The Payback (song)

Infobox Single
Name = The Payback


Caption =
Artist = James Brown
from Album = The Payback
A-side = "The Payback - Pt. 1"
B-side = "The Payback - Pt. 2"
Released = February 1974
Format = 7" vinyl
Recorded = August 4, 1973 at International Studios, Augusta, GA; unknown brass and female vocals overdubbed September 1973 at Advantage Studios, New York, NY
Genre = Funk
Length = 7:28 (full album version)
3:33 (single edit)
Label = Polydor
PD14223
Writer = James Brown
Fred Wesley
John Starks
Producer = James Brown
Certification =
Chart position =
* #26 Pop:* #1 (R&B)
Last single =
This single =
Next single =
Misc =

"The Payback" (sometimes known as just "Payback") is a funk song by James Brown, the title track from his 1974 album of the same name. The song's lyrics, originally written by trombonist and bandleader Fred Wesley but heavily revised by Brown himself soon before it was recorded, concern the revenge he plans to take against the man who betrayed him and stole his money and his woman. The song is notable for its spare, open instrumental arrangement and its use of wah-wah guitar - a relative rarity in Brown's previous funk recordings. Released as a two-part single (featuring a radio announcer at the beginning of part one) in February of 1974, it was the first in an unbroken succession of three singles by Brown to reach #1 on the R&B charts that year - the last chart-toppers of his career.

"The Payback" has been sampled by numerous hip hop and R&B producers. The group En Vogue recorded two different R&B hits, "Hold On" and "My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It)", that were both based on loops from the song's rhythm track. Total sampled "The Payback" in their 1995 hit "Can't You See". Big Black released a loose cover of the song on their 1984 "Racer-X" EP.

Brown released "Rapp Payback (Where Iz Moses)", a reworking of "The Payback", in 1980.

It was also remade in 1988, remixed and released as "The Payback Mix (Part One)" for the United Kingdom. This versions was one of Brown's biggest hits in the UK, reaching #12 on the UK singles chart.

Appearances in other media

* In the on the station.
* In the Guy Ritchie film "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels"
* In the 2001 Jesse Dylan movie "How High"
* In the 2002 Mars Callahan film "Poolhall Junkies"
* In a season two episode of Everybody Hates Chris
* In the Hughes Brothers movie "Dead Presidents"
* In the of the FX television show
* In an episode of Scrubs, during one of J.D.'s fantasies about how cool it is to enter the hospital as a surgeon.

References

* Leeds, Alan M., and Harry Weinger (1991). Star Time: Song by Song. In "Star Time" (pp. 46-53) [CD liner notes] . London: Polydor Records.
* White, Cliff (1991). Discography. In "Star Time" (pp. 54-59) [CD liner notes] . London: Polydor Records.

External links

* [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:3vfoxxusldje Song review] at Allmusic
* [http://www.the-breaks.com/search.php?term=The+Payback&type=4 List of hip hop songs that sample "The Payback"]