James Brown

The hardest working man in show business has gone to his reward, may he rest in peace. James Brown had his triumphs and troubles in life, but despite all his cultural accomplishments, I think he should be remembered for keeping the peace in Boston and elsewhere after Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered. The day after MLK was murdered, James Brown was scheduled to perform in Boston. The authorities, fearing violence, toyed with the idea of cancelling the concert but instead decided to broadcast it on local TV. Brown went on TV and passionately begged for calm. I wish I had the text or video of what he said that night, but among other things he said that blacks are all Americans and that they love this country and pleaded with everyone to remain peaceful and react positively. No one knows how bad things could have been in Boston that night without Brown's intercession, but I think it's safe to say that dozens would have been killed and dozens more injured. In our current age of lowest common denominator media, it's nice to remember an artist behaving like a statesman.