FOLLOW US ON:
GET THE NEWSLETTER
CONTACT US
Vintage driver’s licenses once issued to Alfred Hitchcock, Johnny Cash, James Brown & more!


Johnny Cash’s California driver’s license issued in 1964.
 
Back in 2013 my Dangerous Minds colleague Tara McGinley put together a post containing images of passports once used by David Bowie, Johnny Cash and Janis Joplin (among others) which I found very entertaining. Mostly because the celebrity subjects look less than thrilled to in their photos—with the exception of Joplin who is grinning from ear to ear. Perhaps the result of an unplanned acid flashback, who can say? At any rate, while conducting my ongoing “research” for my “job” here at DM I came across one of Cash’s old driver licenses from 1964 and that discovery led me down a rather intriguing rabbit hole that was full of other vintage driver’s licenses—some with equally intriguing backstories to go with them.
 

Robert De Niro’s taxicab licence from 1976.
 
Cash’s California state driver’s license (pictured at the top of this post) was sold in an auction in 2014 for $4,480 and even made an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman along with the man who had acquired it, Rick Harrison (the star of the reality television show Pawn Stars) who purchased it from an individual who brought it into his store in Las Vegas. Not one to be outdone by the Man in Black, a license once belonging to Alfred Hitchcock (which you can see below) sold at an auction for the tidy sum of for $8,125. Whoa

Then there’s the coolest one in the lot I dug up belonging to a 33-year-old Robert De Niro (pictured above) issued by the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission in 1976. Known for his commitment to getting as “method” as possible when it came to his acting roles, De Niro prepped for his role as Travis Bickle the aspiring vigilante about to go off the rails in Taxi Driver by spending a number of weeks driving a New York City yellow cab. According to folklore associated with De Niro’s time behind the wheel, when he was recognized by one of his passengers they actually believed that De Niro was still working as a taxi driver after winning an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in The Godfather II for his impeccable portrayal of young Vito Corleone. Who knew?

When it comes to the story behind Manson’s alleged driver’s license things are a little sketchy. In the 1971 book The Family author Ed Sanders was able to substantiate that Mason lived at the address noted on the license in Santa Barbara—705 Bath Street—along with Lynn “Squeaky” Fromme and Manson Family member Mary Brunner (the mother of Manson’s son Valentine) sometime during 1967—two years prior to his participation in the brutal slayings of director Roman Polanski’s pregnant wife Sharon Tate and four others at Polanski’s home in Benedict Canyon. The license notes Manson’s date of birth as November 11th—which is a point of contention between historians and criminologists alike as Manson’s date of birth has also been said to fall on November 12th. So while the jury is still out on the actual authenticity of this creepy artifact, it’s still nothing short of chilling to actually see a mundane personal document belonging to the one of the most notorious criminals in history.

You can see Manson’s maybe driver’s license as well as others that once belonged to Davy Jones of the Monkees (RIP), Joe Strummer, Dean Martin and a beaming James Brown all of whom look about as happy as we all do (with the exception of Brown of course because, cocaine) in our DMV photos which proves that the DMV does in fact hate everyone.
 

California driver’s license allegedly issued to Charles Manson in 1967.
 

Back in 2008 this driver’s license once belonging to Alfred Hitchcock sold at an auction for $8,125.
 
More after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Cherrybomb
|
08.26.2016
11:23 am
|
‘I feel good!’: Jordan Peele reenacts James Brown’s crazy drug-fueled CNN interview word for word
06.30.2016
04:25 pm
Topics:
Tags:


 
Here’s a priceless bit of business from the irreplaceable Jordan Peele.

In May of 1988 James Brown was arrested in Aiken County, South Carolina, on charges of drug possession and fleeing from the police after his wife Adrienne called 911 because he was threatening her safety. Brown was released after paying $24,000 in bail, after which he headed for Atlanta to do an interview on CNN’s Sonya Live! in LA wth Sonya Friedman.

