Quendrith Johnson

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by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent

What do Sir Mick Jagger and the late-great Mr. James Brown have in common? They both have Soul Power, and they are Super-Bad, and after the Aug. 1, 2014 release of the soul singer’s biographical film GET ON UP, quite a lot more. Firstly that the estate of James Brown approached Sir Mick to do the biopic, and second, as the lore goes, a fumbling 20-year-old Jagger once met the Man’s World singer and muffed it, an “awkward moment,” allegedly sometime in 1962 or 1963.

For this film, which is expertly cast with lead Chadwick Boseman and directed by Tate Taylor (The Help) who also produces, Jagger got together with Brian Grazer, longtime producing partner of Ron Howard at IMAGINE, and pieced highlights of the South Carolina native’s life into a story. 

Many of the details are already known: the early days desperate poverty, James Brown’s unstoppable optimism, the dance-moves learned as a child busker that not only cemented his own star on the musical walk of fame, but influenced other obvious-tribute icons like Little Richard, Michael Jackson, Prince, and countless other less obvious echoes in Jimi Hendrix, Sylvester Stallone for the theme to  one of the Rocky movies, and Steve Winwood. Plus all the British rockers who ever saw him live, and most of the American rockers who either heard him on the radio, or weren’t allowed to when young based on segregation in clubs, radio stations, and race bias in their own homes.

The story of James Brown is really the foot that kicked in the door to racial harmony in America, for ‘black, white, red, yellow, and green,’ as he would say. Just like the music that took down The Berlin Wall, his power ballads and haunting “It’s a Man’s World” contradictions, blew the doors off racism because the music was infectious and inclusive. With a pompadour like Elvis, James Brown had a message like no one else: Social change (read: justice) doesn’t have to be a drag.

And then there are the honorary titles: “Mr. Dynamite,” “The Original Disco Man,” “Soul Brother Number One,” “The Minister of New Super Heavy Funk,” of course “The Godfather of Soul,” and the one James Brown himself cherished - “The Hardest Working Man in Show Business.” Michael Jackson claimed Brown as “my greatest inspiration.”

All this from a man born into the proverbial “one-room shack” Down South, where the ‘strange fruit hanging in the trees’ had nothing to do with anything edible. James Brown didn’t have shoes at times, or adequate clothing, sometimes he danced, sang, or even picked cotton to get by. The story goes that after trying to steal a car at age 15, he was thrown in Juvenile (“Juvy”) Jail and found his true voice fronting a jailhouse Gospel Choir. Then, turned loose at 18, a local named Bobby Byrd (played by Nelsan Elllis of HBO’s “True Blood”) who was also a musician adopted him into his band.

Later Brown would land in the slammer for PCP use in the late 80’s and find himself paroled in 1991. You wonder how he could get caught up in a chemical high, when the real high was his music - James Brown is said to have over 800 songs in his catalogue. The big-selling record titles like “The Payback” (1974), “Get on the Good Foot” (1972), “Hot Pants” (1971), “Make it Funky” (1971). The Top Charting Hits and the cultural hammers like “Say It Loud (I’m Black and I’m Proud),” “Super Bad,” “Try Me,” “Cold Sweat,” and “Papa Don’t Take No Mess, Pt. 1” (!).

Get Up On is laced with sizzling talent (excuse the hyperbole): Chadwick Boseman, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, and Dan (Elwood Blues) Aykroyd. 

Chadwick was the ball player from writer/director Brian Helgeland’s 2013 weeper 42, about breaking the color line in that particular American pastime. Even though Boseman is 6’1” and James Brown was only 5’6”, you can’t detect the discrepancy, the performance is that good, and Get On Up will be what he is known for now. Viola Davis playing his mother too? That’s something. 

When Jagger turns 71, on July 26, he will be less than a week away from seeing how this loving treatment of James Brown does at the Box Office. So Happy Early Birthday & after seeing just a glimpse of this film, everybody is going to wanna Get On Up.

Find out more here http://getonupmovie.com - and see for yourself.

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