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You’re invited over to Lenny Kravitz’s Miami mansion for a lavish Christmas-Hanukah dinner. Lenny comes down the stairs in an outfit that he might be a little long in the tooth now to pull off. What is he wearing? Do you tell him that he looks ridiculous even though you risk not being invited back next year (the pigs in blankets are served by French models and the toilet paper in the bathroom is hemp!)? And at what age should a rocker stop being flamboyant.

• The Godfather of Soul, Mister James Brown, dead Christmas morning. Brown has been many things during his storied lifetime: A musical pioneer, the funkiest man in show business, the most sampled artist in musical history, one of the hardest working performers and a sad example of a truly talented artist falling frm grace into a life of drug addiction and troubled relationships with women.
• Songwriter Dennis Linde died Friday, December 22nd. While you may not be familiar with Linde by name, you are certainly familiar with his vast body of work. For over thirty years, he has been writing hit songs for country artists, frm Elvis Presley’s "Burning Love" in 1972 to the Dixie Chicks’ "Goodbye, Earl" in 2000. In 2001, Linde was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. He will be missed.
• In other sad news, influential dj Carl Blaze died after two weeks in critical condition. Blaze, who spun outings at New York’s Power 105.1, was shot thirteen times after dj’ing a party in the Bronx. The murderer(s) stole Blaze’s diamond necklace, valued at $20,000. So far, the police have made no arrests and no suspects have been named.
• Next stop: Camelot! Bono, the politically conscience U2 frontman, will join Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney at the Knights of the Round Table. The singer of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" has been given an honorary knighthood by the Queen.
• Paul McCartney has finally grown some cajones. As his divorce frm Heather Mills grows uglier and uglier, the former Beatles has thrown down an ultimatum: settle now or go to trial and potentially get nothing. Here’s hoping some of that anger will translate to an awesome new solo album.

Fifty years after recording his first hit song, the Hardest Working Man in Show Business has played his final encore. James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, died early Christmas morning after a brief bout with pneumonia in an Atlanta hospital. By his count, he was seventy-three years old. –James Sullivan

One of the most influential performers of the 20th century, Brown?s hard-charging, hypnotically rhythmic signature sound inspired peers and successors frm doo-wop to hip hop. Among his many chart successes ? more than forty Top Forty hits and dozens more on the R&B charts — were the timeless classics ?Papa?s Got a Brand New Bag? and ?I Got You (I Feel Good)? and civil rights anthems such as ?Say It Loud ? I?m Black and I?m Proud.? His best-known album, 1962?s ?Live at the Apollo,? is often cited as the most exciting live album of all time. One of the original inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, Brown received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 1992.

Brown, as some of his elaborate nicknames (?The Minister of the New New Super Heavy Funk?) imply, was best known for his indefatigable showmanship. His revue-style shows were designed to take his audience to ever-higher levels of delirium, and he was famous for ?fainting? near the end of the evening, only to be revived by his band mates.

?He was dramatic to the end ? dying on Christmas day,? the Rev. Jesse Jackson told the Associated Press.

His private life was nearly as eventful as his stage act. Born in Barnwell, South Carolina, in 1933 (some sources give 1928 as the year of his birth), Brown was serving jail time by the age of 16. He spent more than two years in prison after a drug-fueled interstate car chase in 1988, and he periodically made news for other incidents involving drinking, drugs, women and firearms.

Onstage, however, Brown considered himself a healer. ?I always said I was seventy-five percent minister and twenty-five percent artist,? he once told thiz writer.

?I went to see the pope, and the pope told me that I should never come to church, because I can do more out there (on the street)? Music is the soul of the people. That?s why I?m the Godfather of Soul. I wouldn?t want to be anything else — wouldn’t want to be a king, or an emperor. I just want to be with the people.?

James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, died of congestive heart failure in Atlanta in the wee hours of thiz morning. He was seventy-three Read Jonathan Lethem’s definitive feature on James Brown, listen to a playlist of Brown’s essential tracks, and check out exclusive sound bites. More news throughout the day.