Brown, clearly on something (my money is on PCP), seemed scarcely aware that he was in any legal difficulty and insisted on answering most of Friedman’s queries with lyrics from his songs (“I FEEL GOOD!”) or other similar non sequiturs.
 

 
You know who Jordan Peele is—he and Keegan-Michael Key have been killing it for years with their Comedy Central sketch show Key and Peele, their 2016 movie Keanu, and various appearances elsewhere, including Fargo.

I desperately want the two of them to interview Donald Trump, but before that happens, this delirious recreation of James Brown’s 1988 CNN interview will have to do.

I wrote about this great event back in 2013, and it still remains one of the most remarkable interviews I’ve ever seen.
 
Watch Peele’s glorious impersonation after the jump…....
 

READ ON
Posted by Martin Schneider
|
06.30.2016
04:25 pm
|
Meet ‘Soul Sister #1’: Marvellous Marva Whitney, the sexy, funky muse of James Brown
04.19.2016
02:03 pm
Topics:
Tags:


 
Although she’s somewhat of an obscure figure today, beautiful Marva Whitney was known as “Soul Sister #1” during her stint in the James Brown Revue as the featured vocalist. The Kansas City-born belter—singing with her family’s gospel choir since the age of three—stayed with Brown (the two were in a relationship) and the Revue for three years before leaving in late 1969 or early 1970, exhausted by the schedule kept by the hardest working man in show business with whom she toured America, Asia, Europe and Africa.
 

 
Whitney’s first solo single, “Your Love Was Good To Me” was recorded for Brown’s King Records label in mid-1967, but was not a success, nor were two follow-up attempts at hits. Her first chart hit came with “It’s My Thing (You Can’t Tell Me Who to Sock It To),” a “response” from womankind to The Isley Brothers’ hit “It’s Your Thing,” which reached number 19 on the Billboard R&B chart and number 82 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1969.
 

 
Whitney followed up with two lesser hits, “Things Got To Get Better (Get Together)” and “I Made A Mistake Because It’s Only You, Pt 1.” All told, she recorded three albums Unwind Yourself, Live and Lowdown at the Apollo and It’s My Thing, along with 13 singles with James Brown as producer and writer or co-writer. After leaving the Godfather of Soul’s stable, she wasn’t really able to book the big venues as a headliner and left the music industry to raise a son, working sporadically in the music business after that.

In December 2012, Marva Whitney died at her home, aged 68.

First up a SEXY performance of “Things Got To Get Better (Get Together)” on ABC’s Music Scene TV program in 1969. If this woman is not hotness personified, I don’t know who would be…

 
More Marvellous Marva Whitney after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Richard Metzger
|
04.19.2016
02:03 pm
|
Alice Cooper, Jimi, James Brown, Marc Bolan, Frank Zappa (and many more) do Santa
12.23.2015
09:23 am
Topics:
Tags:

Alice Cooper playing Ping-Pong with Santa
Alice Cooper playing ping-pong with Santa
 
‘Tis the Season folks and as I’m getting ready to roll off Dangerous Minds for a week, I wanted to share some choice photos of famous folks dressed up like our savior, Santa Claus or in some cases, just hanging out with jolly old Saint Nicholas.
 
Marc Bolan as Santa Claus
Marc Bolan as Santa Claus
 
James Brown as Santa Claus
James Brown
 
Lemmy Klaus!
Lemmy Klaus!
 
I really never get tired of pursuing the Internet for vintage images of celebrities and musical icons doing stuff that we all do, but I think this post is a doozy. I had all but forgotten about that time Nancy Reagan sat on Mr. T’s lap (who was dressed as Santa) at the White House during Christmas in 1983. Didn’t you?

From icons like Frank Zappa to Marc Bolan, even John Waters being confronted by Santa as he’s trying to steal a rib roast, and Ginger Rogers looking downright Cockettish in a Santa beard, I’ve got your Christmas covered in photos that are funny, touching and simply weird. Which is exactly how I like to roll. Merry Christmas, Dangerous Minds readers and thanks for digging us this year.
 
