Интересная информация про упоминание имени Джеймса Брауна в техно-музыке из Википедии (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Brown_is_Dead ):
Contents
1 L.A. Style
2 Holy Noise
3 Pop Will Eat Itself
4 Traumatic Stress
5 Other artists
6 References
"James Brown is Dead" and
"James Brown is Still Alive" are notable as two of the earliest and best known of a series of electronic dance music references to iconic American entertainer James Brown. One basis for these lyrics is the wide-spread sampling of Brown's music, particularly the rhythmic breaks in
"Funky Drummer", possibly the most sampled piece of music of all time.
1) L.A. StyleThe Dutch duo L.A. Style (founded and produced by Wessel van Diepen who later helped create
Vengaboys) released
"James Brown is Dead" in 1991. It appeared on Billboard's Hot 100 Airplay chart and was the first techno song to hit the Billboard pop charts. Despite the lyrics and title, James Brown was alive at the time of the song's release and would not pass away until Christmas 2006, some fifteen years later.
While remixes of this song often include the words "James Brown is Dead" as the only discernable words, the song has other lyrics including:
I checked up on the late great J.B.
His death is said on national TV
Now memory, man are you with that
James Brown is dead
Total chaos, man it's resurrected
I'm confused that things are gettin' hectic
In my brain, what is happenin'?
Could this be a big misunderstanding? It is
The hardest working man in show biz is alive so
Don't be mislead, cause the newsman said
James Brown is deadSome sources report that the basis for the song is a 1992 broadcast that falsely reported the singer's demise and that a sample of that broadcast became the basis of the recording. Since the song was released in 1991, this can not be true.
Although a false report of the singer's death may have been made on the airwaves at some time before the song was released (or perhaps at a later date having origins with a prank inspired by this song), this entire assertion may fall under the category of an urban legend.
2) Holy NoiseIn the wake of "James Brown is Dead", the song
"James Brown is Still Alive" was released that same year by Holy Noise, a techno group also from the Netherlands. Although the first song's lyrics do actually assert that "hardest working man in show biz is alive", the Holy Noise song is regarded as an answer to the L.A. Style song.
This song begins with the lyrics:
James Brown's down
Who the funk do you think you're fooling?
For me the man's still ruling
Stop the nonsense
Stop telling lies
James Brown is still aliveLike "James Brown is Dead", "James Brown is Still Alive" has been remixed innumerable times. Often, the two songs have been blended together so that the they form a sort of conversation implying the Jungian archetype of death and resurrection.
3) Pop Will Eat Itself Predating "James Brown is Dead', the 1988 scratching single "
"Not Now, James, We're Busy" by the English electronica group Pop Will Eat Itself is a reference to Brown's arrest in the 1980's. Pop Will Eat Itself made several other song references to Brown including ""Augusta Georgia, late September" (the site and time of Brown's police chase and subsequent arrest), "Faster, Soul Master" ("Godfather of Soul" is Brown's well-known sobriquet) and "Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Son" (a pun on the song "Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter").
4) Traumatic StressAlso in 1991, Traumatic Stress (a third Dutch techno group) released a song called
"Who the Fuck is James Brown?" which may have been a response to one or both of the above songs. The lyrics of this song include may be interpreted as cryptic and/or poor English and include:
Move your do's, goose
Then you move to the beat
Doin' the do
Here with beat so deafen by the hands of the master
Who the fuck is James Brown?
My name is Brown
James BrownNote that this excerpt contains what appears to be a reference to the well-known phrase "Bond, James Bond" from the works of Ian Fleming.
5) Other artistsIn the quickly-evolving world of techno music, "James Brown is Dead" was already considered a "rave classic" by the late 1990s when artists such as DJ Irene would mix it into their sets.
"James Brown is Dead" was sampled by German techno group
Scooter on their 1999 single
"Call Me Mañana"', taken from the 1998 album
No Time To Chill.In 2001,
Wessel van Diepen and Arista Records released
"James Brown Is Dead 2001", a new version of the L.A.Style original.
The "James Brown is Dead" refrain is also heard in the
"I Love Techno" track on Nite Versions, a 2005 album from the duo known as
Soulwax===
От себя добавлю - версию хита L.A. Style с рэпом я услышал совсем недавно, года 2 назад. А в 90-е годы я был знаком только с "инструментальной" версией этого трэка, в которой из всей "лирики" осталось только это самое утверждение.
Помнится я тогда был очень удивлен, почему же это Джеймс Браун якобы умер, хотя он тогда еще выступал и даже позже сыграл самого себя в фильме Джекки Чана "Смокинг", где выглядел вполне бодро.
В результате я тогда решил, что этой работой L.A. Style хотели подчеркнуть свою веру в победу техно-музыки с компьютерным прямым ритмом над живыми ударниками в стиле Брауна и стилями музыки, их использующими, и призывали техно-музыкантов отказаться от сэмплирования брейков.
P.S. Если задаться вопросом, оказала ли композиция L.A. Style мистическое влияние на продолжительность жизни Джеймса Брауна, то отрицательный ответ (т.е. что не оказала) выглядит более убедительным.
Ведь все 15 лет со дня своего выхода эта композиция оставалась наслуху благодяря многочисленным ремиксам, а Джеймс жил и жил...