James Brown Needed His Cape Man
James Brown was one of the most electrifying showmen in music, but a James Brown show was not complete without Danny Ray. During the emotional song “Please, Please, Please,” Brown would crumple on stage, dropping to his knees as if too drained to go on. A man would emerge from the wings with a cape. That was Danny Ray, whose job for 45 years was “cape man” for James Brown. Ray was a close friend of Brown’s whom Brown called the “second hardest working man in show business.” When Ray died in 2021, James Brown’s daughter laid a cape over his coffin.