Man… Clyde Stubblefield died today. I’d been wanting to do a Shameless Plug post to showcase a great James Brown song so in honor of “the world’s most sampled drummer”, here’s a post on one of my all time favorite sticksmen and one of the Godfather Of Soul’s best cuts. “Funky Drummer” may be the one that’s been sampled to death, but it’s the snap, crackle, and pop of Stubblefield’s work on “I Got The Feelin'” that’ll get your hands a clappin’ and your toes a tappin’.
Make no mistake, this is funk with a capital F. If all you know from James Brown is “I Got You” or “Living In America”, do yourself a favor and pick up one of his greatest hits collections or just go out and YouTube a few videos (extra treat in finding mid-60’s through 70’s live vids!). If you need some convincing on just downloading one song, “I Got The Feelin'” is just as good as any- the only drawback is that it’s too short! But what a groove… sharp horn riffs and punctuating blasts, superfly guitar picking, punchy bass, and one of the nastiest, funkiest, grooviest drum patterns you will EVER hear. Just a master class in drumming by Clyde Stubblefield- listen to how he comes in on “the one” with a quick kick and wicked snap to intro the song. Just an incredibly sweet, sweet snare sound here too, all sizzle and spark due to Stubblefield’s smooth left hand “ghost notes” topped off with such a propulsive right foot that’s really driving that bass drum- boom boom bap boom bap! Add in the occasional funky hi hat work and you’ve got a solid bedrock of grooviness that’ll wake the dead.
But what about James Brown himself? He’s the icing on the cake. Ultra smooth yet semi-gruff in delivery, JB really nails the vocal here and comes off like Muhammad Ali in his prime: bobbing and weaving in and out of the groove, shuffling about, throwing in a couple of “good God” and “baby baby baby” body shots to keep us off balance, and going for the knockout punch with a few well paced grunts and screams. I dare you to sit still through this thing ’cause it’s damn near impossible as James playfully toys with the vocal rhythm and the band delivers a killer dose of insistent funk with Stubblefield clearly driving and pushing the beat.
Sure, “Cold Sweat”, “Super Bad”, “Mother Popcorn”, are all great songs from this period but for my money and jones for the funkiness “I Got The Feelin'” is hard to beat. Everything falls into place perfectly in three minutes; I just wish it was at least another three minutes longer. RIP Clyde Stubblefield!
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RIP Clyde. My favorite JB cut if I had to pick one.
Years ago, me and 5 of my colleagues mimed this at a pep rally when I was teaching at Grant Co, haha! They asked me to pick a song, so I went with this. We borrowed the drum set and 4 horns from the band room. I air-drummed, and they did the swinging horns!
We just modeled it after the SNL hot tub skit, so we had the token black guy teacher doing JB around this kiddie pool in the middle of the gym! He was awesome, had the cape, the wig, and he nailed all the moves. It was pretty amazing, and the students all went wild. Funniest skit we ever did at a pep rally and would’ve been an unforgettable variety show moment! If there’s anything I wish I had a video of, it’d be that.
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Ha! That would have been fun. You know, I listed to this about 20-25 times when I wrote this the other night and I swear that they had to have readjusted the kick drum mic after the first verse because you hear such a fatter “plop” when he hits it. Either that, or the take was so hot that he’s really kicking it to death. And it sounds fatter as it goes on too! .
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