22Feb 2010

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ Sound O’ Soul Day – James Brown Whistle

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In anticipation of the throngs about to stroll through my house tonight for my annual Sound of Soul fundraiser with Pacific Radio Archives not to mention a celebration of the culmination of The Color Purple First National tour I thought that my James Brown whistle from the Godfather’s little known late 50s TV show, a rare item indeed, was the perfect Kitsch O’ The Day today.  I rotate my collection fairly regularly but for this particular party everything in the house is part of my African American Pop Culture stash. As I said yesterday, it was James Brown himself who encouraged me to keep collecting these Soul artifacts as there was usually no budget to market these products on a national let alone worldwide level so they were only popular regionally. Like my game of Slang-A-Lang, Black Bingo, that was manufactured in 1969 in Detroit probably never got on shelves farther away than Cleveland.

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So I’m spending the day swapping white memorabilia and otherwise for black, painting posters, moving heat lamps around – no rain in LA, yay! but still very chilly – setting out tables for fried chicken, ribs, yams, greens, peach cobbler and the like, and tweaking the house all while limping around on on a leg I wrenched a muscle in yesterday. Which means I will be blowing my James Brown whistle A LOT today trying to get everyone’s attention as we get ready for the barrage.

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4 Responses to “Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ Sound O’ Soul Day – James Brown Whistle”

  1. Neil

    James Brown Rocks !!!!
    Wish I could be there.
    Sorry about your leg,but I bet you’re still beltin’ out
    “I FEEL GOOD……LIKE I KNEW I WOULD”
    Have a grrrrreeaaat time and a wing 4 me !
    -Kneel

  2. Craig

    Wow! This is great! Thanks for posting this. It would have been amazing to meet him!

  3. Michael

    Hello, I just love your Blog …..

    I had the pleasure of meeting James Brown twice, once in Japan, and a few years later in Honolulu.

    While living in Japan I was able to tag along with he and his crew, and traveled with them from Morioka to Tokyo, playing cards and chatting it up.

    The thing about James Brown, he seemed genuinely interested in other people. We spoke at length and covered all kinds of topics. He asked all about myself and what I was doing living in Japan, things like that. In only a moment it was easy to forget that I was sitting there speaking with the Godfather of Soul. He was just a nice person, the real deal.

    Oh …I actually have one of those Show Whistles too. The only other one that I’ve ever seen is the pic here on your blog.

    Aloha,
    Michael