- Lost Someone
Infobox Single
Name = Lost Someone
Cover size =
Caption =
Artist =James Brown
from Album =
A-side =
B-side = "Cross Firing"
Released = November1961
Format = 7" (stereo)
Recorded = February 9, 1961, at King Studios,Cincinnati, OH
Genre =R&B /Soul
Length = 3:28
Label = King
5573
Writer = James BrownBobby Byrd
Lloyd Eugene Stallworth
Producer =
Certification =
Chart position =
* #48 (Pop) :* #2 (R&B)
Last single =
This single =
Next single =
Misc = Infobox Single
Name = Lost Someone
Cover size =
Caption =
Artist =James Brown
from Album = Live at the Apollo
A-side =
B-side = "I'll Go Crazy"
Released = January1966
Format = 7"
Recorded = October 24,1962 , at theApollo Theater ,New York, NY
Genre =R&B /Soul
Length = 2:41
Label = King
6020
Writer = James BrownBobby Byrd
Lloyd Eugene Stallworth
Producer = James Brown
Certification =
Chart position =
* #94 (Pop)
Last single =
This single =
Next single =
Misc ="Lost Someone" is asong recorded byJames Brown in1961 . Like "Please, Please, Please " before it, the song's lyrics combine a lament for lost love with a plea for forgiveness. The single was a #2 R&B hit. Although the single is credited to "James Brown &The Famous Flames ", The Famous Flames don't actually sing on the recording. However, two members of the Flames,Bobby Byrd and Lloyd Stallworth, co-wrote the tune with Brown, and Byrd plays organ on the recording.According to Brown, "Lost Someone" is based on the chord changes of the
Conway Twitty song "It's Only Make Believe ". [Brown, James, with Bruce Tucker. "James Brown: The Godfather of Soul" (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company,1986), 123.]Personnel
* James Brown - lead vocal
"with the James Brown Band:"
* Roscoe Patrick - trumpet
* J.C. Davis - tenor saxophone
*Bobby Byrd - organ
* Les Buie - guitar
* Hubert Parry - bass
* Nat Kendrick - drums
* Other instruments unknownLive version
A performance of "Lost Someone" is the centerpiece of Brown's
1963 album "Live at the Apollo". Nearly 11 minutes long and spanning two tracks on the original LP release (the end of Side 1 and the beginning of Side 2), it is widely regarded as the album's high point and as one of the greatest performances in its idiom on record. CriticPeter Guralnick wrote of the recording:Here, in a single, multilayered track ... you have embodied the whole history of soul music, the teaching, the preaching, the endless assortment of gospel effects, above all the groove that was at the music's core. "Don't go to strangers," James pleads in his abrasively vulnerable fashion. "Come on home to me.... Gee whiz I love you.... I'm so weak...." Over and over he repeats the simple phrases, insists "I'll love you tomorrow" until the music is rocking with a steady pulse, until the music grabs you in the pit of the stomach and James knows he's got you. Then he works the audience as he works the song, teasing, tantalizing, drawing closer, dancing away, until finally at the end of Side I that voice breaks through the crowd noise and dissipates the tension as it calls out, "James, you're an asshole." "I believe someone out there loves someone," declares James with cruel disingenuousness. "Yeah, you," replies a girl's voice with unabashed fervor. "I feel so good I want to scream," says James, testing the limits yet again. "Scream!" cries a voice. And the record listener responds, too, we are drawn in by the same tricks, so transparent in the daylight but put across with the same unabashed fervor with which the girl in the audience offers up her love. [Guralnick, P. (1986). "Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom", 236-237. New York: Back Bay Books. ISBN 0-45226-697-1.]
An edited version of the live performance was released as a single in
1966 .Personnel
* James Brown - lead vocal
"with the James Brown Band:"
* Lewis Hamlin - music director, principal trumpet
* Roscoe Patrick - trumpet
* Teddy Washington - trumpet
* Dickie Wells - trombone
* William "Po' Devil" Burgess - alto saxophone
*St. Clair Pinckney - principal tenor saxophone
* Al "Briscoe" Clark - tenor and baritone saxophones
* Les Buie - guitar
* Bobby Byrd - organ
* Hubert Parry - bass
* Clayton Fillyau - principal drums
* Probably George Sims - drumsOther versions
Brown made several other recordings of "Lost Someone", including:
* A version of "Lost Someone" with strings for his1963 album "Prisoner of Love"
* A studio version similar to the 1962 Apollo performance on 1972's "Get On The Good Foot"
* An uptempo version on 1974's "Hell"Covers
Cat Power recorded acover version of "Lost Someone" for her 2008 album "Jukebox".Citations
References
* Leeds, Alan M. (2004). "Live at the Apollo (1962) Expanded Edition" [CD liner notes] . London: Polydor Records.
* 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.
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