Without no doubt, these are...

...the JBs!

Sometime in the mid 1980s, I was depping in a friend's band and at one of the gigs, during the set break, the DJ played a track which really made me prick up my ears. I asked him what it was and he told me it was the JBs' "Doing it to Death". I said how much I liked it and he told me that they were James Brown's backing band. He also said that he'd make me a cassette of this track and others by the same band and send it to me. I thought at the time that perhaps he was just being nice, but just a few days later the promised tape turned up in the post. Thank you Mr DJ!

The JBs

Sure, I'd heard James Brown before (although never really listened) but nothing prepared me for the massive dose of uncut funk that this cassette delivered. From then on, I made sure that I caught up with JB himself...then the JBs' Maceo Parker, Fred Wesley, Jimmy Nolen...and then, via Bootsy Collins, George Clinton, Parliament, Funkadelic and all the various Mothership offshoots.

But back to the JBs...

From 1970 to the early 1980s, Parker, Wesley and Nolen, as well as Bootsy Collins, Fred Smith, Clyde Stubberfield and John "Jabo" Starks passed through the JBs' ranks. Along with many, many others, they comprised a virtual "Who's Who" of 70s funk.

 Maceo - looking sharp!

At various times - and this list is by no means definitive - the band went by the names of Fred Wesley and the JBs, The James Brown Soul Train, Maceo and the Macks, A.A.B.B., Fred Wesley and the New JBs, The First Family, and The Last Word; invariably with the participation of their leader, in some role or another. On several occasions, the JBs were given a new moniker for a one-off single release, in order to cash in on some new dance craze. So, sure, it was all about getting 'product' out as frequently as possible, but the standard remained high, and even the most obscure JB offshoot track was often a master class in funk's quintessential balance of rhythm and space.

Fred Wesley

The track "Doing it to Death" is actually credited to Fred Wesley & the JBs and features writer and producer JB on vocals, Maceo, the two Freds, Jimmy Nolen and Hearlon "Cheese" Martin on guitars, "Jabo" on drums and a large horn section. The lyrics, as such, never actually quote the title, and consist mostly of "we're gonna have a funky good time" and random interjections from Brown. Solos are taken - trombone, flute, guitar - over a simple vamp that becomes steadily more and more hypnotic over its lengthy course. I guess that accounts for the track's title.

Right at the beginning, you get an intro from Danny Ray - JB's "cape man" - although this was recorded at a gig, rather than in the studio when "Death" was recorded.

The Cape Man!

"Ladies 'n' gen'lmen, there are seven acknowledged wonders of the world - yoooou are about to witness tha' eighth!"

What really lifts the track - apart from the steady pumping groove - is the key change about a third of the way through, The track starts off in F and then rather than modulate up - the more usual direction - it goes down a whole step and a half to D. "In order for me to get down, I gotta get in D." Much later on, a minute from the end, it returns to F - "for freedom" - and then stops abruptly without warning.

Alas, my cassette is long gone - junked or given away sometime in early 2010 when we were downsizing prior to moving to France. However, a rather splendid double CD anthology of the JBs (in most of their guises) is available and it includes the full 12 minute plus version of "Doing it to Death", which is what I'm listening to as I write this. It's actually one of the best anthologies by anybody that I've ever heard. It really doesn't let up, in spite of it playing the ace in the pack - "Death" - right at the very beginning.

If this stuff doesn't make you want to give the drummer some, pass the peas, give it some more, break into a cold sweat or get up offa that thing, you may need to check your bad self out...