“It’s a New Day (Part 1 and 2)” (1970) – James Brown *Written and produced by James Brown * 45: “It’s a New Day (Part 1 and 2)” / “Georgia on My Mind” * LP: It’s a New Day – Let a Man Come In * Label: King
James Brown’s first charting single of the 1970s—a two-part slab of high grade funk—echoed a familiar strain of soul chauvinism, instructing a woman that where a man is concerned, she should “do what he wants and give what he wants.” Brown’s spoken opening lines, though, sound in retrospect like an incredulous dispatch from the dawn of women’s lib. “Fellas, things have gotten too far gone,” he says. “We’ve gotta let the girls know what they’ve gotta do for us.” In Brown’s “man’s man’s” world, it was girls vs. men. “A man can’t do nothing no more,” he says, before letting out a big, crucial laugh.