Happy 43rd birthday, Sex Machine

Reading the sleeve notes of a James Brown 12″ single this week, I noticed that April 25 is the 43rd anniversary of the recording of his seminal Sex Machine, surely the greatest funk dance track ever laid down. Enjoy a 1971 live version of it here and marvel at the tightness of the mighty JBs – and their wonderful stage costumes.

These sleeve notes by Cliff White from the 1982 re-release 12″ single gives the full complement of the band, probably the best that Soul Brother Number 1 ever assembled.

In spring 1983 I met the great man after seeing him in concert in a small club in Brooklyn. I got backstage by telling the security man, totally inaccurately, that I wrote for the NME. James Brown was small, very fit looking, softly spoken and infused with Southern courtesy. He called his long-serving valet Danny Rae “Mr Rae”, while he in turn was always called “Mr Brown”. Here they are backstage at The Apollo Harlem in 1964. I’d love to know what colour that incredible suit was.

The poster from the 1983 gig at the Brooklyn Zoo club is framed on my wall.

Born into poverty in Georgia on 3 May 1933, from his young adulthood James Brown began a lifelong preoccupation with being immaculately dressed. Here he is looking majestic on the set of Ready Steady Go in 1966, photographed by Dezo Hoffman.

Who else but The Hardest Working Man In Show Business would wear a three-piece tweed suit and high-fastening roll neck top to perform a high-energy set in a hot TV studio?

James Brown died on  Christmas Day 2006, but thanks to his amazing legacy he still stays on the scene, like a sex machine.

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