THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

880-James Brown-Get Up Offa That Thing.

1976-Number 22 single.

Best Bit-At 0.20. By 1976, James Brown had been having hits for 18 years, and he wanted to let everyone know that he was still the Number 1, which is why you hear him taunt those young whippersnappers, The Ohio Players, KC and The Sunshine Band, and Barry White (Barry who?)

‘Get Up Offa That Thing’ was the first of two singles released from James Brown’s 43rd studio Album of the same name, from July 1976. In America on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, the song peaked at Number 45, and Number 4, on the Billboard Hot R&B chart, while in the UK, it was his highest charting song in the decade of the 1970’s. ‘Get Up Offa That Thing,’ and it’s parent Album’s writing credits are registered to James Brown’s wife Diedre, and their two daughters, Deanna, and Yamma. This was because at that time Brown was in trouble with the ‘IRS,’ for failure to pay back taxes. Brown owed millions of Dollars in back taxes, and he didn’t want the royalties to go the ‘IRS.’ In fact it was Brown who wrote all of the six tracks on the Album, and also produced them as well, with the exception of track 2, ‘You Took My Heart,’ which was co-written with the saxophonist St. Clair Pinckney, (1930-1999) who was also a member of Brown’s backing band ‘The J.B.’s.’

‘The J. B.’s’ were James Brown’s backing group from 1970, through until his death in 2006, The J. B.’s were formed after most of the members of Brown’s previous band walked out on him over a pay dispute. In total there have been 34 different members of The J. B.’s, although none of the original seven members played on ‘Get Up Offa That Thing.’ As a side project, ‘The J. B.’s’ issued 14 Albums between 1972-2014, with four of those issued as ‘The JB Horns.’ They also issued 25 singles between 1970-1978, with many of these releases being distributed on the James Brown’s owned record label ‘People Records.’ Like many James Brown’s recordings, the music of ‘The J. B.’s’ has been heavily used for samples by Hip-Hop DJ’s, and record producers.

‘Get Up Offa That Thing’ is filed under the genre of ‘Funk’ music. ‘Funk’ is a music genre that originated in Black American communities in the mid-1960’s, when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music, through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the mid-20th Century. James Brown (1933-2006) (see also best songs 349-270 and 88) is recognised as the main player in the development of ‘Funk’ from the mid 1960’s, into the early part of the 1970’s, with artists such as ‘Parliament-Funkadelic,’ (see also best songs 612-340-143 and 26) Fatback Band, (see also best songs 798 and 217) and Earth Wind & Fire (see also best songs 916 and 462) adopting and developing Brown’s innovations.

The word ‘Funk’ initially referred to ‘a strong odour.’ It was originally derived from the Latin ‘fumigare,’ which means ‘to smoke,’ via the Old French ‘fungiere,’ and in this sense, it was first documented in English in 1620. In 1784 ‘funky’ meaning ‘musty’ was first documented, which, in turn, led to a sense of ‘earthy,’ that was taken up around 1900 in early ‘Jazz Music’ slang for something ‘deeply or strongly felt.’ Even though in white culture, the term ‘funk’ can have negative connotations of odour, or being in a bad mood, in African communities, the term ‘funk,’ while still linked to body odour, had the positive sense that a musician’s hard-working, honest effort led to sweat, and from their ‘physical exertion’ came an ‘exquisite,’ and ‘superlative’ performance.

James Brown has explained that he got the title ‘Get Up Offa That Thing’ while performing in front of an uninspired crowd in a Fort Lauderdale Club.’ He has said,’The audience was sitting down, trying to do a sophisticated thing, listening to Funk. One of the tightest bands they’d ever heard in their lives, and they were sitting. I had worked hard and dehydrated myself, and was feeling depressed. I looked out at all those people sitting there, and because I was depressed they looked depressed. I yelled, ‘Get up offa that thing and dance till you feel better!’ I probably meant until I felt better.’

‘Ha! Get funky! So good, uh! I’m first to stop, ha! I’ve told them now, ha! Uh! Ha! Ohio player! Can you hit it one time, check this out! Get up offa that thing,’