Fans to bid farewell to singer James Brown in NY

NEW YORK, Dec 29 (Reuters) Thousands of James Brown fans lined up in New York's Harlem neighbourhood yesterday for the chance to say farewell to the late ''Godfather of Soul'' at a public viewing of his body.

The 73-year-old entertainer -- whose voice, showmanship and bold rhythms brought funk into the mainstream and influenced a generation of black music -- died on Christmas of congestive heart failure in Atlanta.

Brown's body will be laid out for a public viewing on the stage at Harlem's Apollo Theater yesterday. A Brown look-alike kept the crowds entertained by giving an impromptu street performance.

''I felt his music was great, phenomenal. He's going to be well missed,'' boxer Iran ''The Blade'' Barkley told New York television as he stood in line for the public viewing. ''I met him at one of my fights, and now I am just coming to pay my respects to him.'' Brown's body will be taken to his hometown of Augusta, Georgia, for a private service today. Another public viewing is planned for tomorrow before Brown is buried.

The Grammy-award winning singer was one of America's great showmen and band leaders. He created a revolutionary sound that mixed funky rhythms and staccato horns behind his own often explosive vocals.

Hip hop and rap artists revered him and extensively used his beats as the backdrop for their own music, while singers like Michael Jackson drew on his dance style.

Brown, the self-proclaimed ''hardest working man in show business,'' performed more than 100 live shows this year and had been scheduled to perform in New York's Times Square on New Year's Eve.

Brown had more than 119 singles on the charts and recorded over 50 albums. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and received a lifetime Grammy achievement award.

His big hits included ''Please, Please, Please,'' ''Papa's Got a Brand New Bag,'' ''I Got You (I Feel Good)'' ''Get Up (I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine)'' and ''It's a Man's, Man's, Man's World.'' Brown emerged from a boyhood of poverty and petty crime in Augusta in the era when the South was still segregated and began his music career in jail as a juvenile offender.

He personal life remained turbulent. He was jailed in 1988 for drug, weapons and vehicular charges after a car chase through Georgia and South Carolina that ended when police shot out the tires of his truck. He left prison in 1991.

He was named to President Reagan's council against drugs, but was arrested several times in the mid-1980s and 1990s and charged with drug and weapons possession.

Reuters SB GC0850