![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/jbraun.jpg\")
Summer 1965, was long, hot and incendiary, as a string
\n of political assassinations and the war in Vietnam set off flash point
\n riots in black ghettos across America. Including Rochester, New
\n York, where the Dowbrigade was a skinny and insufferably precocious
\n 12-year-old who was heavy into soul music. <\/p>\n
What possessed me to buy tickets to a soon to be out James Brown concert,
\n I’ll never know. My equally unorthodox classmate hairy Roger Levy (Roger
\n had a full beard at 12) agreed to accompany me, and as far as we could
\n tell, we were the only white people in that rockin’ Rochester War Memorial
\n Auditorium that Saturday night.<\/p>\n
Backed by a smokin’ horn section blowing molten gold, Brown strutted
\n and spat, growled and groaned, and it was beyond anything we had seen
\n with out own eyes up to that point (although we were familiar with all
\n the music from records).<\/p>\n
He worked through Get Up Offa that Thing, Hot Pants, Its a Man’s Man’s
\n Man’s World, Sex Machine, Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag and Super Bad. He
\n came out again and again for multiple encores, drenched in sweat, stinking
\n of soul.<\/p>\n
Finally he worked himself and the audience into a frenzy
\n for the grand finale, Cold Sweat. After wringing every drop of cruel
\n emotion from the twisted rags of his heart and soul he dashed halfway
\n across the stage, slid on his knees the rest of the way, and just
\n as he came to a shuddering stop, three nubile Nubian princesses scurried
\n over with a fantastic multicolored fur cape and draped it over his
\n hunched, quivering form.<\/p>\n
Just as it seemed he would expire
\n there under the fur cape, he jumped up in the air, with a joyous shout,
\n and, as the band took back up the
\n erupting beat, ran madly about the stage in a final paroxysm of gut-wrenching
\n soul, and collapsed in the middle of the stage. At this point the
\n same three chicks rushed out with a brilliant SEQUINNED cape, and lay
\n it over his insensate form. This went on for quite some time.<\/p>\n
The audience erupts ever-increasing displays of raw emotion. Then,
\n in a chorus of mad cheers the whole crowd surged forward. Carried
\n down the aisle on a wave of wild euphoria, the Dowbrigade momentarily
\n lost his senses and shouted out "Get him!"<\/p>\n
To this day, 38 years later, we have no idea what possessed us to scream
\n such an insane and suicidal thing in a situation like that. Everyone
\n in the immediate area stopped rushing the stage and looked at the two
\n white kids. It’s a good thing the Dowbrigade was quite a bit lighter
\n on his feet back then, or the story would have had a different ending.<\/p>\n
At any rate, it was with deep sadness that we saw the following photo
\n of our one-time idol. this shot makes the famous Nick Nolte post-release
\n snapshot look like a cover shot on GQ…<\/p>\n
\nAIKEN, S.C. — James Brown was released from jail on a domestic violence
\n charge Thursday and denied accusations he pushed his wife to the floor
\n and threatened her with a chair.<\/p>\nThe 70-year-old Godfather of Soul had been arrested the previous day
\n at the couple’s Beech Island home, and a widely circulated booking mug
\n showed him wearing a bathrobe with his normally coifed hair in a mess.<\/p>\n"The main thing is I would never hurt my wife and beat up on her
\n like that," Brown said after leaving the jail dressed in a red and
\n black pinstriped suit and a black cowboy hat. "I love her very
\n much."<\/p>\nAccording to a sheriff’s report, Brown pushed 33-year-old Tomi Rae Brown
\n to the floor during an argument in a bedroom and threatened to kill her
\n while holding a chair over her.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nfrom the Atlanta Journal-Constitution<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summer 1965, was long, hot and incendiary, as a string of political assassinations and the war in Vietnam set off flash point riots in black ghettos across America. Including Rochester, New York, where the Dowbrigade was a skinny and insufferably … Continue reading