Like a lot of you, I spent yesterday walking around sort of in a daze, wondering if it could really be true that the GFOS was actually dead. As I sometimes will when feeling in extra rambunctious or happy, I kept saying, in my best James Brown voice, over and over, "Watch me!!" "Git up-ah!" "Please, Please, Pleeeease, Pleeeease!" Hoping that somehow I would get over the sinking feeling that the world as we know it just got a whole LOT less funkier.It didn't work. The wife and I went surfing, as we try to every Christmas Day, and let me tell you, people look at you funny in the water when you're paddling by and you just say "Watch Me!" or "Git up-ah!" Maybe they hadn't got the news yet. I was just trying to get my funk on. But it didn't work. I was feeling the same way I felt when I heard that Zappa died...So we got to cooking Christmas dinner, and after some obligatory Xmas tunes (Motown, ska, and Latin), I had to insist that we put on some JB. But all I had was "Hell," a little-referenced 1970s album. So we poured out the red wine, spilled a little for the Godfather, and spun that disc a few times.Let me say, there may be JB aficionados somewhere who feel that "Hell" is one of his best works, but I haven't met them. It kind of gets overlooked sometimes, released after "The Payback" and before "Get Up Offa That Thing." It has "Papa Don't Take No Mess" on it, which keeps the whole thing feeling vital. The sound is good, shinier and flatter than many of the classic 60s sides, and the JBs are in fine form. It's funky, for sure. But it's also strange, in that as a record, feels like a nightclub set in a way that no-one would have the balls to put on wax today. James does a bunch of covers, including "When The Saints Go Marching In," "Stormy Monday," "These Foolish Things..," and 2 covers of himself, of course, " I Can't Stand It '76," and "Please, Please, Please," with some truly funny, if un-PC, Spanish lyrics.Don't get me wrong, "Hell" is an amazing 2-LP achievement, with some of the tightest and most inspirational playing by the JB's I've heard. It just shows another side of the man, maybe a less obvious side. If there's anyone who can turn 3 or 4 words into a killer track, it's JB. So to not only have the JBs cover " Oh, When The Saints Go Marching In," but to then put it out? It's kind if a weird choice. Sort of nonchalantly ignoring things like airplay, reviews, sales, fans...Always the COMPLETE showman, James sounds like he's onstage in a bar, riffing in the studio, rather than trying to blaze any new ground. Not that he was out of gas or irrelevant, it's just so outstanding to hear someone who literally WROTE THE BLUEPRINT for the rest of us, just kind of cooling out for a minute. I had to laugh. It's like watching James spar with the woman interviewing him here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnyPlxGdCFc&mode=related&search=If anyone can get away with goofing in the limelight, its JB. Not just anyone can completely rewrite the rulebook, even once in their lifetime.