Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine - Pt 1 by James Brown

Get on up! Stay on the scene! Like a lovin’ machine! Thirty seconds’ worth of this song will tell you more about the power of funk that any words we could come up with. We can, however, tell you that this was a landmark recording in James Brown’s career: At the dawn of the ‘70s, he was starting to forge a new style—less song and more groove, less melody and more rhythm, less horns and more popping bass.

This was the birth of funk as we know it. Around this time he split up his band the Famous Flames, and started a new outfit known as the JB’s, who made their official debut with this song—The bass player is Bootsy Collins, who’d later become a key member of Parliament/Funkadelic.

As soon as he wrote “Get Up,” James Brown phoned engineer Ron Lenhoff and insisted that he get out of bed and drive five hours to Nashville so Brown and his band could cut the song. Lenhoff was rewarded with a co-writing credit.

As you’d expect, the vocals in a James Brown song are a little tricky—especially this one, because you’re taking both the duet parts that JB sang with Bobby Byrd. You don’t get much time to think in between phrases, and the high notes can get up there.

On guitar, watch for the part where he tells you to “take it to the bridge”—You’ll need to think fast afterward.

Still with us through his music.