New James Brown track from 1970, 'We Got To Change,' to be released Feb. 16

3-track ‘We Got To Change’ EP features storming J.B.’s lineup starring brothers Catfish and Bootsy Collins & ‘Funky Drummer’ Clyde Stubblefield
√ Set will preface Feb. 19-20 premiere of 2-night A&E documentary event, ‘James Brown: Say It Loud,’ from executive producers Mick Jagger and Questlove

Press Release

UMe/Republic Records will release James Brown’s “We Got To Change,” a three-track EP featuring the previously unheard title track, on Feb. 16. “We Got To Change” was recorded Aug. 16, 1970, at Criteria Studios in Miami, during a pivotal period in the world of James Brown, as longtime members of his famed James Brown Orchestra had walked out a few months earlier.

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Brown quickly assembled a new group anchored by guitarist Phelps “Catfish” Collins and bassist William “Bootsy” Collins, two young brothers from Cincinnati. They brought a harder edge and a fresh identity to Brown’s music on such singles as “Get Up (I Feel Like Being) a Sex Machine,” “Super Bad” and “Soul Power.” Brown called them The J.B.’s.

Their “Criteria” session featured a reunion with one of Brown’s 1960s sidemen: the great Clyde Stubblefield. “The Funky Drummer,” as he was known, would grace several of Brown’s subsequent hits, and would become one of the most sampled drummers of the hip-hop era.

Also on the track is Brown’s longtime no. 2, Bobby Byrd, who is heard alongside Brown on the chorus.

“We Got To Change” is another example of Brown’s social outreach (and outrage), seen in singles such as “Don’t Be a Dropout,” “Say It Loud I’m Black and I’m Proud,” “Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved” and “King Heroin.” It is also a testament to Brown’s diverse musical language, quoting from Little Jimmy Dickens’ 1949 hit “Take an Old Cold Tater (And Wait)” and the African-American anti-war spiritual, “Down by the Riverside.”

“The James Brown Revue invented the Funk,” says Funk author Rickey Vincent, “and the J.B.’s perfected it.” Newly unearthed and hitherto unheard, “We Got to Change” adds a critical page to the history of that perfection’s evolution.

The release of “We Got to Change” will precede “James Brown: Say It Loud,” a two-part, four-hour documentary about the life and music of the late “Godfather of Soul” that premieres Feb. 19-20 (8 p.m. ET/PT) on A&E. “James Brown: Say It Loud” is directed by Deborah Riley Draper.

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