Working for the Man, Playing in the Band
My Years with James Brown
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5.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A white rock ’n’ roll guitarist on stage with the Godfather of Soul
In this unvarnished account of toiling under one of popular music’s most notorious bosses, Damon Wood details his six years spent playing guitar for James Brown’s Soul Generals.
In a memoir certain to fascinate Mr. Dynamite’s millions of fans, as well as musicians and industry insiders, Wood recalls how a chance encounter with James Brown led him to embrace soul and funk music under the tutelage of its greatest progenitor. Numerous interviews with bandmates provide multiple perspectives on James Brown’s complex character, his leadership of his band, the nature of soul and funk, and insights and sometimes harsh lessons learned along the way.
This is a sideman’s story of the gritty reality of working close to the spotlight but rarely in it. Damon Wood describes life on the road — often on James Brown’s infamous tour bus — with one guitar, a change of clothes, and two dozen comrades-in-arms as they brought the funk to clubs, theaters, and the biggest music festivals on earth. Working for James Brown could be fear-inducing, inspiring, exhilarating, and exasperating — all in the space of a single performance.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wood gives readers an insightful, close-up view of what it was like to be a part of James Brown's globetrotting band. After an initial 1998 meeting with Mr. Brown, as he was always called, replete in "the gloves, the glasses and the grease," Wood was a regular guitarist with the Soul Generals almost until the legendary singer's 2006 death, But it was never a sure thing, as "holding down your spot in James Brown's band was a tightrope walk without a net" due to the boss's mood swings and flamboyantly confrontational style. As Wood recounts, Brown once "walked up to each person in the band, got in their face and demanded Do you like your job? Do you want your job?.' " A white musician playing behind one of the funkiest men in music history, Wood says he was with the band for years "before I really began to understand how funk breathes." Wood and Carson smoothly explain the intricacies of being a guitarist, detailing but never dwelling on minutiae such as Brown's hand signals or tuning on the fly. Readers will come away with a deep respect for the skill and resilience needed to be a professional touring musician, especially one traveling and playing with a mercurial star.
Customer Reviews
Working for the Man (playing in the band)
This, in my opinion, is a well written and very entertaining look at what it took to be a part of the “Hardest Working Man in Show Business’ “ Band. Very insightful and honest. Thank you for sharing your story.