Lost Someone

Last updated
"Lost Someone"
LostSomeoneSingle.jpg
Single by James Brown
from the album I Got You (I Feel Good)
B-side "Cross Firing"
ReleasedNovember 1961 (1961-11)
RecordedFebruary 9, 1961, King Studios, Cincinnati, OH
Genre Soul
Length3:05
Label King
5573
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s) Unknown
James Brown chartingsingles chronology
"Just You and Me, Darling"
(1961)
"Lost Someone"
(1961)
"Night Train"
(1962)
"Lost Someone"
LostSomeoneLiveSingle.jpg
Single by James Brown
from the album Live at the Apollo
B-side "I'll Go Crazy"
ReleasedJanuary 1966 (1966-01)
RecordedOctober 24, 1962, Apollo Theater, New York, NY
Genre Soul
Length2:42
Label King
6020
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s) James Brown
James Brown chartingsingles chronology
"I Got You (I Feel Good)"
(1965)
"Lost Someone"
(1966)
"I'll Go Crazy"
(1966)

"Lost Someone" is a song recorded by James Brown in 1961. It was written by Brown and Famous Flames members Bobby Byrd and Baby Lloyd Stallworth. Like "Please, Please, Please" before it, the song's lyrics combine a lament for lost love with a plea for forgiveness. The single was a #2 R&B hit and reached #48 on the pop chart. [1] According to Brown, "Lost Someone" is based on the chord changes of the Conway Twitty song "It's Only Make Believe". [2] Although Brown's vocal group, The Famous Flames did not actually sing on this tune, two of them , Bobby Byrd, and "Baby Lloyd " Stallworth , co-wrote it with Brown, and Byrd plays organ on the record, making it , in effect, a James Brown/Famous Flames recording.

Contents

Personnel

with the James Brown Band:

Live at the Apollo version

A performance of "Lost Someone" is the centerpiece of Brown's 1963 album Live at the Apollo . Nearly 11 minutes long and spanning two tracks on the original LP release (the end of Side 1 and the beginning of Side 2), it is widely regarded as the album's high point and as one of the greatest performances in its idiom on record. Critic Peter Guralnick wrote of the recording:

Here, in a single, multilayered track ... you have embodied the whole history of soul music, the teaching, the preaching, the endless assortment of gospel effects, above all the groove that was at the music's core. "Don't go to strangers," James pleads in his abrasively vulnerable fashion. "Come on home to me.... Gee whiz I love you.... I'm so weak...." Over and over he repeats the simple phrases, insists "I'll love you tomorrow" until the music is rocking with a steady pulse, until the music grabs you in the pit of the stomach and James knows he's got you. Then he works the audience as he works the song, teasing, tantalizing, drawing closer, dancing away, until finally at the end of Side I that voice breaks through the crowd noise and dissipates the tension as it calls out, "James, you're an asshole." "I believe someone out there loves someone," declares James with cruel disingenuousness. "Yeah, you," replies a girl's voice with unabashed fervor. "I feel so good I want to scream," says James, testing the limits yet again. "Scream!" cries a voice. And the record listener responds, too, we are drawn in by the same tricks, so transparent in the daylight but put across with the same unabashed fervor with which the girl in the audience offers up her love. [4]

An edited version of the live performance was released as a single in 1966 and charted #94 Pop.

Long, drawn-out performances of "Lost Someone" continued to be a feature of Brown's live shows until 1966, when "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" largely supplanted it in his concert repertoire. Brown would sometimes interpolate parts of "Lost Someone" into the newer song, as in the 1967 performance documented on Live at the Apollo, Volume II . [5]

Personnel

with the James Brown Band:

Other versions

Brown made several other recordings of "Lost Someone", including:

Covers

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">I Got You (I Feel Good)</span> 1965 single by James Brown

"I Got You " is a song by American singer James Brown. First recorded for the album Out of Sight and then released in an alternate take as a single in 1965, it was his highest-charting song and is arguably his best-known recording.

<i>Live at the Apollo</i> (1963 album) 1963 live album by James Brown and the Famous Flames

Live at the Apollo is the first live album by James Brown and the Famous Flames, recorded at the Apollo Theater in Harlem and released in 1963 by King Records.

Bobby Howard Byrd was an American rhythm and blues, soul and funk singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, bandleader and talent scout, who played an integral and important part in the development of soul and funk music in association with James Brown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Please, Please, Please</span> 1956 single by James Brown and The Famous Flames

"Please, Please, Please" is a rhythm and blues song performed by James Brown and The Famous Flames. Written by Brown and Johnny Terry and released as a single on Federal Records in 1956, it reached No. 6 on the R&B charts. The group's debut recording and first chart hit, it has come to be recognized as their signature song.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Night Train (Jimmy Forrest composition)</span> 1951 blues record

"Night Train" is a twelve-bar blues instrumental standard first recorded by Jimmy Forrest in 1951.

