onurblues: James Brown - Live At The Apollo, 1962 (Expanded Edition, 2004) / Live At The Apollo Vol. II, 1967 (2-CD Deluxe Edition, 2001)

► Both albums are available at the usual place...

Doctor Soul and Mister Funk

This review is about both “Live At the Apollo” albums, the first one recorded in 1962 and originally released in 1963, the second, Vol. II, recorded in 1967 and originally released in 1968.

The rude boy saved by R'n'B
Born in an impoverished family of South Carolina, raised in Augusta, Georgia, by an aunt who ran a whorehouse, dismissed from school at the age of 12 for "insufficient clothing" (!), the young James Brown turned a bad boy in his teens. At age 16, he was arrested for armed robbery and sentenced to three years in jail. Paroled in 1952, he started to sing in a vocal gospel quartet and met singer Bobby Byrd. In 1954, Brown joined Byrd's vocal gospel band, The Gospel Starlighters. In 1955, the group, influenced by Little Richard, evolved into a R'n'B band, was soon renamed the Famous Flames and started to play nightclubs in Macon, Georgia.

In 1956, their demo tape of "Please, Please, Please" came to the ears of a talent scout for King Records, and the label signed them. The Famous Flames went on touring intensively across the South East, re-baptized "James Brown and The Famous Flames". In 1958, threatened to be dropped down by King for a lack of new hit songs, Brown moved to New York looking for a new musical environment. He recorded "Try Me”, hitting n°1 on the R'n'B charts. Other hits followed. Brown toured relentlessly, performing five or six nights a week throughout the late 1950s and the 1960s, simultaneously working with two different bands , the Famous Flames and the James Brown Band, and becoming a shrewd and ruthless bandleader and businessman.

Conscious he was never better than on stage, he decided to record a live concert album during the planned October 24th, 1962 night show at The Apollo Theater in Harlem. Facing reluctance from King Records to the pretext that it wouldn't feature any new songs and wouldn't sell enough, Brown financed the production from his own pocket. He had a good flair : the album peaked at No. 2 on the Top Albums charts ! On June 24 and 25, 1967, Vol. II was recorded at the same Apollo.

Three James Brown emerge from these two recordings : Mister R'n'B, Mister Soul and Mister Funk.

Mr R'n'B delivers fast rocking numbers with his powerful rhythmic and screaming voice, making the temperature raise in the Apollo with two renditions of “I'll Go Crazy” and of the New Orleans horn-filled “Think”, and with the rock'n'roll-tinged “Night Train”, in 1962. Vol. II features another reprise of “Think”, this time with Marva Whitney, “Kansas City”, the outstanding “Sweet Soul Music” with his old pal Bobby Byrd, “Money Won't Change You / Out Of Sight”, a first version of “Bring It Up”, “Cold Sweat” and “Please, Please, Please”, his first hit.

Mr. Soul puts the audience under the spell of his passionate, emotional gospel-influenced voice, swaying between torn-up screaming and irresistible silky tenderness on the 1962 show : “Try Me”, “I Don't Mind”, the incredible “Lost Someone”, Medley #1 (“Please, Please Please” - “You've Got The Power” - “I Found Someone” - “Why Do You Do Me” - “I Want You So Bad” - “I Love You, Yes I Do” - “Strange Things Happen” – “Bewildered” - “Please, Please, Please”), Medley #2 (“I Found Someone” - “Why Do You Do Me” - “I Want You So Bad”), and a second delivery of “Lost Someone” even hotter than the first one.

On Vol. II, the spell still works perfectly with “I Wanna Be Around” (with violins !),”That's Life”, of course the nearly 20-minute version of the mythic “It's A Man's Man's Man's World” ― carried by the distant clockwork riffs of the rhythm guitar, while Brown recalls titles of his most famous songs ―, with a new version of “Try Me”, and finally with “Prisoner Of Love”.

Funk, drugs and jail
Mr Funk shows the tip of his nose on Vol. II. His R'n'B has evolved into what was not yet known as funk but was its early foundation. “Let Yourself Go”, “There Was A Time”, “I Feel All Right”, “Maybe The Last Time”, the famous “I Got You (I Feel Good)” and a new version of “Bring It Up”, very different from the one sung in 1962, are setting the Apollo on fire.

R'n'B, Soul or Funk, Brown really appears as an exceptional vocalist full of the soulful gospel passion of his youth, and a fantastic showman, a talent that strongly filters even through audio form which is an unbelievable achievement ! The songs follow each other without any break, over hysterical screams from the (female) audience. On the banter “James Brown (Thanks)” (Vol. II), Mr Dynamite gives thanks for what he has become, assuring he doesn't forget where he comes from. These two Live testify of the man's musical evolution, from R'n'B to Soul, from Soul to Funk, a genre he will definitely adopt in the following 1970s and 1980s.

Unfortunately the next decades will be rather chaotic. While active in social issues like the education of the black youth in particular, his career went in a low in the late 1970s because of financial troubles and the rise of disco. Still Brown inflexible will allowed him to make a spectacular comeback, first with his appearance in the 1980 film “The Blues Brothers”, and in 1985, with his song "Living in America" featured in “Rocky IV”.

But in the late 1980s, Brown had slowly slid into a mire of drug addiction, depression and outbursts of domestic and social violence, particularly due to his PCP consumption that caused his rude boy youth to re-surface through multiple incidents with the law.

Among many, the most serious one was a sentence to six years in prison in 1988. Arrested after a high-speed car chase around the Georgia-South Carolina state line, he was convicted of carrying an unlicensed gun and assaulting a police officer, along with various drug-related and driving offenses. He was released on parole in 1991. But this wasn't the end of his troubles with the law...

The Godfather of Soul, who had become the most sampled musician in the world, passed away on Christmas day (December 25) 2006 at age 73. Then the legend began... ☺

The night James Brown saved Boston
After Martin Luther King Jr.'s was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968, riots started to rage across the country. The next day Brown gave a live concert, exceptionally broadcast on TV in an attempt to prevent rioting there. His effort succeeded : young Bostonians stayed home to watch the concert on TV and the city was largely spared by violence. A few months later he wrote and recorded "Say It Loud: I'm Black and I'm Proud," a protest anthem that has unified and inspired generations.