"Why Am I Treated So Bad" - Fred Wesley

"Why Am I Treated So Bad" (PDF) from the James Brown & The James Brown Band album, The Popcorn.

(2021 revision):
Roebuck “Pops” Staples wrote the 1965 blues “Why Am I Treated So Bad” in response to the ongoing struggle for civil rights in the United States and in particularly, according to music critic Greg Kot, for The Little Rock Nine - a group of Black students enrolled at Little Rock Central High School in 1957 whom were prevented from integrating the school by Orval Faubus, the governor of Arkansas and the inspiration for Charles Mingus’ 1959 composition “Fables of Faubus.”

As the popularity of soul jazz thrived in the late-1960s, the Staples tune was recorded by Cannonball Adderly and his quintet in 1967, featuring the same lineup from the landmark album Mercy, Mercy, Mercy! Live at “The Club.” In fact, keyboardist Joe Zawinul’s performance on “Why Am I Treated So Bad” was so noteworthy that he was mistakenly credited as the song’s composer when The James Brown Band recorded its own version in 1969 for the album The Popcorn.

One of the earliest recordings to feature Fred Wesley’s trombone, it is clear that The James Brown Band was anticipating the arrival of the J.B. funk, as demonstrated in the blues turnaround behind Fred’s solo. While preserving the extended phrasing of the original tune, the J.B. rhythm section unintentionally shortens the break and plays a bar of 7 / 8 - in both choruses of the solo - perhaps as a result of Mr. Brown’s emphatic insistence to be on-the-one.

Here is a series of YouTube interviews by the Smithsonian Institute about Fred Wesley’s musical career:

Recommended Reading: I’ll Take You There: Mavis Staples, The Staple Singers, and the Music That Shaped the Civil Rights Era by Greg Kot. Published by Simon & Schuster.