James Brown Future Shock

The time was 1975. James Brown had a craaaaaaaaazy mustache and starred in his own TV show called Future Shock. It was filmed in Atlanta, produced by Turner Entertainment (yes, that Ted Turner) and distributed on cable. The show was a realy bad rip off of Soul Train, but it was vibrant and energetic with samplings of the best ass-shaking music you've ever heard while gawking at hundreds of hip kids showing off slick dance moves while wearing the funkiest, bad-ass muthafucker outfits.

James Brown is the "hardest working man in show business", but he's nowhere in the same league as Don Cornelius (host of Soul Train). For one, during broadcasts of Future Shock, a sweaty and babbling JB is often shirtless and blasted out of his mind on a combination of PCP and cocaine. Yes, PCP is bad kids. JB would appear every few minutes to announce a song, but he'd spend most of the time backstage smoking doobies dipped in PCP and ripping biker rails while trying to get hummers from horny groupies.

Here's a best of compilation of highlights from Future Shock. It's worth watching because of the music... the best of the best of the 70s funk, R&B, and soul...


If you dug the video, here's Part 2/3 and Part 3/3.