Cold Sweat

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"Cold Sweat" is a song performed by James Brown and written by his bandleader Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis. Brown recorded it in May 1967. An edited version of "Cold Sweat" released as a two-part single (K6110) on King Records was a #1 R&B hit. A complete version of the song, over 7 minutes long, was included on the album Cold Sweat.

In the song's lyrics Brown protests that he doesn't care about his woman's past or faults, and testifies that with even her slightest display of affection toward him "I break out - In a cold sweat."

Contents

[edit] Characteristics

Like "Out of Sight" (1964) and "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" (1965) "Cold Sweat" was a watershed in the evolution of funk music. As in the earlier songs, all the band's instruments (horns, guitars, organ, etc.) are used percussively in "Cold Sweat," and overwhelming emphasis is put on the first beat of every measure ("on the one"). But while "Out of Sight" and "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" are based on a conventional I-IV-I-V-IV-I chord progression, "Cold Sweat" has no real chord changes at all, other than a move to the subdominant in the bridge. It is the first recording in which Brown calls for a drum solo ("give the drummer some") from Clyde Stubblefield, beginning the tradition of rhythmic "breaks" that would become important in funk music. It also features a saxophone solo by Maceo Parker.

[edit] Impact

"Cold Sweat" was recognized as a radical departure at the time of its release. Jerry Wexler recalled that "'Cold Sweat' deeply affected the musicians I knew. It just freaked them out. No one could get a handle on what to do next."[1] Cliff White described it as "divorced from other forms of popular music."[2] It is sometimes cited as the first true funk song.[3][4] Brown would continue to use the rhythmically intense, harmonically static template pioneered in "cold Sweat" as the basis for large proportion of his later recordings. Other musicians followed his lead, and by the early 1970s funk had emerged as a full-fledged genre.

Like most of Brown's funk recordings, "Cold Sweat" has been extensively sampled by hip hop DJs and producers. It has also been covered by various bands and musicians.

[edit] Personnel

  • James Brown - lead vocal

with the James Brown Orchestra:

[edit] References

  1. ^ Rickey Vincent, Funk: The Music, The People, and The Rhythm of The One (New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 1996), 123.
  2. ^ Peter Guralnick, Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom (New York: HarperCollins, 1986), 242.
  3. ^ Nelson George, The Death of Rhythm & Blues (New York: Pantheon Books, 1988), 101.
  4. ^ Vincent, Funk, 123.
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