Nancy Reagan and Mr. T at the White House during Christmas time, 1983
Nancy Reagan and Mr. T at the White House during Christmas, 1983
 
Frank Zappa in a Santa suit
Frank Zappa
 
Wait until you see the one of a young Johnny Thunders, after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Cherrybomb
|
12.23.2015
09:23 am
|
James Brown has a ‘Ski Party’ with Frankie and Annette
12.18.2015
09:12 am
Topics:
Tags:


 
Two years into Frankie and Annette’s Beach Party series, emboldened by the five installments behind them, American International Pictures tried a variation on the movies’ profitable formula: Ski Party.
 

 
Frankie is now in college, where he and his roommate (Dwayne Hickman, TV’s Dobie Gillis) are studying a book called Fun Without Sex in a class taught by Annette (in a cameo appearance). Desperate for the love of babes, the pair head to the slopes for vacation; there, they dress as women so they can take easier ski lessons and get closer to the bikini-clad coeds. Yes, bikini-clad.

There is also a James Joyce joke:

CRAIG: What do you think of Finnegans Wake?

BARB: I didn’t even know he was sick!

Okay, it’s barely enough to keep the mind alive, but the whole reason this movie exists is so James Brown and the Famous Flames can chew it up and spit it out in their three-and-a-half minutes on screen. I suspect this is the only time Brown sang “I Feel Good” in a Christmas sweater, and it’s certainly the only place you can see him, the Flames and three St. Bernards glide into a ski lodge. Pain addicts who enjoy the taste of tears can watch the full movie (minus the audio of Brown’s performance) here, but for everyone else, James Brown and the Famous Flames’ showstopping performance is isolated below.
 

Posted by Oliver Hall
|
12.18.2015
09:12 am
|
James Brown stars in the greatest miso soup commercial of all time, 1992
08.05.2015
11:04 am
Topics:
Tags:


 
James Brown famously never did anything in half-measures, and certainly this marvelous Japanese commercial for a miso soup product from Cup Noodles constitutes no exception whatsoever. Repurposing his signature tune “Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine,” Brown apparently belts out the words “miso’n ba” ad infinitum while bobbing up and down in what was likely a green-screened kitchen set, and in the second section of the clip, what looks like a disused set for a Pepsi ad but probably isn’t. (Anyone out there know Japanese? Is he singing, “Miso on up”?)

Anyway, the single easiest way to write a DM post is to find footage of James Brown doing pretty much anything, and that’s what I’ve done here. Hope you like it as much as I do!
 

 
Thank you Chris Young!

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
‘I Feel Good’: James Brown’s amazing, drug-fueled CNN interview, 1988
‘Big Mac! Tastes so good!’: James Brown struts his stuff in this silly 1984 McDonald’s commercial

Posted by Martin Schneider
|
08.05.2015
11:04 am
|
‘Big Mac! Tastes so good!’: James Brown struts his stuff in this silly 1984 McDonald’s commercial
07.09.2015
11:55 am
Topics:
Tags:


 
On Dan Harmon’s weekly podcast Harmontown earlier this week, Dan and his friend and guest actor DeMorge Brown were discussing the phenomenon of commercials targeted at the African-American audience. You know, ads directed at black people in which everyone in the ad is black. Turns out, Brown himself won the lead role in a pretty backwards-minded KFC campaign directed at black audiences but then turned down the job. The commercial required him to say the words “kitchen fresh chicken.”

Brown’s entrance on Harmontown (they start discussing the ridiculous KFC commercial pretty much right away) occurs around the 1:12:30 mark of the most recent episode.

The existence of “white” and “black” ads by the same company to sell the same products is one of the more insidious and scarcely visible markers of a racist society, far less pernicious than redlining, police murderers, or the war on drugs and yet still a depressing sign of how short a distance we’ve come. You could put a positive spin on it and say that such commercials are celebrating “difference”—but only when there’s a profit to be had. You can’t use the purchase of a Chicken McNugget to express your “heritage” or your “individuality,” after all.
 