"Cold Sweat" is a song performed by James Brown and written with his bandleader Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis. Brown recorded it in May 1967. An edited version of "Cold Sweat" released as a two-part single on King Records was a No. 1 R&B hit, and reached number seven on the Pop Singles chart. The complete recording, more than seven minutes long, was included on an album of the same name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Famous Flames</span> American R&B Vocal Group

The Famous Flames were an American Rhythm and blues, Soul vocal group founded in Toccoa, Georgia, in 1953 by Bobby Byrd. James Brown first began his career as a member of the Famous Flames, emerging as the lead singer by the time of their first appearance professional recording, "Please, Please, Please", in 1956.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine</span> 1970 single by James Brown

"Get Up Sex Machine" is a song recorded by James Brown with Bobby Byrd on backing vocals. Released as a two-part single in 1970, it was a no. 2 R&B hit and reached no. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Try Me (James Brown song)</span> Single by James Brown and The Famous Flames

"Try Me", titled "Try Me " in its original release, is a song recorded by James Brown and The Famous Flames in 1958. It was a #1 R&B hit and charted #48 Pop - the group's first appearance on the Billboard Hot 100. It was Brown and the Flames' second charting single, ending a two-year dry spell after the success of "Please, Please, Please".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Think (The "5" Royales song)</span>

"Think" is a rhythm and blues song written by Lowman Pauling and originally recorded by his group The "5" Royales. Released as a single on King Records in 1957, it was a national hit and reached number nine on the U.S. R&B chart.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Make It Funky</span> 1971 single by James Brown

"Make It Funky" is a jam session recorded by James Brown with The J.B.'s. It was released as a two-part single in 1971, which reached No. 1 on the U.S. R&B chart and No. 22 on the U.S. Pop chart.

"Bewildered" is a popular song written in 1936 by Teddy Powell and Leonard Whitcup. It was a 1938 hit for Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Out of Sight (song)</span> 1964 single by James Brown

"Out of Sight" is a funk song recorded by James Brown in 1964. A twelve-bar blues written by Brown under the pseudonym "Ted Wright", the stuttering, staccato dance rhythms and blasting horn section riffs of its instrumental arrangement were an important evolutionary step in the development of funk music.

<i>Love, Power, Peace: Live at the Olympia, Paris, 1971</i> 1992 live album by James Brown

Love, Power, Peace: Live at the Olympia, Paris, 1971 is a live album by James Brown. It is the only recording that documents one of his live performances with the original J.B.'s lineup featuring Bootsy and Catfish Collins. Love, Power, Peace was originally intended for a 1972 release as a vinyl triple album, but was cancelled after the key members of the original J.B.'s left Brown to join Parliament-Funkadelic. The album was finally released for the first time in 1992, edited down for a single compact disc; the full show, using Brown's original mixdown was later released in July 2014 on Sundazed Records.

"Oh Baby Don't You Weep" is a song recorded in 1964 by James Brown and The Famous Flames. Based upon the spiritual "Mary Don't You Weep", it was recorded as an extended-length track and released as the first two-part single of Brown's recording career. It peaked at #23 on the Billboard Hot 100 and at #4 on the Cash Box R&B Chart.. It was the last original song featuring the Famous Flames to chart, not counting the 1964 re-release of "Please, Please, Please" and the 1966 B-side release of the Live at the Apollo performance of "I'll Go Crazy".

"I'll Go Crazy" is a rhythm and blues song recorded by James Brown and The Famous Flames. Released as a single in 1960, it was Brown's fourth R&B hit, charting at #15. Brown and the Flames also performed it as the first song on their 1963 album Live at the Apollo.

<i>Pure Dynamite! Live at the Royal</i> 1964 live album by James Brown and The Famous Flames

Pure Dynamite! Live At The Royal is a 1964 live album by James Brown and The Famous Flames. Originally issued on King Records, it was the live follow-up to Brown's 1963 Live at the Apollo LP, and like that album, reached the Top 10 of the Billboard Pop album charts, peaking at #10. It was recorded live at the Royal Theatre in Baltimore, Maryland, a popular venue for R&B artists of the day. The album takes its title from Brown's most famous nickname at the time, "Mr. Dynamite".

<i>Live at the Apollo, Volume II</i> 1968 live album by James Brown and the Famous Flames

Live at the Apollo, Volume II is a 1968 live double album by James Brown and The Famous Flames, recorded in 1967 at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. It is a follow-up to Brown's 1963 recording, Live at the Apollo. It is best known for the long medley of "Let Yourself Go", "There Was a Time", and "I Feel All Right", followed by "Cold Sweat", which document the emergence of Brown's funk style. It peaked at #32 on the Billboard albums chart. Robert Christgau included the album in his "basic record library" for the 1950s and 1960s.

Say It Live and Loud: Live in Dallas 08.26.68 is a live album by James Brown released in 1998. Taped at Dallas Memorial Auditorium soon after "Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud" had been released to the airwaves, it includes one of the only live recordings of the song, with the arena crowd shouting the call and response portions. Village Voice critic Robert Christgau deemed it the second best live recording from Brown's "crucial" 1967–71 period, behind 1970's Sex Machine. Following the 50th anniversary of the recording, the entire performance, including never before released live performances of "That's Life" and "The Popcorn", was released on vinyl by Republic Records on October 12, 2018.

"Maybe the Last Time" is a song written by James Brown and recorded by Brown and the Famous Flames in 1964. It was released as the B-side of "Out of Sight" and was also included on the Out of Sight album. Brown described it as "a heavy gospel-based number, all about appreciating friends and everything while you can because each time you see somebody may be the last time, you don't know." It was the last studio recording Brown made with the Famous Flames, although the singing group continued to perform live with him for several more years.

References

  1. White, Cliff (1991). "Discography". In Star Time (pp. 54–59) [CD booklet]. New York: PolyGram Records.
  2. Brown, James, with Bruce Tucker. James Brown: The Godfather of Soul (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1986), 123.
  3. Leeds, Alan, and Harry Weinger (1991). "Star Time: Song by Song". In Star Time (pp. 46–53) [CD booklet]. New York: PolyGram Records.
  4. Guralnick, P. (1986). Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom, 236-237. New York: Back Bay Books. ISBN   0-452-26697-1.
  5. Wolk, Douglas. (2004). Live at the Apollo, 74-75. New York: Continuum.
  6. Leeds, Alan M. (2004). Live at the Apollo (1962) Expanded Edition [CD liner notes]. London: Polydor Records.