SOUL BROTHER #1, R.I.P.

Christmas is supposed to be a joyous day, but starting the day with the news of James Brown's death is bound to put a damper on things.

There are loads of tributes to him airing on TV tonight, and they're all giving him his rightful place as one of the most important musical figures of the 20th century. He was the baddest of the bad, the coolest of the cool, and he single-handedly launched about a half dozen different musical genres. Oh, how I will miss that man.

I had a chance to see James Brown in 1994. It was at a country & western bar in Salt Lake City. An odd venue for the Godfather of Soul, but you take what you can get. James was well past his prime by the 1990s, but it was still a thrill to see a living legend belt out some classics.

My friend Sam had some promotional bootleg CD that contained a few songs from James Brown, and a few public service announcements that he likely recorded as part of some plea bargain at some point in his life. His anti-drug message was quite clearly something he just came up with off the top of his head, but it was memorized by my college roommates as if it was holy writ. We mostly found it funny, but none of us ever did drugs, so who's to say it didn't work?

With that in mind, as a memorial to the late, great James Brown, I offer you his advice on drugs:

Hi, this is James Brown, Soul Brother #1
Always fighting,
Now I'm fighting for your life.
I'm fighting for your life because if you use drugs,
You'd better leave it alone.

Drugs are contagious,
They're killers,
Every drug is a killer.
Stay away from drugs.

Drugs... will take your life away,
And if you want to live,
Stay away from drugs.

Because they are superbad
Superbad
Superbad
Superbad
Superbad...

Goodbye James. You may be gone, but we've got a hell of a lot of good music to remember you by. And some good advice on drugs, too.