[quote name='Japhet' timestamp='1484589144' post='3216583']
The 'one' is surely the first quarter interval in a 4 beat bar (or other variations). Notes can be played on the beat or before or after, but the 'one' is always in the same place. Alternatively, I could be too thick to understand this thread.
[/quote]
It's a difficult one to explain. What you're saying is that "the one" is definitely on the first beat of the bar, and according to the discussion above, that is what James Brown meant when he coined the phrase
I have personally been listening to and playing a lot of what I would describe as funky music, and a lot of the basslines and riffs I gravitate towards start on the offbeat before the first beat of the bar. As there are so many, I started to wonder whether what James Brown meant by "the one" was not in fact the first beat of the bar, but instead the first note of the bassline. Apparently not!