James Brown James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer-songwriter, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. A progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century music and dance, he is often referred to as the "Godfather of Soul". In a career that lasted 50 years, he influenced the development of several music genres. Brown began his career as a gospel singer in Toccoa, Georgia. He joined an R&B vocal group, the Gospel Starlighters (which later evolved into the Flames) founded by Bobby Byrd, in which he was the lead singer. First coming
Often I Am Permitted to Return to a Meadow Often I Am Permitted to Return to a Meadow "Often I Am Permitted to Return to a Meadow" is a poem written by Robert Duncan in 1960. The poem was published in his book "The Opening of the Field." The speaker describes a meadow to which he is "often permitted to return." This meadow seems to represent a place that is metaphysically, spiritually, and emotionally valuable for him. The notion of permission is ambiguous: it is not made clear who does the permitting or why permission is needed. Duncan sets up dichotomies and hierarchies which he subsequently twists and folds.