Just watched James Brown Retrospective on PBS, Rev. Sharpton featured.

It was a very interesting show because so much commentary on Brown was given by Al Sharpton.
And since Rev. Sharpton is one of our Dem Candidates and many of us have enjoyed him, and have thought that he has spoken closer to our Dem ideals in his sound bytes than the other candidates I thought I'd give some impressions of what I saw of him on that show.

First, it seems he was in his teens when he first heard James Brown. He then somehow hooked up with him, whether it was as promotion or as a follower wasn't clear to me from the retrospective, but the show followed Brown's career out of SC and the road shows through the segregated South from 1952 on. Sharpton does a dialog of what Brown meant to the "Black Power" movement and what Brown meant to him, at one point Sharpton says he replaced the son that Brown lost and that the relationship also gave Sharpton the father he didn't have.

Sharpton was his typical "one liner self" throughout the show, but some of his comments were very revealing as to what he's about.

He said he admired James Brown's total independence as a Black man, and said Brown's philosophy was "Would you rather be on your feet or on your knees." The side of Sharpton which came out in that show was one that might "turn off" many of us who want him to stay in the race. It's the side that many remember from the Twana Brawley days when Sharpton was seen as a "self promoting buffoon."

But, to give credit to him, I think he's being true to James Brown and his Black Roots by being who he is. By being independent. And, he has a deep suspicion of the government for persecuting Brown (IRS took most of what Brown had made for taxes...sort of a Willie Nelson deal, according to the way it was portrayed) Brown was so devasted financially that he went on the skids and ended up in prison for threatening his wife back in the late 80's I think. The rise of Disco Music coincided with Brown's IRS Investigation. Brown's music wasn't popular anymore.

Anyway, it seemed to me that Sharpton is in this race to stand up for "Black Power," and to show that he's on his feet as a Democrat and not bending on his knees." He's there because of his ties to a time in America that's been pretty much forgotten these days when being Black was Civil Rights and Pride and Standing up and Going to Jail for what you believed. He want's the Democratic Party to "GET OFF IT's KNEES!"

Isn't that what WE all want? We might not like the package he comes in or the other baggage he comes with. But, I'm still glad he has been there, saying what needed to be said to all us white folks who don't remember how to talk "plain but with style," and to those Black folks who have forgotten what it was all about through the passage of time.

On Edit: One of James Brown's favorite expressions was: " I'm not here to feed/fatten frogs for the snakes."
(Not sure of the meaning of that, but I think Sharpton must have heard it many times) Whatever it means, it sounds profound.

kick!

for the snakes" means not to teach someone what you know and they leave you to use it with someone else. I saw some of the show and thought it was vey good, took me back a ways. Al spoke very elonquently.

I'd never heard that expression before.