 
The actor reminisced about watching a commercial starring his namesake James Brown for McDonald’s that might take the crown as the awesomest commercial ever directed towards a black audience—he remembered watching it in the 1980s during a broadcast of the Grammys, and he saw it only the one time. He promised would “go viral” if someone were to uncover it, but in fact it’s been available on YouTube since 2013 without spawning any undue sensation. It definitely aired more than just the one time—the date given on the YouTube page is several months after the Grammy telecast for that year.

In Say It Loud! My Memories of James Brown, Soul Brother, Don Rhodes discusses the McDonald’s ad briefly. The lines he quotes Brown saying do not appear in the commercial, but then he doesn’t say they did.
 

As he and I stood outside the van in the warm night air, the speakers began blaring Brown’s unique, musical sound with his unmistakable voice boasting, “Every time I think of two, all-beef patties with special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, and onions on sesame seed buns, I get on my good foot, and I do that James Brown all the way down to Mick-a-dees—Big Mac! Tastes so good!”

Brown told me that “Mick-a-dees” is what many people, at that time only in northern states, called McDonald’s, and that he had filmed a national television commercial for McDonald’s in Chicago with the commercial showing a bunch of his fans running into him in a McDonald’s restaurant.

 
Hey, it’s always a good time for the great taste of James Brown dancing his ass off….

 

Posted by Martin Schneider
|
07.09.2015
11:55 am
|
That time James Brown tried to murder Joe Tex with a shotgun
05.13.2015
09:17 am
Topics:
Tags:


“Don’t shoot!”
 
R&B singer, Joe Tex, best known for his hits “Skinny Legs And All” and “Ain’t Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)” had a bitter rivalry with James Brown that went beyond simple diss tracks. At one point the feud became so heated that James Brown attempted to murder Tex with a shotgun, reportedly wounding six or seven people in the process.

The rivalry dates back to the early days of their careers, according to Joe Tex’s Wikipedia page:

The feud between Tex and fellow labelmate James Brown took its origins allegedly sometime in the mid-1950s when both artists were signed to associated imprints of King Records when Brown allegedly called out on Tex for a “battle” during a dance at a local juke joint. In 1960, Tex left King and recorded a few songs for Detroit-based Anna Records, one of the songs he recorded was the ballad “Baby, You’re Right”. A year later, Brown recorded the song and released it in 1961, changing up the lyrics and the musical composition, earning Brown co-songwriting credits along with Tex.

It had to have stung having your song usurped, with a songwriting credit added, and watching it become a bigger hit than your single.
 

 
Brown fueled the fire by hooking up and recording with Tex’s ex-wife. James Brown was kind of a dick:

By then, Brown had recruited singer Bea Ford, who had been married to Tex prior, but had divorced in 1959. In 1960, Brown and Ford recorded the song, “You’ve Got the Power”. Shortly afterwards, Tex got a personal letter from Brown telling him that he was through with Ford and if Tex wanted her back, he could have her. Tex responded by recording the diss record, “You Keep Her”, where he called Brown’s name out.

 

“James I got your letter, it came to me today. You said I could have my baby back, but I don’t want her that way.”
 
Things soon came to a head at a 1963 gig in Macon, Georgia when Joe Tex aped Brown’s cape act.

Find out what happened next after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Christopher Bickel
|
05.13.2015
09:17 am
|
James Brown co-hosts ‘The Mike Douglas Show,’ cooks ham hocks & cabbage, sings, 1971
03.12.2014
03:32 pm
Topics:
Tags:

Mike Douglas and James Brown
Mike Douglas and James Brown sing “You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You”

I missed the heyday of Mike Douglas, but watching this video, it’s easy to see how he was able to concoct such an enjoyable mid-afternoon chat brew every weekday. Douglas’ adoption of a groovy ‘70s-style six-petaled flower was an inspired touch, as it stamped him as the older, tie-wearing white dude who was down with the hippies and “Black is Beautiful” and funky music and all that. Douglas never seemed to mind much of anything, and his charmingly shambolic, super-easy going style helped create a talk show that’s waaaaay looser than anything you’d see today (outside of podcasts, of course).

