I continue and end my little series on James Brown with 3 songs from the mid 60ies that can be regarded as some of the first steps from soul to funk. Melvin Parker, the brother of the more famous saxophonist Maceo Parker of Horny Horns' fame plays the drums on those. He introduced two new techniques that now belong to the standard repertoire of any drummer (and certainly of soul and funk drummers): (1) a rim click instead of a regular snare-drum note on the backbeat and (2) opening the hi-hat on the 1& and the 3& (closing it on the backbeat). The three records mentioned he played on before leaving the band because he had been drafted (he later rejoined the band and played on the "Sex Machine" album) are "Out of Sight" (on this one he plays the eighth note pulse on the cymbal, but already uses the rim click), "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" (introducing opening of the high-hat on 1& and 3&), and "I Got You (I feel Good)".
Here is what he plays on "I got you" essentially - the basic beat - it looks so simple, but it is not that easy to play it "in the pocket" like Melvin Parker does.
And here are the three songs mentioned above:
