James Brown, ‘the Godfather of Soul,’ dies of heart failure

ATLANTA — James Brown, the dynamic, pompadoured “Godfather of Soul,” whose revolutionary rhythms, rough voice and flashing footwork influenced generations of musicians from rock to rap, died early Christmas morning. He was 73.

Mr. Brown was hospitalized with pneumonia at Emory Crawford Long Hospital on Sunday and died of congestive heart failure around 1:45 a.m. yesterday, said his agent, Frank Copsidas of Intrigue Music.

He initially seemed fine at the hospital and even told people that he planned to be onstage in New York on New Year’s Eve, Mr. Copsidas said.

Mr. Brown was one of the major musical influences of the past 50 years, with an effect on Mick Jagger to Michael Jackson, David Bowie to Public Enemy. He changed the musical landscape with his rapid-footed dancing, hard-charging beats and heartfelt vocals. He was to rhythm and dance music what Bob Dylan was to lyrics.

“He was an innovator; he was an emancipator; he was an originator. Rap music, all that stuff came from James Brown,” entertainer Little Richard, a longtime friend of Mr. Brown’s, told MSNBC.

“James Brown changed music,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton, who toured with him in the 1970s and imitates his hairstyle to this day.

“He made soul music a world music,” Mr. Sharpton said. “What James Brown was to music in terms of soul and hip-hop, rap, all of that, is what Bach was to classical music. This is a guy who literally changed the music industry. He put everybody on a different beat, a different style of music.”

Mr. Brown’s classic singles include “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag,” “Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine,” “I Got You (I Feel Good)” and “Say It Loud — I’m Black and I’m Proud,” a landmark 1968 statement of racial pride.

“I clearly remember we were calling ourselves colored, and after the song, we were calling ourselves black,” Mr. Brown told the Associated Press in 2003. “The song showed … that lyrics and music can change society.”

He won a Grammy for lifetime achievement in 1992 as well as Grammys in 1965 for “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” (best R&B; recording) and for “Living In America” in 1987 (best R&B; vocal performance, male). He was one of the initial artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, along with Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and other founding fathers.

Mr. Brown, who lived in Beech Island, S.C., near the Georgia line, triumphed despite a turbulent personal life and charges of abusing drugs and alcohol. After a widely publicized, drug-fueled confrontation with police in 1988 that ended in an interstate car chase, Mr. Brown spent more than two years in prison for aggravated assault and failing to stop for a police officer.

From the 1950s, when Mr. Brown had his first R&B; hit, “Please, Please, Please” (1956), through the mid-1970s, he indefatigably toured the country and the world performing physically strenuous live shows, writing new material all the while. He earned the nickname “The Hardest-Working Man in Show Business” and often tried to prove it to his fans, said Jay Ross, his attorney of 15 years.

Mr. Brown’s stage act was as memorable, and as imitated, as his records, with twirls and spins performed in a flowing cape and with repeated faints to the floor at the end as band members tried in vain to get him to leave the stage.

His “Live at the Apollo” in 1962 is widely considered one of the greatest concert records ever. He also often talked of the 1964 concert in which organizers made the mistake of having the Rolling Stones, not him, close the bill: A terrified Mick Jagger waited off-stage, chain smoking, as Mr. Brown pulled off his matchless show.

“To this day, there has been no one near as funky. No one’s coming even close,” rapper Chuck D of Public Enemy once told AP.

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