"The Payback" is a funksong by James Brown,the title track from his 1973album of the same name. The song's lyrics,originally written by trombonist and bandleaderFred Wesley but heavily revised by Brown himself soon before it was recorded,concern the revenge he plans to take against a man who betrayed him. The song uses a sparse,open arrangement and wah-wahguitar –a relative rarity in Brown's previous funk recordings. Released as a two-part single (featuring a radio announcer at the beginning of part one,DJ copies edited the announcer out) in February 1974,it was the first in an unbroken succession of three singles by Brown to reach #1 on the R&B charts that year –the last chart-toppers of his career. It also peaked at number 26 on the Billboard Hot 100.[1][2] It was his second,and final,single to be certified gold by the RIAA.[3]
The song and the album of the same name were originally recorded by Brown as the accompanying soundtrack to the blaxploitation film Hell Up in Harlem (1973),but was rejected by the movie's producers as "the same old James Brown stuff."[4] An incensed Brown decided to release the album and let it stand on its own merits. The subsequent soundtrack was then recorded by Motown Records artist Edwin Starr. Later,Brown recorded "Rapp Payback (Where Iz Moses)",a reworking of "The Payback",in 1980.
James Brown's tour director,Alan Leeds,mentions the background to the song in his autobiography:
A young lady in Brown's camp was having an affair with Harold Melvin. JB had just caught wind of her broken loyalty before he was about to record 'Revenge,' a song Fred Wesley had sketched out for the opening scene in Hell Up In Harlem. James tossed Wesley's lyrics aside and began freestyling what quickly became The Payback.
—Alan Leeds, There Was a Time: James Brown, The Chitlin' Circuit, and Me. Page 225. Post Hill Press, 2020.
Commonly misheard lyrics
In the song, James Brown seems to say, "I don't know karate, but I know ka-razy." However, he is actually saying, "I don't know karate, but I know ka-razor." James Brown had taken the line from a comedy routine by Clay Tyson, who was the comedian of the James Brown Revue.[5] Originally, the phrase was the punchline to a story about someone asking Tyson if he knew karate, with the implication that Tyson did not need to know karate because he carried a straight razor.[6]
The song was used in season three of The Wire; the song is playing in the poolhall that the deacon frequents, when Cutty comes to him to discuss the boxing gym.
The song was used in an episode of Scrubs, during one of J.D.'s fantasies about how cool it is to enter the hospital as a surgeon.
The song was used in the movie Hollywood Shuffle, the melody of the song is used during the dress rehearsal of the movie "Jivetime Jimmy's Revenge" – the movie in which Bobby (Robert Townsend) won the lead role as "Jimmy." Jimmy also uses the lyrics "I'm mad, I want revenge" when his brother dies in his arms.
The song is used in many professional boxing ring entrances, but most notably used by Lennox Lewis during the ringwalk prior to his heavyweight championship rematch with Hasim Rahman in 2001, which Lewis won by knockout.
In May 1995, the song was featured prominently in the opening scene of "Catman Comes Back", the first-season finale of the FOXpolice drama television series New York Undercover.[7]
↑ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p.85.
↑ White, Cliff (1991). "Discography". In Star Time (pp.54–59) [CD booklet]. New York: PolyGram Records.
↑ Bloom, Steve. "Anything Left in Papa's Bag?" Down Beat September 1, 1980. Rpt. in The James Brown Reader: Fifty Years of Writing About the Godfather of Soul. Ed. Nelson George and Alan Leeds. New York: Plume, 2008. 160-170.
↑ Smith, RJ. The One: The Life and Music of James Brown, 290. New York: Gotham Books, 2012.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
