‘Mother Popcorn’ is an interesting song among James Brown’s early funk. He had established the importance of the One, but this song is less predictable, more fidgety. Asides from during the bridge, with short, satisfying blasts on that first beat, the horn section is finding spaces between the bass’s notes. Their main accent is just after the four, making the bars less intuitively separated – especially as the lead guitar only hits the One every other bar. “Lead guitar” only because the other is playing purely muted chords aside from in the bridge – both guitars are amped and mixed so they sound almost purely percussive; the melody seems almost incidental.
The drummer Clyde Stubblefield was interviewed by for a film entitled Soul of the Funky Drummers. The interviewer Harry Weinger (supervising producer of a famous Brown compilation, Star Time) rightly calls ‘Popcorn’ “incredibly funky” and “incredibly syncopated”. If you watch and listen to (14:08) Stubblefield’s snare drum you’ll hear he’s playing on the two and four but also a host of sixteenth notes, which gives the song much of its fidgetiness. (Fred Thomas, who joined the band in 1971, plays the bass, which does hit the One in each bar.)
Like many of Brown’s singles, ‘Mother’ was released on an A and B side. And like many of his B sides, that half is more instrumental-focused, with a horn solo. Maceo Parker plays quick runs of notes, somehow finding the breath control to sound even more energised than the relentless drums. (Maceo also plays a solo on ‘Mashed Potato Popcorn’ and both tracks were included on It’s A Mother (1969). The popcorn and mashed potato were both dance moves, as was “the James Brown!” according to the man himself.)
Though his lyrical content is not often discussed (aside from that of his most overly political and sociopolitical songs, such as ‘Say It Loud - I’m Black And I’m Proud’ and ‘Talkin’ Loud and Sayin’ Nothing’), Brown’s words sometimes had surprising emotional qualities. ‘Mother Popcorn’ is ostensibly a party song (which could be heard as Brown, or the narrator, finding mothers more attractive than apparent love interests, but is more likely about big butts – “You’ve got to have a mother for me”). Despite the feel-good times, among the “OW!”s and the “Popcorn!”s, Brown sings, “Sometimes I’m feeling low”; “I’m feeling all alone”. Similarly, he had sung on ‘I Got The Feelin’’, “Sometimes I’m up / Sometimes I’m down’. Later, he sang about parental beatings on ‘Papa Don’t Take No Mess’.
Like other Brown classics, including ‘Papa's Got a Brand New Bag' and 'Cold Sweat', the lyrics of ‘Mother Popcorn’ were taken from a previous recording. Earlier in 1969, Brown had sung ‘You Got To Have A Mother For Me’, which wasn’t released until 1988 on the Motherlode collection, which included a fantastic 9-minute version of ‘People Get Up And Drive Your Funky Soul’. This version of ‘Mother Popcorn’, or the lyrics, had a completely different instrumental. The subject matter of butts was worth revisiting.
Top image from Discogs.