When James Brown died on Christmas Day 2006 at age 73, officials at Atlanta's Emory University Hospital Midtown listed his cause of death as congestive heart failure related to pneumonia. More than a decade later, however, at least a dozen people — including Dr. Marvin Crawford, the physician who signed Brown's death certificate — have come forward to express their doubts in that pronouncement.
"He changed too fast," Crawford, who didn't believe the three-time Grammy winner died of natural causes, revealed in an interview with CNN, also noting that he'd recommended an autopsy but Brown's daughter Yamma declined. "He was a patient I would never have predicted would have coded. ... But he died that night, and I did raise that question: What went wrong in that room?"
Brown received a visit from a 'male stranger' prior to his sudden death
For his part, Dr. Crawford recalls Brown being admitted to the hospital on December 23 with “symptoms of early congestive heart failure and signs of a mild heart attack.” Brown's urine also allegedly tested positive for cocaine, and after giving him oxygen, IV diuretics and ACE inhibitors, Crawford said the funk singer "improved fast" and "probably could have walked out of the hospital if he wanted."
The physician says when he left the hospital on December 24 to spend Christmas Eve with his family, all seemed well — but late that night, he received a phone call from the hospital that Brown's heart had stopped. By the time he had returned to work, Brown was dead. READ MORE
Bootsy Collins Launches Bootzilla Records & Digs Deep into 50+ Years of Unreleased Archives. Bootzilla Records Archives, Volume 1 EP out June 28, 2019.
Watch Video for “Bootsy Play-Cation” (featuring The Rubber Band) Filmed in 2012, Previously Unreleased
Reissue LP My Mind Set Me Free: The House Guests Meet The Complete Strangers & Bootsy, Phelps & Gary out August 23 (Shake It! Records)
“Got my diamonds out of hock and I’m ready to funk!” says Bootsy Collins, who has launched his own label Bootzilla Records, the new home for Bootsy's personal archives and current projects. For over 50 years, Bootsy has collected music, collaborations, interviews, films and more, from his time with James Brown’s Original J.B.’s, Parliament-Funkadelic, Bootsy’s Rubber Band and beyond. On June 28, Bootzilla Records will release Bootzilla Records Archives, Volume 1, part of an ongoing series.
The House Guests
“We'll be sharing unreleased music from the past, music from the present, and music far into the future,” says Collins. “Let's just say that the Star-Gate has been opened, and the fountain of youth is pouring love, health and Bootsyful motivation across this nation. Stone-cold, funked-up history in the making!”
Bootzilla Records Archives, Vol. 1 track listing
Crushin' on U (featuring Ouiwey) - Recorded in 2018
Bootsy Play-Cation (featuring The Rubber Band) - Recorded in 2012
Z-Declassified (with Buckethead, Catfish Collins, Bernie Worrell,
Razor Sharp Johnson, Fred Wesley)
When I'm Dancing - Recorded in 2006
Nothin' but U (featuring Chew Fu)
My Mind Set Me Free: The House Guests Meet The Complete Strangers
& Bootsy, Phelps & Gary
For the first time ever as an official release, the House Guests’ complete recordings will be available on August 23 (Cincinnati’s Shake It! Records).
The nine-track collection of obscure singles titled My Mind Set Me Free: The House Guests Meet The Complete Strangers & Bootsy, Phelps & Gary will be released as a limited-edition LP and all formats.
An invaluable if an unsung piece of funk history, The House Guests - Bootsy with Phelps “Catfish” Collins (guitar), Frank “Kash” Waddy (drums), Clayton “Chicken” Gunnells (trumpet) and Rufus Allen (vocals)- are the link between the Original JB’s and Funkadelic.
Catfish Collins & Bootsy Collins
Many, many ecstatic concertgoers, as well as two of the greatest bandleaders in the history of R&B, soul, and rock, have wanted the House Guests, albeit not necessarily by that name. When James Brown wanted them, they were called the Pacemakers; when Brown employed them on some of his most important and influential hits, they were known as the Original JB’s; and when the Motor City visionary George Clinton recruited them, they came to be known as Funkadelic.
Later, they developed a groundbreaking school of psychedelic space-funk as the Complete Strangers and, finally, Bootsy’s Rubber Band.
But for a brief, fleeting moment of divine semi-obscurity, at home in funk-rich Ohio and on the great American road, they were the House Guests. “Couldn’t nobody tell us we weren’t doing it right, because we didn’t really care,” Bootsy recalls today, bursting into one of his spirit-filling laughs.
“We just loved what we were doing, we loved each other and we loved traveling. We were just having a great time. And it all showed in the music.”
The House Guests track listing
My Mind Set Me Free
What So Never to Dance
Fun in Your Thang Pt. 1
Fun in Your Thang Pt. 2
House Guest Girls
Be Right Back
Say Something Good
Together
Love and Understanding
More information on The House Guests can be found here.
Get on Up is the new James Brown bio pic that starts tomorrow! The directors are from the UK and Mick Jagger supervised the music....this movie is going to SMOKE...a film that most likely will be up for the Academy Award....starts August 1 TOMORROW
Supercharged by Chadwick Boseman’s tour de force as the iconic Godfather of Soul James Brown — and pitch-perfect music supervision by producer and longtime devotee Mick Jagger — “Get On Up’’ is one funk-tastic musical biopic.
Vigorously directed by Tate Taylor (“The Help’’), the film largely avoids standard rise-and-fall clichés and strained attempts to explain a messy and colorful life filled with contradictions that doesn’t easily fit inside a 2 ¹/₂ hour narrative with a PG-13 rating.
Instead, the screenplay by British brothers Jez and John-Henry Butterworth (“Edge of Tomorrow’’) jumps back and forth between significant incidents — opening in 1988 with a high-on-PCP, middle-aged Brown using a rifle to terrorize a roomful of insurance agents, one of whom accidentally used Brown’s private bathroom in the same building.
