There's no question that the late, great James Brown had some unfortunate difficulties with narcotics at various times in his life, but his addiction to hair products was just as tragic. For most of his fifty some-odd years in the spotlight, the Godfather wore his 'do pomped, conked, processed, ironed, flattened, straightened and lubed up with fistfuls of pomade — the more daily maintenance required, it seemed, the better.
Though James was all about the "revolution of the mind," the revolution of the head was a different story. He was a relatively late conversion to the "natural" — one wonders if Hank Ballard's 1968 funk classic "How You Gonna Get Respect (If You Haven't Cut Your Process Yet)" was directed at the Godfather, who produced the record — and his "window of 'fro" was fairly brief, lasting only about four years from around '68 to '72.
All of which is a real shame, because the whole soul truth is that James looked damn stylin' with an afro. Like the man himself, the James Brown 'fro was proud, substantial, supremely funky and slightly off-kilter. Alas, by 1973 or so, the call of the relaxer proved too strong for the Godfather, and he returned to his greazy ways. But to catch a precious glimpse of 'fro-capped JB in action — with a mighty version of the JB's that featured a young Bootsy Collins on bass, and his brother Catfish on guitar — check this absolutely killer clip from live at the Paris Olympia, 1971...
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