Oct 20, 2010

King Heroin - James Brown

This is hands down one of my favorite track of all times. And here good ol' James doesn't even sing..

A very fine gentleman with excellent musical taste and also one of my best friends in the world once played this tune for me and it totally blew up my mind. A review from the records label explains it the best:

"King Heroin" is one of James Brown’s finest moments, at the time an urgently needed reality check on the growing heroin crisis swallowing much of inner city America, and appreciated today as one of the most breathtaking pieces of haunted funk and conscious soul ever released. Reissued here in all its glory and featuring the impossible to find instrumental reprise on the B-Side, “King Heroin” once again hits the streets to combat the uncertainty of post civil rights era urban malaise. Much more than a “message” record, more than a few of which James Brown & company put out with preachy fervor, "King Heroin" holds no bars in its blunt reviews of addiction and its painful fall-out, all from a man who himself struggled with the beast inside for decades. Beyond the sweet irony remains one of the most disturbing and starkly beautiful downtempo soul records ever, a perfect encapsulation of a lost era only dreamt of in weak blaxploitation Technicolor vision today. An essential piece of eternal soul history'

For years i tried in vain to buy it on vinyl, till this one day while i was living in Brixton (my friend sheltered me over there for months for which i will never be grateful enough) and i got to find a copy in rather good condition in some record store. I didn't have the money on me but i asked the guy to please keep it and promised to be back for it just the very next day. So,.. the day after i run to the shop and... dude is not there and record is not there either. 'What the hell?!' i said, but it didn't change the fact that my record was gone.

Now, a few years later i just happened to find another copy on eBay, at last!!!. The cover was slightly damaged but the record seemed to be in pristine condition so i didn't think it twice and just bought it.
Man, i don't have much.. not a property, not a car.. not even a bike! (it got stolen just the other nite in fact).. but i have my beloved James Brown/king Heroine Polydor 1972 vinyl record. So just in case, If someone is entertaining the idea of putting hands on it he best start considering to live without 'em. And i mean.



A masterpiece of a song by the hardest working man in heaven. Dedicated to here mister Roger Bascho-George, my GURU. You are very missed around and indeed i love you like cooked food.

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