James Brown: The Original Disco Man

It’s funky Friday! And it’s Radio Faux Show Flashback week, with each day presenting a song from an old post during the first 3 years of the Faux Show blog. Feel free to go back and check out the old Faux Show format (which was similar to an online music magazine format, with dozens of songs and information about them provided weekly with an overall theme) or simply listen to today’s song.

I’ve chosen “The Original Disco Man” by James Brown to represent the music I discussed in Radio Faux Show Volume 2, Number 9 on February 27, 2022. The theme of the show was Contractually Obligated Disco Recordings and presented 10 songs by non-disco artists who released disco tracks during the late ’70s disco era. The artists included Carole King, Bill Withers, Wilson Pickett, and others. Here is what I said about the unfortunate James Brown disco recording.

This is absolutely the biggest WTF on this list. There is no way this song could have been good, but it is made even worse than you’d expect because the backing track sounds like any of the hundreds of poorly produced disco records that were advertised on television throughout the period for people to disco to at home. My favorite part is when Brown yells out his classic “Hit it!” but there is nothing there to hit. He yells “Hit it!” and then the god-awful backing singers sing “He’s the original disco man with the original disco band, he’s the original disco man, his groove is where it all began, he’s the original disco disco man with the original disco disco band, he’s the original, bona-fide original, original disco man.” Near the end when Brown starts yelling “You tell ‘em!” and they keep singing the horrendous chorus you know that the end of the world is nigh. 

To learn more about James Brown, forget you ever heard this disco song and watch this video instead.

To listen to all of the songs of the day, check out the Radio Faux Show Song of the Day playlist.

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