"Positive Thinking, Positive Thinking, Positive Thinking. Thinking that you are somebody and you'll be somebody"

Fred Wesley And The J.B.'s

''Damn Right I Am Somebody''
(Promo Expanded With Bonus Tracks)
( LP People Records, Polydor Rec., 1974 )
Catalog # PE 6602, 2391 125

Tracklisting:
A1 Damn Right I'm Somebody (6:00)
A2 Blow Your Head (4:43)
A3 Im Payin' Taxes, What Am I Buyin'? (9:28)
B1 Same Beat (Part 1) (3:30)
B2 If You Don't Get It The First Time, Back Up & Try It Again, Parrty (3:36)
B3 Make Me What You Want Me To Be (3:34)
B4 Going To Get A Thrill (6:00)
Written-By - Hank Ballard
B5 You Sure Love To Ball (4:13)
Written-By - Marvin Gaye
*Bonus Tracks:
Love & Happiness (Promo Only) (7:37)
Same Beat - Parts 1, 2 & 3 (7:42)

Credits:
Producer - James Brown
Written-By - Fred Wesley (tracks: A1 to A3, B3) , James Brown (tracks: A1 to A3, B1 to B4)

Notes:
Recorded during the same session as James Brown solo album 'The Payback'
1973 Polydor Incorporated (B1 & B2)
1974 Polydor Incorporated (A1 to A3, B3 to B5)
People Records are distributed by Polydor Incorporated.
Printed In U.S.A.
Format:Vinyl, LP, Album
Country:US
Released:1974
The promo LP omits "Going To Get A Thrill' in favour of a Fred Wesley & The JB's recording of Al Green's 'Love & Happiness'. There is no singing on 'Love & Happiness', rather James Brown the band talk over the track and namecheck various DJ's who they thank for playng their music. Fred Wesley has a brief horn solo before it fades out. The first 30 seconds or so of this promo-only track were in fact used as the intro to the song 'Damn Right I Am Somebody'.
Between each track on the promo LP, emcee Danny Ray announces 'This is a revolution sureshot...'
On the back cover it's written: "Positive Thinking, Positive Thinking, Positive Thinking.
Thinking that you are somebody and you'll be somebody".

Profile:
Directed by James Brown and Fred Wesley, Fred Wesley & The JB's is arguably one of the most influential bands in the history of dance music. Their tunes are situated among the top-sampled ones like probably no other in the world. Though the band's formation changed several times, the main musicians that composed the band are:
Bobby Byrd (synthesizer, vocals)
Fred Thomas (bass)
Fred Wesley (trombone, horns)
James Brown (vocals)
John Jabo Starks (drums)
Lyn Collins (vocals)
Maceo Parker (saxophone)
St-Clair Pinckney (alto saxophone)
From Discogs

Review:
Damn Right I Am Somebody captures the J.B.'s at the apex of their extraordinary powers. This James Brown-produced set is both their most fiercely polemical and their most musically daring, incorporating otherworldly electronic elements, eccentric time and rhythm shifts, and idiosyncratic studio effects to brilliantly articulate the increasing turmoil and insanity of the times. It's quite possibly the most challenging record ever released under the Brown aegis, favoring open-ended grooves and epic solos rooted in avant-jazz. The rhythms remain surgically precise and hypnotically intense, however, and every cut here, from the funk juggernaut "I'm Payin' Taxes, What Am I Buyin'?" to the righteously mellow "Same Beat," is a marvel. This is funk at its heaviest -- musically, yes, but intellectually as well.
By Jason Ankeny (AMG)

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