorry. sorry.

Posted 21 hours, 36 minutes after the fact