Empty Space

James Brown “Cottage For Sale” – James Brown’s greatest gift to the world was his ability to express an undiluted yet highly stylized sexuality via a funk so intense and visceral that it served as the foundation for entire genres of music, but that was not the limit of his talent, only just the summit of his achievements. His performance on the standard “Cottage For Sale” is a perfect example of his fearlessness as a vocalist — whereas most everyone who has recorded the tune has done so with a mannered stiffness that is far too polite and aloof for a song expressing such great sorrow and regret, Brown presented the lyric with a robust, wounded humanity that absolutely nailed its sentiment without any trace of over-emoting. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Elsewhere: Six years ago yesterday, Douglas Wolk (the author of the Live At The Apollo book in the 33 1/3 series and all-around awesome guy) recorded this six-hour all-James Brown radio show for WFMU. If you were only slightly familiar with the man’s work, that archived program would be a wonderful place to begin.