James Brown – Papa Don’t Take No Mess

1st August 2021 · 1970s, 1974, Funk, Music, Soul
]

James Brown invented funk in 1965 with Papa Got A Brand New Bag, a song he memorably described thus: “The title told it all – I have a new bag.”

As for funk, the word comes from the Flemish “fonck” which translates as “agitation or disturbance.” You can hear all of that and more in Papa Don’t Take No Mess.

You also get a bit of an insight into what made Brown the mass of contradictions that he was: “Papa didn’t cuss / He didn’t raise a whole lotta fuss / But when we did wrong / Papa beat the hell out of us.”

Chilling. But also this sentimental reflection on the violent alcoholic father who raised him when his mother fled the family home after he tried to kill her: “When he thought that I would die / Look a-here – I saw papa cry… He says something was in his eye / I knew it was a lie.”

Like The Payback, this was another of the songs Brown recorded for the soundtrack to the blaxploitation film Hell Up In Harlem, only to have it rejected by the producers.

He finally released it on his 1974 double album Hell in its full 14-minute version featuring this sublime piano solo by Brown himself.

The J.B.’s, each of them worthy of a place in the Funk Hall of Fame, consist on this number of Fred Wesley (trombone), Maceo Parker (alto sax), St Clair Pinckney (tenor sax), Ike Oakley (trumpet), that killer rhythm duo of Fred Thomas (bass) and John ‘Jabo’ Starks (drums), plus Jimmy Nolen and Hearlon ‘Cheese’ Martin (guitar).

An edited version was released as a single – one half on each side of the disc – giving him the last of his 17 number ones on the R&B chart, and his last Top 40 hit. But this is the full thing.