The rare artist Mick Jagger believed carried on James Brown’s legacy: “Outperformed almost everyone”
Just as all roads lead to Rome, every rock and roll frontman can trace their performance style back to the godfather of funk, James Brown. Even the archetypal rock performer, Mick Jagger, owes the essence of his iconic performance style to the exuberant energy of the South Carolina songwriter.
The Rolling Stones were always the wild tearaways of the London blues scene, going right back to their Brian Jones-led origins in 1962, but it took the band a few years to land upon the fittingly anarchic performance style that they have stuck with for over half a century at this point. In fact, you can pinpoint the exact moment that Mick Jagger struck upon his wild onstage persona, and it was when the band performed immediately after James Brown on the TAMI Show back in 1964.
“I copied all his moves,” Jagger later admitted, per Time, but that fact was rather obvious from the get-go. If you watch that legendary concert film, you can bear witness to Jagger attempting to work out the moves that Brown had just stunned the crowd with during The Stones’ own performance, and it doesn’t take long for the frontman to land upon his own distinct interpretation of Brown’s funk-fueled energy.
Where the two performers differed, however, was in their longevity. James Brown’s recorded material has, of course, stood the test of time, but the performer himself was becoming understandably fatigued by the time the mid-1970s rolled around, whereas The Stones were still relatively young men.
Luckily, though, a select few musicians emerged with the kind of performance style that carried Brown’s torch forward – albeit without the involvement of so much PCP.
In the eyes of Brown-obsessive Mick Jagger, at least, the natural successor to James Brown came in the form of Prince. “I think Prince is a great artist, very traditional in some ways,” he told Rolling Stone in 1995. “Prince has been overlooked. But he’s so incredibly in the mould of the James Brown sort of performer.”
Expanding on the unique appeal of the Purple Rain songwriter, the frontman continued, “He broke a lot of musical modes and invented a lot of styles and couldn’t keep up with himself. Very prolific, which is rare.” Adding, “Mostly people write three songs and repeat themselves. Prince has a lot of talent as a writer, and I’ve seen great performances by Prince. He’s outperformed almost everyone.”
That gushing summary of the performer’s power is certainly hard to dispute. Particularly within the realm of the 1980s and 1990s, nobody really came close to matching his songwriting prowess or otherworldly performance style.
Many performers have attempted to emulate the funk-fueled spectacle of James Brown, but few have come close to evoking the same blend of awe-inspiring performance and unwavering musical genius, yet Prince seemed to take to both elements with apparent ease, forever earning him Mick Jagger’s seal of approval.
