R.I.P. James Brown

I never really appreciated James Brown until long after the "Motown Sound" had been relegated to oldies shows during harangue-a-thons on PBS. But there's something almost poetic about Brown's death on Christmas Eve, the day before Dreamgirls, which features Eddie Murphy as a James Brown-like singer in a role that for the first time has the terms "Oscar®" and "Eddie Murphy" being used in the same sentence. For who is more qualified to remind us of James Brown in theatres this weekend than Eddie Murphy? After all, this is the guy who brought us "James Brown's Celebrity Hot Tub" on SNL:

...and paid this tribute to Brown in 1983:

Here's James Brown at Live 8 last year:

...and a very preppie looking James Brown from 1968:

Hunh!