James Brown would run into confrontations with the police later on in his life in the late 80’s and thanks to a drug habit that would dominate the latter part of his life.
Always anti-drug throughout his career with anthems like “King Heroin” and “Public Enemy #1” which he was rewarded by The White House for, it remains mindboggling that James would decide to start doing angel dust as a middle-aged man in his 1st serious foray into drug experimentation.
Domestic violence and a high speed car chase with the police landed him a prison for a year and a half in South Carolina.
As a matter of fact, James has had run-ins with the law from the age of 16 and throughout various parts of his life with charges ranging from; theft, to assault, to tax evasion and payola.
But one night in 1974 while touring in support of his classic blockbuster double album “The Payback”, “The Godfather Of Soul” fought the law but unlike the 1965 hit by The Bobby Fuller Four, the law didn’t win.
I know. I was there. All 5 years of me.
It was Place Des Arts ’74. James was still a superstar but abit removed from the one that had headlined The Montreal Forum in ’72 where I sat with my parents 5 rows from centre stage.
Didn’t matter much anyway as I danced in th aisle the entire time whle singing the words to every one of James’ tunes and doing my own splits in sync with the ones Soul Brother #1 was doing himself on stage.
Doors opened @ 7pm with the show scheduled to start @ 8.
This was all still new for Place Des Arts which opened in ’63 as an initiative by Mayor Drapeau, a lover of classical and opera music, as a home for The Montreal Symphony Orchestra.
PDA was not built for rock and roll shows.
I was in line waiting for what seemed like forever to get in. We always had good tickets for show even though my parents didn’t have much money.
For Black families. music was as essential as food, clothing and shelter. It was a means of salvation, motivation and survival in a still discrimenatory world.
Plus I had young parents. My mother wasn’t but 18 years older than me. She would camp out to get tickets. My parents did what young people did. They went to concerts. They just brought me with them.
As a 5 year-old, I was amazed at how a Black man from Georgia who was raised in a brothel in total povery and abandoned by his parents at age 3, only to have his father come back soon after to raise him as a single father with barely any money.
I was in awe that I saw people of all races and backgrounds and genders coming out to see The Hardest Working Man In Show Business.
Black, White, Asian, Indian Jewish, Muslim, you name it. They were all here to The Godfather Of Soul.
You see, James Brown, didn’t sing song. He Felt it. Replacing standard lyrics instead with; “God God”, “Hit Me” and “Uuhhh”!
I saw an Italian family in front of us in line waiting for Place Des Arts to open its doors. The parents looked to be in their 40’s. At least a couple pof decades older than my parents. Their children were in their teens. They Spoke in Italian. I didn’t understand a word they were saying except when it came to some of James’ somg titles; “It’s A Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World” , “Cold Sweat” and “Soul Power”.
My face lit up with a grin. I whispered to my father who was holding my hand, “They’re here to see “The Godfather”. My father looked at me with that irristible smile of his a looked down at me and nodded yes!
I was like wow!
The James Brown show was a whole revue, complete with his band backing opening acts which James produced along with a comedian and the most most beautiful dancing girls you ever did see.
So the show starts with a one hour by James’ band The J.B.’s., complete with instrumental hits of their own.
After a 30 minute break, Lyn Collins then does a set, including her hit “Think”(About It), produced of course by James himself.
A comedian comes on and entertains the crowd. Time is going by. It’s like almost 10 o’clock. The J.B.’s come back on for another set and highlight Sweet Charles Sherrell, who plays bass and organ in James’s band and not a shabby singer himself.
Another intermission which sees the crowd including my parents getting angry. Why? Well we knew for a fact James was at the venue. I’ll let you in on a little secret. All James Brown fans know this. James was actually playing the Hammond B3 organ durin the evening’s first set by The J.B.’s.
He had a black godfather hat on pulled over his eyes and he played along with his band on the keys to test out the sound and get a feel for the crowd.
He did this almost all of the time.
But why he kept the crowd waitng until 11 o’clock that night, like The Beach Boys said, “God Only Knows”!
I guess it was to build the anticipation for the the main event which is James Brown himself.
At 11pm sharp after his longtime m.c. Danny Ray introduced him, James took to the stage and opened with the ultra-fast (Call Me)”Superbad”. The crowd went crazy. People start dancing in the aisles and on their seats. Place Des Arts wasn’t built for this.
That’s what a James Brown concert is. A Religious, sexual and musical experience. People getting arrested in the aisles. All good stuff.
James then rattled off all of his funk classics; “Soul Power”, “Cold Sweat”. “There It Is”, “The Payback”, “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag”, I”m A Greedy Man”, “Mother Popcorn”, “Ain’t It Funky” and the list went on. People were losing their frickin’ minds. A night to remember.
Just one problem. James took to the stage at 11pm, the venue’s curfew.
At around midnight, the house lights went on while James was in the middle of performing “Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved”.
People stared getting confused and the Montreal police department came onstage from the back and were trying to explain to James in French that the show had to end and that he was over curfew.
James didn’t undestand a word of French and I highly doubted that he wanted to. All that James knew was that the cops were interupting his funk sermon and that he wasn’t having it.
My 5 year-old self got nervousas I stood between my parents, clutching their hands even tighter. My father looked down at me, grinning and said, “nothing to worry about” as he always did when I was in distress as a child.
James grabbed his microphone stand and said to the crowd. There ain’t but a dozen of them and 3000 of us.
He then started the lyrics in the song he was performing as if the cops came in just on cue.
He shouted the immortal lyrics from “Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved”, “When we say stand up, what do we mean, his hype-man and backup singer and artist in his own right Bobby Byrd, said to to the crowd “Stand on up”. James again repeated, “When we say stand up, what do we mean. Again Bobby Byrd yells out “Stand on up’! One last time, James asks the crowd, “When we say stand up, what do we mean?”. This time Bobby Byrd and the 3000 people in Place Des Arts all yelled back, “Stand On Up”. James then said “Hit Me” and on cue the band went right back into to the song as if the cops weren’t even on stage.
The police ordered the house lights back off and quicky exited the stage to the bacl just like they came on.
As a 5 year-old, all I could say was 2 things. James Brown is Superman and I want to do that when I grow up!
The Night James Brown Took On The Montreal Police Department
