It was five bucks to get in. Of the day itself, I don't remember much, mainly cotton candy and the bright sunny heat of a Midwestern August. Noisy rides, made of rust and covered with bright cheap paint. Twirling cups on octopus machines and screams from spinning kids with their hands above their heads. A fun house and games with prizes of stuffed toys. Words made of small blinking lightbulbs. Walking on dirt and trashcans overflowing. We saw very large pigs, probably other prizewinning animals too. Somewhere there are photos of the girls smiling and wearing face paint.
Summer 1999, I think it was. I was back in Toledo. The night before we drove up, I'd been sitting in the Longhorn after midnight. A five second blip appeared between the commercials for cheap lawyers and used cars : Detroit. Little Richard. James Brown.
The dream turned out to be true and the next day, after an hour's drive, my daughter, her friend and I finally got out of the car and began to follow the handwritten signs towards the Michigan State Fair. How long would the two girls last$%: They weren't even teenagers. James Brown and Little Richard meant little to them, though one of them knew the chorus to Living in America. It was very possible that they'd become dangerously bored or cold and we'd have to leave before Mr. Brown came on.
We went to find food and another concert came to mind, one I'd seen in Rochester New York at least 15 years earlier. My buddy from high school and I'd jumped the fence and smuggled in a bottle of wine. Sam and Dave were supposed to play, but only Sam showed up. Didn't seem to matter: the tent was full of women who threw their underwear at Sam-or was it Dave$%: Everyone was smiling and clapping and singing along. By the end of the show half the crowd was dancing on stage; sweating, funky and joyous.
While we ate hotdogs I imagined the girls in the middle of something like that here in Detroit. They were enjoying this part of the trip, but their good tempers, like the heat of the day, were not going to last forever.
In the evening Little Richard finally came on. I allowed myself one beer and steadied the plastic cup as I meekly bopped back and forth. The older crowd was almost all African-Americans. I wondered what the girls were thinking. At times they tuned into the frenzy on stage and the dancing in the audience, other times we all wished that Little Richard would talk less and play more. The girls rolled their eyes when he came back for a second encore.
I stop now to talk about two of the first CDs I ever bought in 1988, the year my daughter was born; a very happy time. We were living in Tokyo.
Seemingly overnight, records and tapes disappeared; replaced by CDs. They weren't cheap and we didn't have much money. James Brown: Live at the Apollo, a" two record set" was my first CD.
The other CD was a greatest hits collection on the Motown label which we played nearly every day. It was shiny, silver and new-futuristic-yet it was also sweet and jazzy. The booklet had the map imprint from the old Motown 45rpm records. Toledo, Ohio-my hometown- was almost visible at the bottom of the map they used. The songs themselves were written and recorded in Memphis-the hometown of the blues and Elvis.
In my mind, I sang along with songs like: "Tired of Being Alone", "Take Me to the River", "Let's Get Married"," Let's Stay Together" and "Call Me (Come Back Home)".
The CD-Al Green's Greatest Hits, flowed together perfectly and included a cover of the Bee Gees classic, "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart", the last minute of which will make you cry.
"Love and Happiness" was another song on that CD. Only a master could create something worthy of those words. The song has it all: poetry, musicianship, recording technique, spirit... ..."Love and happiness...something that can make you do wrong, make you do right...Love".
Words on paper do not do justice to the gift that is Al Green's music.
The night has become very cool. The girls seem OK and we work our way closer to the stage. Soon, I imagine, the crowd will be dancing to "I Feel Good". The girls will laugh and boogie to "I Got Ants in My Pants" and no doubt James Brown will pull my daughter up on stage to dance with him. She will be escorted back to me and we will be respectful as Mr. Brown pulls the crowd into another direction, urging them to "Say It Loud-I'm Black and Proud". His voice is untouched by age and the band is perfection. "Mr. Dynamite" shows the girls another world, a beautiful world built of beats. Funky ninety minutes pass-and then, in the midst of "I Feel Good"... James Brown collapses! My daughter looks into my eyes with terror. He lies on the stage and the troubled band plays on. The crowd is alarmed. Fear and worried funk fill the summer air. An eternity passes.
Then, like secret doctors, the band members nod amongst themselves. The music changes like a gentle shock to the heart and the horn section starts to sound like God in heaven the summer before Judgment Day. Whispering jazzy notewords of soul radiate from the stage, glowing with rays of gentle funk. The backup singers make it Easter. The hand of James Brown twitches.
The angels with guitars strum again and the horn section reaches out with grace of God and... yes! James is given the gift of life! We hear the drums, we hear the heart...the sound of the pounding heart of James Brown now fills the air! An attendant rushes to his side, with a towel...No! the towel's a cape! A robe! The band blows their funky medicine music stronger! The velvet robe is tossed on the shoulders of the kneeling crawling James Brown. He jumps to his feet, kicks the mike stand! The stand lands in his outstretched hand. The band kicks back into the biggest baddest groove in the universe and James Brown picks up where he left off. He gets his good foot up and the crowd goes wild. OUTTA SIGHT! Men stare and dance and the women whirl like they are in a trance. The girls cry tears of amazement and James Brown takes it even higher. He lets the groove get there, get there, get there one more time and then, with a sideways stuntman acrobat ballet body snap, he stops the world on a dime...and then THE scream from THE Godfather ..."Ahhhhhhhhhhh.... 1, 2, 3, 4 and "Sex Machine" starts, bigger than life, all three drummers pulling out the joints..
Back to reality: the girls are impatient and they are getting cold. It is a very real possibility we will not see James Brown. Pioneering iconic revolutionary or not, the girls come first.
They run through snippets of JB classics and the announcer, Danny Ray, builds the excitement...the lights flash....."Star Time" ...and James Brown walks out; smiling, crisp and in command. Perfect hair and mirror shoes. The crowd goes wild and he kicks off with "Make It Funky". Closes the song with a big finish., then lets the audience catch its breath as he reminisces about Motown and "all the good times and the eras full of bad nothing...You gotta do it for yourselves you know" before kicking into "Living in America" My daughter sings along with the crowd, but she is tired. The next song will be the last one.
I look towards the stage again, surprised to see a man in front of the microphone. The place is quiet. James steps back. He snaps a look at the vocalist, who gives him a quick cool nod. James then shoots a look at the band and barely moves his hand. They answer with their eyelids. A silent countdown and then...the signature guitar riff of an Al Green song!
Smiling, I nod to the relieved girls and we make our way from the front row towards the exit. As the intro ends and the singer begins, I tap their shoulders and glance towards the stage. "Remember this." They look but I'm sure they do not see what I see.
That scene, however, I will never forget. Slow dancing in his golden suit, James Brown leads the band through the world's sweetest version of "Love and Happiness". He moves across the stage in the same direction as we are moving, looks out into the audience, and for a moment, we are all in sync.
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