USA: The body of legendary soul singer James Brown is escorted by fans through the streets of Harlem to memorial for public viewing.

Thousands of James Brown fans lined up on Thursday (December 28) in New York's Harlem neighbourhood for the chance to say farewell to the late "Godfather of Soul" at a public viewing of his body. The 73-year-old entertainer -- whose voice, showmanship and bold rhythms brought funk into the mainstream and influenced a generation of black music -- died on Christmas of congestive heart failure in Atlanta. Brown's body, inside a gold casket, was loaded into a horse drawn carriage outside the headquarters of the Reverend Al Sharpton's National Action Network before it made it's way through the streets of Harlem to the Apollo Theater. On hand to see the casket being loaded into the carriage were hundred's of Brown's fans including Larry Scott, who said Brown's legacy reached far beyond just his musical influence. " "He asked the question and told people to 'say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud,' and what did we have before that? We didn't have much before that. He was the one that calmed the country down, one of the people after the Revered Martin Luther King was shot, and he always stood up for us so it's only right we come and stand up for him," said Scott. After a 20 block trip South to the Apollo Theater on 125th Street, the casket containing Brown was arrange for a public viewing scheduled to begin later in the afternoon. Later Brown's body will be taken to his hometown of Augusta, Georgia, for a private service on Friday. Another public viewing is planned for Saturday before Brown is buried. The Grammy-award winning singer was one of America's great showmen and band leaders. He created a revolutionary sound that mixed funky rhythms and staccato horns behind his own often explosive vocals. Hip hop and rap artists revered him and extensively used his beats as the backdrop for their own music, while singers like Michael Jackson drew on his dance style. Brown, the self-proclaimed "hardest working man in show business," performed more than 100 live shows this year and had been scheduled to perform in New York's Times Square on New Year's Eve. Brown had more than 119 singles on the charts and recorded over 50 albums. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and received a lifetime Grammy achievement award. His big hits included "Please, Please, Please," "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag," "I Got You (I Feel Good)" "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine)" and "It's a Man's, Man's, Man's World." Brown emerged from a boyhood of poverty and petty crime in Augusta in the era when the South was still segregated and began his music career in jail as a juvenile offender. Brown's personal life remained turbulent. He was jailed in 1988 for drug, weapons and vehicular charges after a car chase through Georgia and South Carolina that ended when police shot out the tires of his truck. He left prison in 1991. Brown was named to President Reagan's council against drugs, but was arrested several times in the mid-1980s and 1990s and charged with drug and weapons possession.

ITN Source | December 29, 2006

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