James Brown - Believers Shall Enjoy (Nonbelievers Shall Suffer)
James Brown's organ-led instrumentals of the '60s are a mixed bag to most soul fans. As stated in the liner notes to the Funky Good Time anthology of sides by the various '70s incarnations of the J.B.'s, Brown didn't always recognize his limitations as an organist. Opinions are split: some people think that James' weird, noodly playing is interesting but others think it ruined the records on which he played. I'm in the former camp. "Believers Shall Enjoy" was the flip to the Christmas-themed "Tit for Tat" and it's a swinging piece of jazzy soul featuring Brown on the organ, doing his thing and making good use of his technique in the stop-time portions of the tune. Incidentally, "Believers Shall Enjoy" was going to be the original title of this blog before "Get on Down ..." was devised!
3 comments:
I'm a fan of instrumentals. I have a copy of JB's Grits & Soul album, wish I had more. Instrumentals show how southern music and the southern soul sound was formed, by collaboration and call and response. More please!
Not bad!
And to all those who say JB did destroy the songs by "not playing by the rules": that was what JB was all about. Doing things differently than others.
I like the track a lot.
Verily I say unto you, the believers in the power of the soul music do *indeed* enjoy what thou has wrought here. . . hallelujah!
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