Tragic irony: how James Brown ripped off a woman for ‘It’s a Man’s World’
The contributions of James Brown to the world of funk and soul cannot be overstated. Over the course of his career, the songwriter created some of the most iconic moments of the genre, pioneering innovative new sounds that would act as inspiration for countless artists for years to come. However, one of his most notable tracks, ‘It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World’, was cruelly ripped off an ex-girlfriend.
His contributions to funk and soul aside, Brown was a fairly detestable character. A great deal of his material features not-so-subtle undertones of sexism, which becomes less surprising when taking into account the fact that the singer was a known abuser.
With numerous allegations of rape and sexual assault levelled against him, in addition to the testimony of many past wives and girlfriends – including the 17-year-old Tammi Terrell, whom he dated at the age of 29 – of domestic abuse, the singer’s musical contributions pail in comparison to the damage caused by his abhorrent behaviour.
‘It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World’ is repulsively chauvinistic, as the title suggests. The single purports an idea that the world was created by and belonged to men, while women exist only to satisfy the sexual desires of men in between their more important work. The tragic irony of the track is that Brown stole it from Betty Jean Newsome, his collaborator and girlfriend.
When the pair first met, Newsome had been working on a track of her own, which Brown seemed to take a particular liking to. Rather than supporting his girlfriend’s independent musical endeavours, Brown instead decided to hijack the track and put Newsome down as a co-writer in order to keep her quiet. Even today, most sources on the track list Newsome and Brown as co-writers, but the former claimed in court that she had already written the track in its entirety by the time she had met the soul star.
After Brown failed to pay Newsome royalties from the insanely popular single, the songwriter took her former boyfriend to court. The disappointing result of this case was that Newsome was to receive a third of all royalties from the song, as well as being listed as a co-author. Somewhat contradictory to the final ruling, the official claim report states: “Newsome wrote the words and music to the song ‘It’s a Man’s World’, which was registered with the Copyright Office on October 23, 1964 under the number Ep 193698 in the name of Clamike Music Publishing Company. Newsome was listed as the author.”
Despite registering the copyright over a year prior to Brown’s recording of her song, Newsome still only received a third of royalties from ‘It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World’. In a depressingly ironic state of affairs, the chauvinistic song about how men are responsible for all creation is still viewed by the masses as being James Brown’s work rather than its original writer in Newsome.
