The lyrics didn’t match the mood of the nation but one city will forever be in debt to James Brown belting out I Feel Good.
The shoe-shuffling Godfather of Soul held an audience gripped and TV millions spellbound as he performed a gig in Boston the day after civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, 39, was assassinated.
It’s almost 50 years since that concert on April 5, 1968 – credited with stopping mass rioting.
Though many cities did suffer a backlash, Boston and other communities were spared havoc as huge numbers were glued to their TV instead of rioting on the streets.
The concert inspired the film The Night James Brown Saved Boston.
And months after the gig he would weigh in with his own views on the civil rights struggle by releasing iconic hit Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud.
Today, the singer’s grandson Jason Brown, 27, reflects on the impact the soul star had on generations of fans – and how the battle over his £70million estate is still raging.
Brown was 73 when he died on Christmas Day, 2006. He was nicknamed Mr Dynamite and his death would ignite a bitter family war.
Jason asked to speak to the Sunday Mirror to talk about his grandad and the foundation he and his mum Deanna run in his memory.
But as we enjoy dinner in the Sunset Marquee, a legendary rock-and-roll haunt in LA, he admits a tangled web over rights and legacy claims has turned into a nightmare.
“Lets just say my grandad didn’t leave things organised when he left this world,” Jason says with a sigh.
He goes on: “You are dealing with a rich black man and his estate and his children. It’s a difficult process with the legal situation.
“My mother is mainly dealing with that in South Carolina.
“The way his estate is run, it isn’t family based, it’s lawyer and business. We are in litigation fighting over that. It will eventually get better but it takes years.
“The benefits won’t benefit the children, it will be his grandchildren. But the fight has to go on because if not, someone is going to take it from you.”
Things are complicated by Brown’s love life. The man who famously sang Sex Machine was a womaniser, got married four times and is reckoned to have 13 children.
He acknowledged nine but positive DNA tests lifted that number into double figures.
Scores more have claimed to be his offspring and Jason admits: “I’m sure I have some British aunts and uncles somewhere that don’t know they are James Brown’s kids.
“I’m sure there are some in Australia, Asia, I’m sure they are out there. As a matter of fact, I am positive. When you are a rock and roll star, they don’t tell you ‘no’.”
The battle for Brown’s riches intensified when widow Tomi Rae Hynie, 48 – a former backing singer and mother of his son, James Jr – told his family to “rot in hell”.
But Jason says he and Tomi Rae are back in touch on Facebook. And he says he and his mum are welcoming previously unknown relatives into the fold. He explains: “We have got past the distress of him passing. My grandad was all about the music. That’s what brought him up – and brought him down too.
“I recently found out I had a cousin who is willing to take the flights out, organise, emails, that kind of thing to be a part of our family foundation.”
Jason, a film maker turned DJ, was hired by Rolling Stone Mick Jagger to be a consultant on the 2014 biopic Get On Up. That meant facing up to three sides of Brown.
The good – a soul legend who inspired generations of stars. The bad – he was nicked many times for assaults, gun possession and suspected drug offences. The ugly – he was arrested repeatedly for domestic abuse.
Some of those incidents are included in the Jagger film and Jason says: “When I think of my grandmother and the sweet lady she is, yeah it is hard to come to terms with it, but as you get older, as an adult, you don’t know what is going on in someone’s relationship.
“I know my grandfather was a tough person. I have sympathy for my grandmother. I’m close to her.” The biopic detailed Brown’s rise to fame from poverty in Barnwell, South Carolina. He was raised in a brothel by his aunt after his mum abandoned him and his abusive father refused to care for him.
Those desperate early years always stayed with Brown. He later tried to help the poor and left millions to impoverished children.
When Jason was born, Brown set up a scheme to give turkeys to the homeless on Thanksgiving.
Now Jason and his mother run The James Brown Family Foundation and carry on those traditions.
He explains: “We are proud of who we are, because my grandfather came from nothing and did everything. My grandad had a legacy of giving away turkeys and then at Christmas he decided to give away toys.
“We continue that. We give them to underprivileged children in the city.
“My grandad was a poor kid and he never forgot his hometown, and that is the legacy we let live on.”
Jason tells me how he wishes he’d had more time with Brown. He adds: “He passed away when I was 16, I wasn’t fully an adult yet and he was still a touring rock and roll star.
“We were close enough where we had an understanding. He would tell me he was proud of me and ask me about school.
“He would always say: ‘When you get older you will come on the road with me’. But I was always a kid. It was a shame. As a kid I didn’t know how big my grandfather was at all.
“I didn’t realise until the day he died and then, every day since then, it gets bigger and bigger for me.
“But now I’m living that, I’m on the road with my mum. And I’m on tour in his remembrance.”
King of music inspired us to Get Up
Soul legend James Brown inspired a string of superstars including Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger, Prince and Bruno Mars.
But maybe the best tribute came from Brown himself when he said: “Disco is James Brown, hip-hop is James Brown, rap is James Brown; you know what I’m saying? You hear all the rappers, 90 per cent of their music is me.”
Jagger, who produced the Brown biopic Get On Up, said: “Nearly all hip-hop artists acknowledge his influence. It’s influenced all the rock bands I know.”
And Michael Jackson said at Brown’s funeral: “When I saw him move I was mesmerised. Then and there I knew that’s what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”