James Brown

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s showtime:

“It is indeed a great pleasure to present to you at this particular time, national and internationally known as ‘The hardest working man in show business,’ the man that sings “Papa Don’t Take No Mess . . . Say It Loud . . . It’s a Man’s World . . . I Got the Feeling. He’s Mr. Dynamite, the amazing Mr. Please, Please, Please himself, the star of the show, James Brown!

And with those words, the “Godfather of Soul,” “Soul Brother No. 1” or simply “James” took the stage for a glitzy, rolling, ruckus, high-energy performance of song, dance and showmanship that left the audience as breathless as Brown himself.

During a career that lasted more than 50 years, Brown’s performances left no stone unturned, his shows usually lasting more than three hours, with Brown sweating his way through several costume changes. He danced the Mashed Potato, the Camel Walk, the Crocodile and his modestly self-titled but never imitated, the “James Brown.”

With his meticulously styled pompadour, sleek and form-fitting pants, and spit-shined shoes that seemed to glide across the stage, Brown dazzled audiences with his shimmies, splits and spins, each move precise and flowing seamlessly to the next.

And the cape routine — who can forget Brown’s cape ritual? It was a mainstay of every Brown performance and as much his signature as was his deft footwork. It occurred during the end of a show and almost always during the ballad Please, Please, Please.

Please, please, please . . .

During the song, an exhausted Brown would drop to his knees, shivering, sweating and emotionally spent while singing — or pleading — Please, Please, Please into the microphone. The show’s MC would race onstage, help Brown to his feet and drape a full-length, multi-colored cape over his shoulders while softly patting his back as he escorted him offstage.

But it didn’t end there. Just before they reached backstage, Brown would suddenly fling the cape aside, storm back to center stage, grab the microphone and began sobbing again while singing an encore of Please, Please, Please, prompting the MC to bring a different cape to soothe and comfort Brown.

The bit often continued for three or four times per show. The result was always the same, but somehow it never seemed to get old. “[I try] to give people more than what they came for — make them tired, ’cause that’s what they came for,” Brown said.

Born in Barnwell, South Carolina, in 1933, Brown performed anywhere he could as a child, from street corners to church choirs to adult nightclubs and even in prison musical groups while serving a short stint during his teens.

Brown recorded 17 songs that reached No. 1 on the Billboard R&B charts, as well as holding the record for the number of songs that made the Billboard Hot 100 chart but did not reach No. 1. He won four Grammy awards and was inducted into the Rhythm & Blues Music Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

His music, style, dance and showmanship inspired headliners of different generations over the years, including Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger, Prince, Elvis Presley and MC Hammer. Activist Rev. Al Sharpton styles his hair in a pompadour as a tribute to Brown.

But Brown was not just an entertainer. He was an advocate for Civil Rights and black awareness, writing the song Say It Loud — I’m Black and I’m Proud during the tumultuous late 1960s when racial tensions were high.

He later wrote I Don’t Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing, a strongly-worded song that pleads for equal opportunity for blacks and self-reliance rather than entitlement. And, in response to some black leaders not being outspoken enough, in 1970 he recorded “Get, Get Into It, Get Involved” and “Talkin’ Loud and Sayin’ Nothing.”

Brown died on Christmas Day 2006 in Atlanta. He was buried on his daughter’s property in South Carolina.

Brown once summed up his career saying: “As I always said, if people wanted to know who James Brown is, all they have to do is listen to my music.”