this was a song by brown i discovered late and it's a sombre blues like number. it's a telling of a poem written by a manny rosen and is a cautionary tale about drugs and what they can do to your ways of living. while it's a powerful lyrical expression, coming from james brown it resonates weirdly because brown's person.
then again so goes most anti-drug songs sung from persons you think were probably still doing drugs after doing the song, but i guess this song is valid and should be heard by most anyways. brown (and by default rosen) talks about heroin in the first person perspective, really personifying the drug. he goes off telling what he will do you as the drug and in the last part he says he will send you to hell. effectively saying: i will kill you, have no doubt about it.
buy here (7digital)
another song who runs in the same modus operandi is phuture's "your only friend", it was through this song i found "king heroin" since someone pointed out it's lyrical similarities. it differentiates itself only with the drug in mind ("your only friend" is about cocaine) and it's more blunter telling of the effects of the drugs.
"your only friend" was like "king heroin" an anomaly since it stemmed through a culture wrapped up drugs even though spanky, dj pierre & herbert j (like most of the chicago and detroit producers) weren't users themselves. but you had ron hardy, who famously broke "acid tracks" (which this track is the b-side to), who was a known heroin addict and the culture itself weren't that dissonant of drugs.
"your only friend" is a bit more sinister than "king heroin" but i think it was needed to send a clear picture to the heads in the club where as james brown wanted to talk to the people and elaborate. eitherway they are both really great songs.
buy here (junodownload)
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