40. James Brown - Live at the Apollo (1963)



















Track Listing

1. Introduction To James Brown
2. I'll Go Crazy
3. Try Me
4. Think
5. I Don't Mind
6. Lost Someone
7. Medley: Please, Please, Please/You've Got The Power/I Found Someone/Why Do You Do Me/I Want You So Bad/I Love You So Bad/I Love You, Yes I Do/Strange Things Happen/Bewildered/Please, Please, Please
8. Night Train

Review

Mr. James Brown, indeed. As you could expect from him this is a very funky album, and again, like the Sam Cooke and Muddy Waters' albums it works due to its rapport with the public. I would definitely advise you to get the re-release, if you find the original take care! The original audience was redubbed with clapping instead of the crazy screaming that actually occurred in the live performance. And the last thing that you would expect people to do with this kind of music is to politely clap.

Girls, or very effeminate man, just go crazy in this album. And James Brown uses it to his advantage, he screams back and gets replies. So it is a good album, where all the songs are pretty short in the pop style of 3 minute tracks, but as you get to the end he starts extending his tracks to the 7 to 10 minute mark. Again this is the good thing with live albums you can feel the progression of the night as the public gets more excited and Brown feels at ease to extend his tracks.

So, it is a great live album, but don't expect Sex Machine in it. That comes later. Still, both the Sam Cooke and Muddy Waters ones are better. But some good shit here, particularly Night Train at the end and the long medley. You can stream this from Napster or buy it from Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Night Train
2. Lost Someone
3. Medley (long title)
4. I'll Go Crazy

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

Night Train was later remade in a much better version by Lionel Richie on the Dancing on the Ceiling album, but also even better on some shitty Euro-Techno ensemble.

From Wiki

* Brown was a recipient of Kennedy Center Honors for 2003, and a scheduled 2004 unveiling of a statue of Brown in Augusta was delayed because of James Brown's ongoing legal problems.

* Brown's eyebrows are tattoos.

* James Brown appearanced in the Jackie Chan movie The Tuxedo, in which he is flipped and knocked unconscious, forcing Chan to do his routine.

* In December 2004 Brown was diagnosed with prostate cancer, which was successfully treated with surgery.

* At around the time of his legal troubles in the late 1980s, there happened to be a Supreme Court vacancy. Late-night talk-show host Arsenio Hall proposed nominating Brown, because "He's black, he's liberal... and he's familiar with the court system!"