#439: James Brown, ‘Sex Machine’

KING, 1970

Breaking down James Brown’s legacy is impossible. We see his music, his clothes, his dancing, and even his off-screen personality bled into every fiber of the tapestry that is American pop culture. 

One of our country’s best cultural critics, Wesley Morris said the same thing about Michael Jackson. Morris wrote an article during the premier of the HBO doc series detailing Michael Jackson’s pedophilia. He sought to deconstruct his own Michael Jackson fandom while also coping with the reality that one of his biggest heroes was a prolific predator. And to make matters even more intense, this deconstruction was in the wake of the all-consuming #cancelculture black hole of 2019 and the onset of #MeToo.

He explained Michael Jackson simply cannot be canceled. He defined American pop culture. The American public cannot erase this man or his legacy. We are forced, then, to hold both his evil and his good in each hand. This does not mean that we should keep Michael Jackson on the same pedestal we built him in 1979. In fact, we should renegotiate what he means to each of us. Perhaps it is wise to take down the posters we had of him in our bedrooms. Of course, we can still acknowledge that he was a big deal and wrote incredible music. We can weigh his contributions while also mourning those who were harmed. Both things are valid. 

Morris also said something particularly interesting – this is the moment when America has to deal with our own trauma. We cannot just cancel Michael Jackson nor can we say that all of his accusers were liars. We have to sit in the complicated-ness of the most extreme parts of humanity.

I bring Michael Jackson up simply because his musical lineage points in all directions back to James Brown. We see it in his dancing and his early days vocal stylings. Without James Brown, there would be no Michael Jackson. 

It is not the gravity and complexity of James Brown’s descendants that I bring you here to discuss. It is his own evil and good. James Brown was also an abuser. He was a rapist and alleged murderer. 

Like Jackson, it is impossible to cancel James Brown. He is too big. But it is okay and healthy even to acknowledge his good and his evil. 

I have been wrestling with this album for the past two weeks. I started listening to it the day I found out one of my most important friends died. I had a really complicated relationship with him. The first week of mourning was dark and angry and painful. All of the insecurities I felt in that relationship ripped through my pores begging to be released. With all things buried deep down, I had to feel those moments of ick and pain in fullness as they bled out of my skin. 

I am finally in that place of pure sadness. The anger has subsided and the sadness has come. Sadness that I didn’t have a chance to develop a more normal or healthy relationship with him. Sadness that I wasted time demanding more from him than he had the capacity to give. 

Death is complicated. 

People were mad that the article about James Brown and the doc series about Michael Jackson had all been released post-mortem. There was no sense of justice or reconciliation for these larger-than-life characters. So the reconstruction of their stories had to be done in the intimate spaces of small communities. Wesley Morris gathered with other Black critics and wrote about it, podcasted about it and also presented these ideas and wrestlings on various guest spots. 

When my friend died, I found myself in the warm company of other women who also loved him deeply. They also had hard feelings to resolve. They also carried the hardship mental illness often projects on friendships. We were able to reconstruct this person with more compassion and love. We held our hurt in one hand and held our love and sadness in the other. It is okay. 

While listening to this album, I hope that we can think more critically of how we hold complicated relationships whether they be in pop culture or in our own personal lives.

I don’t know the correct answer but I do know that many things can be true at the same time even if those truths sit on the most extreme edges of the human experience.