The date on this video, very recently uploaded to YouTube and with just a smattering of views, is May 11, 1971. James Brown is introduced as co-host, and indeed Brown does hang around for the whole episode—he does three songs in all, and it must be said that he’s makes for a rather distracted co-host; he’s no Andy Richter up there. But who the hell cares, he wasn’t there for his ability to be subservient to Mike—he’s James Brown!!

His musical numbers bookend the program, starting with “I Cried” followed by, remarkably, a full-fledged duet of the old Dean Martin ditty “You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You”—Brown seems mildly poleaxed at the idea, and plays along only intermittently, but Douglas is seriously into it. It’s genuinely funny when Douglas tells him to “try to find the beat, James.” Also, who’d've guessed that Douglas does way more dancing than Brown?

In the interview portion we get an actress named Betsy Palmer, who later teaches Douglas and Brown how to make ham hocks and cabbage, although, as she admits, “it’s Czech more than anything,” certainly not super similar to the authentic soul food Brown is used to. Then, hilariously, Douglas tells the home viewer not to consult the Internet for the recipe but rather to write this address:
 
Ham Hocks and Cabbage
 
Brown caps off the hijinks with a terrific rendition of “Your Cheatin’ Heart”. (By the bye, the album he was promoting was Sho’ Is Funky Down Here.)

 
via Classic Television Showbiz

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
James Brown meets Alfred Hitchcock

Posted by Martin Schneider
|
03.12.2014
03:32 pm
|
‘I Feel Good’: James Brown’s amazing, drug-fueled CNN interview, 1988
11.19.2013
02:42 am
Topics:
Tags:


 
When former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich was running around before his trial appearing on The Daily Show assuring Jon Stewart that he never, ever did anything wrong, he should have considered adopting the post-arrest media strategy of James Brown, as seen in this incredible interview. Considering that both Blagojevich and Brown ended up going to prison, it couldn’t have hurt! And James Brown is a hell of a lot more popular than Rod Blagojevich.

This interview on CNN’s Sonya Live! in LA occurred in May 1988, after Brown was arrested in Aiken County, South Carolina, on charges of drug possession and fleeing from the police after his wife Adrienne called 911 because he was threatening her safety. Brown was released after paying $24,000 in bail and then went to Atlanta to do this interview.

In the interview, Brown seems only dimly aware of Sonya Friedman’s questions, preferring to shout the lyrics to his songs and talk about how he “smells good ... and makes love good.” (The juxtaposition of Sonya’s “How did all this trouble begin?” and Brown’s non-sequitur answer—“Livin’ in America!”—is resonant in ways that utterly outstrip the meanings Brown may have had in mind.) If you want to see someone on TV being interviewed while high, you can hardly do better than James Brown. As in so many other things. Rod Blagojevich just wouldn’t be in the same league.

Brown’s incredible vitality is such that you’ll be excused for wondering whether this isn’t a concert appearance in addition to an interview. YouTube commenters and the like are given to identifying cocaine as the source of this live-wire act, but it was almost certainly PCP. His arrest was for possession of PCP, a substance Brown was allegedly using a lot at the time.

Just four months later, Brown was arrested again, this time on Interstate 20 (near the Georgia-South Carolina border) for carrying an unlicensed pistol and assaulting a police officer. He was sentenced to six years in prison and ended up serving three years.

To judge by R.J. Smith’s The One, Brown’s erratic conduct in the 1980s was going to land him in prison one way or another. Between 1984 and his September 1988 arrest, Adrienne Brown had to call 911 to report domestic violence a whopping twelve times.

As the undisputed father of funk, James Brown was one of the most important musicians of the twentieth century, and nobody was more electrifying live. This interview manages to be both highly amusing and a harbinger of the troubles that were just around the corner.
 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
James Brown gets ultra-funky on Italian TV 1971
James Brown shilling Cup Noodles

Posted by Martin Schneider
|
11.19.2013
02:42 am
|
James Brown preaches the gospel of space aliens in his ill-conceived psychedelic ‘Miami Vice’ cameo
08.28.2013
10:49 am
Topics:
Tags:

episode still
An actual still from the episode. For real. It’s that kind of episode.
 
