James Brown

You're Love Is Good For Me

Taken from The GoodFoot album on Polydor Records 1972 is today's biggie: You're Love Is Good For Me sung by soul brother No.1 Jaaaames Brooown! Written by J J Barnes although I don't think it's our friend from Detroit though. The love song shows that funk wasn't all that he was about he had a love of jazz and ballads and did them well, my all time fave is bewildered. In fact the new JB CD is called 'Jazz' and contains some rare released stuff and also some un-released material of his.

A friend at school introduced me to JB with the There Was A Time single. I soon found loads of his singles in a local shop and was impressed with Don't Be A Drop-out. To think at the peak of his success he would be thinking of black children's education just as much as a hit record was amazing. I found that others were doing similar things like the Stax Records education program, one of the rarest albums on Stax, aimed at black radio stations at the time.

JB though was doing his bit although I was told that the Black Panthers wanted an anthem written by him in a hurry and left a un-primed grenade outside his hotel room as 'speed-up' message. Say It Loud I'm Black & I'm Proud soon followed. The badges are courtesy of my friend Heinrich Buttler in Germany, and they capture the mood of the time.

He also released the single King Heroin that year a message to youth; "about one of the most deadly killers in our country today". I was even more astounded when he got Polydor UK to print a full page add in the music press. The song tells the story better than I could write it. This is March 17-30 issue of Blues & Soul 1972:



King Heroin