Alongside Sam Cooke’s Live at the Harlem Square Club, Live at the Apollo serves as an illuminating historical document: a record of a time when the rhythms and rituals of pop performance hadn’t yet solidified into their more recognizable classic rock form. It’s dizzying, but also instructive as to Brown’s origins as a performer on the Chitlin’ Circuit throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s. It was disorienting, like looking at a list of credit card transactions the week after a bachelor party. I felt like I blinked and suddenly we were eight tracks deep with only three left to go. Additionally, the album very quickly dispenses with four early James Brown favorites-“I’ll Go Crazy,” “Try Me,” “Think,” and “I Don’t Mind”-in a rapid succession of hummingbird-quick two-minute versions. The Apple Music version of the record totals just 31 minutes across 11 tracks, although three of these are listed just as “Instrumental Bridge” and last less than 15 seconds each. This (weirdly) was what was at the top of my mind this week listening to James Brown’s iconic 1963 album Live at the Apollo, which is as oddly paced as any live album I’ve reviewed thus far. And unless we’re some kind of theatrical prog outfit or jam band, the live concert experience has-since the late 1960s-settled into a set of ossified rituals as calcified and predictable as the Stations of the Cross. bottle of Arrowhead I’m still paying off from Coachella 2006.īut I’m not talking about commerce. We all like concerts, and live shows remain by far the most robust sector of the music industry. Now, this might sound like a weird thing to say. Since I’ve started writing this very popular and critically acclaimed column for The Great Albums, I’ve begun to develop a nagging sense that maybe the “rock concert” as we know is played out. Because of this, we do see sides of JB that had not been glimpsed for a while (ever?) – the latin version of “ Please Please Please” and the similarly flavoured “ Stormy Monday“, the laid back groove on “ These Foolish Things” and “ A Man Has To Go Back…” as well as the Funk we know and love.Live at the Apollo, James Brown (1963, King/Universal) Hell is a less cohesive album then Payback, (perhaps because the latter was conceived as a soundtrack) containing as it does covers, re-recordings and re-interpretations, as well as new tracks.
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This album arrived after “ Payback” had shown that JB had lost none of his powers, despite the death of his son, troubles with the IRS and a commercial slump that had started when he lost much of his US crossover audience in the wake of “ Say it Loud…“. “ Papa Don’t Take No Mess” is laid-back, funky jazz that’s worth each of its 13-plus minutes. Although Brown did roll snake eyes on all of side three, he did leave Hell on a good note.
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That song, as well as the weepers “ A Man Has to Go to the Cross Road Before He Finds Himself” and “ Sometime“, were produced by David Matthews who could always get good ragged yet poised vocals from Brown. “ These Foolish Things Remind Me of You” has him getting all warm and fuzzy as he inexplicably throws in an “I’m hurt, I’m hurt” for good measure. Both “ When the Saints Go Marching In” and “ Stormy Monday” don’t belong in James Brown’s catalogue, let alone the same album. The biggest surprise of Hell is that no matter how odd the song choices seemed, practically everything worked, excluding a few key songs of course. “ My Thang” is probably as hard and unrelenting as he got without spontaneously combusting. From the tough and nimble Latin rhythms of “ Coldblooded” and “ Sayin’ It and Doin’ It” to the title track, all are prime pre-disco Brown. The album was the pinnacle of his work as the Minister of the Super New New Heavy Funk. To some, the title might put this effort in the realm of kitsch, but in many ways Hell was one of Brown’s strongest albums. Hell was the double album released a year after the gold selling The Payback. The record was originally a double album filled with lots of different styles from James’ funky bag.ī2 These Foolish Things Remind Me of You 3:15ī4 A Man Has to Go Back to the Crossroads Before He Finds Himself 2:57Ĭ3 Don’t Tell a Lie About Me and I Won’t Tell the Truth About You 5:12īrown’s early-’70s run of classic singles and good-to-great albums is still impressive. Of JB’s wildest album, with a crazy cover that shows him running away from the devil, and great gatefold inner photo with him standing amidst a bunch of declarations of “Hell”. Side 4 is devoted to the brilliant 14 minute rap “Papa Don’t Take No Mess”. Side 2 is the more chilled out ballad side. This double album is brilliant from start to finish. This is JB at his badaassssss funky best!