Music News: Bobby Byrd Dies

Bobby Byrd 1934-2007

James Brown collaborator and friend Bobby Byrd died Wednesday in Atlanta. He was 73. Byrd was Johnnie Johnson to Brown's Chuck Berry in some ways, inviting Brown into has nascent band The Famous Flames only to have Brown take it over with his dominating genius for songcraft and showmanship. Byrd stuck with the Flames and later, the JB's , into the mid-seventies and played and sang on the records that would revolutionize music such as "Sex Machine" (where he utters the phrase "get on up"). Byrd was an integral part of Brown's incendiary live show for many years, usually functioning as the warm up for Brown. Byrd also had a string of solo recordings done under Brown's imprimatur including the 1971 classic "I Know you Got Soul"(see below)