Live At The Apollo Remastered & Expanded

I never really got James Brown before I got this.His later work was probably a little too omnipresent for me to want to seek him out. For a generation of minor filmmakers and TV commercial directors, “Sex Machine” and “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” were lazy cinematic shorthand for sex and drugs, so much so that they became bland through sheer repetition, as innocuous for me as Fruit Loops and Scooby Doo and Flintstones Chewable Vitamins. It is, I imagine, like being a Nepalese child growing up in the shadow of Mount Everest. “No big deal,” you’d probably say; these things are just part of your landscape.But seeing this consistently ranked at or near the top of “Best of” lists of live albums, and albums in general, made me take a look at last, and I have to say, I can’t believe I lived so many years without such an essential piece of work. There really is nothing like it, or at least nothing I’ve heard. We get an impeccably tight band, a perfectly honed team of musicians, a collection of instruments that operates as a unified whole. And James Brown, too, operates in perfect sync with them, with a voice full of fire and desire, impossibly impassioned. This is no mere sex machine; it’s an array of machines, wielded with perfect precision by trained operators, all of whom are in the service of a foreman who knows exactly what he’s trying to produce—in short, this album is a sex factory. (There’s a bit of a clichéd observation among my ilk—classic-rock-listening suburban-born types from the paler end of the melanin spectrum—that the perfect romance music is side one of Led Zeppelin IV. But frankly, we’d have done far better to spend our high school years trying to put this album to use.)It’s almost misleading to even call it an album; like plenty of live albums, it starts out with an MC’s introduction, but from there it never really stops. There are no real breaks between songs, just effortless segues between fiery uptempo instrumental bridges and slower smokier sections. There are no songs, even, in a sense—just repetitive mantras, affirmations of sorts for the needy and lovelorn: “If you leave me, I’ll go crazy” and “Try me” and “I found someone to love me” and “Please please don’t go.” That last bit’s on a track that’s labeled as a medley, but it’s almost a whole album of medley, a roller coaster ride that rolls on smoothly through ups and downs, from one thrill to the next.At the start, MC Fats Gonder is billing him as “The Hardest Working Man in Showbusiness.” By the end, you really believe it—and you want more, because like all good showmen, he’s followed the prime rule of showbusiness, which is to leave everyone wanting more. (At 31 minutes, it’s probably shorter than some live Greatful Dead songs.) I didn’t know I wanted more James Brown until I got into this. I get it now, I really do. You should too, if you know what’s good for you.

Before going on stage, Billy Paul told his band to, "Take no prisoners." It's clear James Brown brought that same attitude with him when he recorded this live masterpiece in 1962. You could hardly find a better example, in any idiom, of a performer ready, willing, and able to give an audience his all. James Brown Live At The Apollo crackles with intensity, raw energy, and truth.Plenty of highlights, start with the introduction, it's probably the greatest of all time. More amazing still, The Godfather lives up to it. Check out I'll Go Crazy, it surely set hips twitchin', and Think, way too excited to behave. The closer, Night Train, is especially tasty, with some rhythmic intensity that's undeniable. These funk jewels showcase how tight the back-up band is, and those Famous Flames. Brown was, and is, a stern perfectionist, known for firing musicians who arrived at rehearsals late.As satisfying as these up-tempo numbers are, it's the ballads that are most interesting, and most instructive. Try Me, I Don't Mind, and nearly 11:00 of Lost Someone, provide JB with room to get all the way down. He shouts, moans, talks, screeches, whispers - in sum - works the room like the master he is. What you notice is that it's more about performance than music, indeed, at times, it almost seems that the tune itself, what there is of it, is secondary at best.When James Brown met up with Syd Nathan of King Records, and tried to get him to record "Please, Please, Please," Nathan thought he was crazy, pointing out, "There's nothing to it, just repeating one word over and over." Of course, technically that was true, but he hadn't counted on Brown's ability to make something out of nothing. Personality, delivery, style, soul, intensity, and emotion made Please, Please, Please a hit in 1956, and you can hear the same forces at work here.It might be observed that no one has ever made more out of less than James Brown; he stripped music down to its basest elements. But he's a genius, and was able to pull it off. The rappers and hip-hop crowd who imitate and flat out steal Brown's approach, completely miss the magic ingredient and succeed only is making less out of less.This amazing performance threw James Brown into the national spotlight. Despite poor recording quality, it is very highly recommended.

This is the famous live album that DJs played in its entirety when it came out. My band used to use it as a pre gig rally! Lots of us knew it note for note, including the famous MC intro! It is meticulously recorded for a "live" album. Not too much echoey room sound. It simply sounds great! However, be advised that it came out before his famous singles, "Papas Got A Brand New Bag", "I Feel Good", and "Cold Sweat". If you want those songs live you'll have to get his Garden Theatre album or my favorite, Live and Loud in Dallas, 1968. If you like live albums and you liked his material before his big hits, this is one of the best albums ever recorded.

No James Brown album is totally worthless and this one has iconic significance as the first full concert by Brown and his Famous Flames to be released on record. But having said that, it’s an okay album, not a great one. It’s on a par with early Ike and Tins records, not with brown’s own later major Funk discs. So there’s nothing wrong with this album but it’s more generic in nature than his later albums and it doesn’t build to the frenzy of performance he managed a very few years later. It’s a good, not a great, session, worth keeping if you’re trying to build up your library of all James Brown’s big hit albums but otherwise, quite a way down the list. The biggest omission? None of Brown’s major funkathyde hits of the later sixties. There is a funky version of Night Train, but Brown even did that one it better later on in his career.