Honestly, I didn’t think there was a television rock star guest spot weirder than Iggy Pop on Star Trek: Deep Space 9, but the surreal incongruity of James Brown on Miami Vice has my head spinning.

First of all, by this time, James Brown had already been dealing with a nasty little PCP problem, and had been arrested multiple times for domestic abuse while cranked to the gills. This episode aired in November of 1987. Less than a year later, Brown would be involved in a high speed car chase, and subsequently arrested again with drugs and an unlicensed gun (but not until after the cops shot out his tires). A weird choice for a part in crime show about vice cops? You be the judge!

Second, this is just a trippy damn piece of television (with cameo from a young, Jheri-curled Chris Rock, no less!). I don’t want to give anything away (come on, you know you want to watch the whole thing), but six minutes into it, Brown appears as a psychedelic vision, and the rest of the plot is spent trying to unravel his leadership in an extraterrestrial-obsessed cult (I’m not kidding). Honestly, a shyster peacher talking about aliens is kind of a perfect role for “the hardest working man in show business.”

All irony aside, the script is laughable, the “acting” is sporadic, the production values are terrible, and Don Johnson’s hair is a violent assault on your eyeballs. But James Brown? James Brown is always a good show!
 

Posted by Amber Frost
|
08.28.2013
10:49 am
|
James Brown: Getting on his good foot, ‘Soul Train’ 1973
05.02.2013
05:32 pm
Topics:
Tags:

semajnworbluosniart.jpg
 
Here comes the Super Brother—James Brown hitting the spot and getting mystical about education (“The only way you can live is to know. And to not to know, you can never live”) on Soul Train in 1973. He gives a slower, funkier version of “Sex Machine” (listen to that guitar) and impressive versions of “Try Me,” “Get On The Good Foot,” “Soul Power” and the excellent “Escapism.”
 

 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
|
05.02.2013
05:32 pm
|
James Brown meets ‘Game of Thrones’

image
 
This mash-up of James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” works freakishly well with the Game of Thrones theme song. I would have never thought of these two songs paired together in a million years, but the proof is in the pudding.

One minor quibble though, anyone who watches Game of Thrones knows “It’s a Woman’s Woman’s Woman’s World.”

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
‘Future Shock’: James Brown’s *very 70s* TV dance party

James Brown meets Alfred Hitchcock

James Brown vs Led Zeppelin - ‘Whole Lotta Sex Machine’

Posted by Tara McGinley
|
04.04.2013
11:32 am
|
Amazing hand-carved phonebook portraits of Marty Feldman, George Carlin, James Brown and others

image
George Carlin

When I blogged about Alex Queral‘s hand-carved phonebook sculptures back in 2009, I only featured his ace George Carlin piece as a prime example of Queral’s work.

I still like George the best, but Alex has added a lot more work since then. Check these out:

image
Marty Feldman
 
image
Sammy Davis Jr.
 
More after the jump…
 

READ ON
Posted by Tara McGinley
|
03.04.2013
06:22 pm
|
‘Future Shock’: James Brown’s *very 70s* TV dance party
02.06.2013
04:36 pm
Topics:
Tags:

image

It’s a little-known fact that James Brown hosted his own television dance show in the mid-70s. Future Shock was kind of a semi-local Atlanta/semi-syndicated imitation of Soul Train with the Godfather of Soul in the Don Cornelius role.

Future Shock was videotaped at WTCG TV studios in Atlanta before Ted Turner turned it into TBS. Most of the programs are thought to be lost now, but a few have survived. Much of what I’ve seen features the “hardest working man in show business” sweating profusely, sporting a mustache that did not suit him, rambling, slurring his words and looking like he was the hardest snorting man in show business.

“Future Shock cannot be stopped!”
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
|
02.06.2013
04:36 pm
|
Page 1 of 2  1 2 >