James Brown take control...
Posted on 06/20/2020 6:51:15 AM PDT by DoodleBob
King viewed Boston as his second home. He had earned his doctorate at Boston University and met his wife, Coretta Scott, during his graduate studies in the city. King had returned to Boston many times to preach his message of nonviolence, shared prosperity and racial harmony. He was assassinated on April 4, 1968, while supporting a sanitation workers’ strike in Memphis, Tenn.
In what became known as the Holy Week Uprising, riots broke out in more than 100 U.S. cities. Boston, though, remained peaceful because of the legendary James Brown concert at Boston Garden.
Minor violence broke out in North Dorchester and Roxbury immediately after the news broke of Dr. King’s death. Boston Mayor Kevin White feared it would get worse.
The scheduled concert would attract large numbers of young African-Americans, and city officials worried violence would break out if the concert were held.
Tom Atkins, a black city councilman, argued it wasn’t a good idea to bring thousands of disgruntled fans downtown demanding refunds at Boston Garden. So White decided to cancel the concert.
James Brown then arrived that afternoon from New York, only to find his show wouldn’t go on. The hardest working man in show business was not happy. By then White had come round to Atkins’ view that the show should go on. Someone – it may have been White aide Barney Frank – came up with an idea: How about televising the concert? That would keep young people at home in front of their TV sets.
But that didn’t make the Godfather of Soul happy, because he didn’t want to perform in a half-empty arena. ... So they made a deal. The city agreed to reimburse Brown for a night’s work.
(Excerpt) Read more at newenglandhistoricalsociety.com ...
Toward the end of the show, a young fan jumped onto the stage. A police officer pushed him off. More fans jumped on stage, and more police rushed from the wings. It was a dangerous moment...
James Brown took control. He held the police back. “Move on back. I’ll be all right. I’ll be fine,” he said.
The band went stone silent. More fans leaped onstage, mobbing the singer. “Wait a minute, wait a minute,” Brown repeated. “You make me look very bad, ‘cause I asked the po-lice to step back and you wouldn’t go down. Now that’s wrong, that’s wrong. You’re not being fair to yourself and me and all your race.”
Back in the spotlight, James Brown said, “Now are we together, or are we ain’t?” He told the drummer, “Hit that thing, man,” and picked up where he left off with ‘Can’t stand it, can’t stand your love.’
The show was then rebroadcast, over and over, and thousands of angry young people stayed home.
James Brown take control...
There is a link, in your article, to the entire broadcast (YT), but it has been removed.
I found this version, tho..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfSayXyqw64
>>We need a James Brown nowadays.
James Brown recorded the patriotic single “America is My Home” in 1967 and released it in the summer of 1968–a time when many in America were protesting the country’s involvement in the Vietnam War and still feeling the effects from the April assassination of civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In his 1986 autobiography The Godfather of Soul, Brown talked about the response to the spoken word track:
“People were on my case about ‘America Is My Home,’ calling me an Uncle Tom, saying the song was a sellout, things like that. Some of the more militant organizations sent representatives backstage after shows to talk about it. ‘How can you do a song like that after what happened to Dr. King?,’ they’d say. I talked to them and tried to explain that when I said ‘America is my home,’ I didn’t mean the government was my home, I meant the land and the people. They didn’t want to hear that.”
To quote James Brown:
“HAH! Oooohweee! Knock out.....THIS!”
Living in America.
God bless him.
Incredible.
He was perfect that night. And we could so use someone like him now. RIP.
I remember this.
Interesting that the surnames of the mayor was White, and the singer was Brown. LOL. A bit of historical irony.
I watched him that night. While I was never a fan of his music, he will have my respect till the day I die. We definitely need another James Brown!
I saw him perform that one back in 1996. Great patriotic song.
Love how he and the band kill this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hj8j3bSJObw
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