James Brown - Live at the Apollo 1962
|
List Price: Our Price: $2.46 You Save: $3.48 (58%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $2.23 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Live at the Apollo 1962
Free Music Review: Take No Prisoners!
Hit: 5 Stars
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.
Free Music Review: Mr. Dynamite goes to Harlem
Hit: 5 Stars
With the passing of James Brown at the end of 2006, the lost one of its most its most powerful musical fores, a sweat-soaked juggernaut of white-hot passion and burning soul. For proof of that, consult this very album. Recorded late in 1962, when Brown was still a relative lightweight (commercially speaking), Live at the Apollo is a sizzling slice of raw soul, collection of breathless R&B stompers and heart-shredding ballads that put the Godfather on the musical map long before he got around to inventing funk.
The album captures Brown hooting, hollering, crooning, screaming, and tearing his way thorugh a setlist that hits the highlighs of his early career. He attacks the songs with a seemingly endless supply of energy and ferocity- At one point, he sings a medley of something like nine songs in just over six minutes! It's somewhat hard to believe that his band could even keep up with him, but- okay, actually it's not. They're awesome- their raw, slashing guitars, smooth horns, and tight backing vocals drive Brown on, pushing him to new heights of fantabulousness with every passing note. Combine that with the sounds of a rapt audience (James Brown always got the best audiences), and you've got a platter of can't-fail musical explosiveness. The afformentioned medley is only one of the deliciously crazy tracks here: there's also "Night Train," in whih Brown manages to sound absolutely electric, even though he's doing nothing but listing the names of cities. "I'll Go Crazy" and "I Don't Mind" comes ripping out of the gates with gutteral guitars and dizzying vocal acrobatis, while "Think" sees the star of the show making chop suey out of the English language. Delicious, delicious chop suey. And when Brown slows things down, it's only to rip your heart out with a ballad- "Try Me" is instant gratification, and the epic version of "Lost Someone" (over ten minutes) is simply gorgeous, a soul-shreddingly cathartic bit of group therapy (again, listen to that audience!) disgued as a song.
So......... get it! Play it! Live the 'xperience!
Free Music Review: NOT FUNK... BUT STILL CRRRRAAAAAZZZZZY
Hit: 5 Stars
For a lot of reasons this album is pretty much what made James Brown not just an icon of his day.. but for many days to come... and these reasons have to do with politics, as well as music so I'll stay away from them,.. however James Brown is certainly a name that willl never be forgotten at Harlems Apollo Theater.
This album was recorded live in 1962, when James Brown was still exclusively The Soul Brother no.1. He hadn't started developing his funk yet, however had already been tearing up the charts for sometime (mid fifties?) and was rapidly building a reputation as an amazing live performer. In order to prove that it wasn't just hype, Brown recorded this show at The Apollo (an excellent way to nationalize their name in the process, I'd have to say) and released it about a year later.
It's true that James Brown had a solid run of hit singles on the radio for over ten years.. but to hear that stuff in comparison to his live recordings always pales. No matter what era of James Brown you listen to.. the hit singles just ain't half as exciting as a complete live show.. and this proves it. I'LL GO CRAZY is amazing, one of the all time best performances of a song, ever.. and from here we go into a non stop frenzy, which, if you are seasoned to James Brown, may sound a little out dated, but no doubt as wild as his squeeeezieest funk juices. In typical James Brown fashion the songs just keep coming,..no breaks, constant motion. The crowd gets involved too, screaming and clawin'.... songs meld into other songs, then back into the original songs, and then into medleys, that meld with other medleys.. and then finally it all finishes back at the start with I'll GO CRAZY, as if you never left it to begin with. The way James Brown put on a show in 1962 would eventually become the influence for not only any good soul show, but rock, jazz, funk, dance, etc.... they all wanted his chops... and that is mainly because of what is contained on this record.... Enter the Hardest working man in showbiz....
Free Music Review: Are you ready for Star Time?
Hit: 5 Stars
If there's a single document that proves James Brown deserves to be known as the "Hardest Working Man in Show Business", this is it. After Fats Gonder announces Brown's string of hits and an instrumental that sounds like a collision of the Ventures and Sly and the Family Stone's brass section, Brown takes control and rushes you through a roller-coaster ride that rockets straight up. It's 31 minutes of sheer aural ecstasy and you can tell the audience is eating out of Brown's hands for the duration, right up through the moment they ride the "Night Train" home.
HIGHLIGHTS:
Choosing the best bits is difficult because this is really high quality, but the horn riff in "Think" is one of the best here. "Try Me" is beautiful in its desperation. The moment in the epic "Lost Someone" when James tells the audience that "And when I tell you something that make you feel good inside, And when I say that little thing, I say that little part that might sting you in your heart,now, I wanna hear you scream.." (now you know where the rappers stole the idea from). The 7 song medley, bookended by "Please Please Please", is also choice.
LOWS:
If there's any drawback to the disc, it's that you wish it would go on longer. The half hour flies by....
BOTTOM LINE:
The 1,500 that were in the audience at the Apollo October 24,1962 were lucky @&$?!#!%$@!#&!*^#! Thankfully, we can experience it secondhand at least. This is ESSENTIAL soul music.
Free Music Review: Are You Ready For Star Time?
Hit: 5 Stars
This is an amazing record that showcases James Brown and His Famous Flame at the top of their game in the Apollo theatre in New York City. It was initially released by King records which was well known at the time for working with many black entertainers. However, the story goes that Syd Nathan, the founder of King Records, never wanted this album made. James Brown though, was particularly dedicated to having this record made, as he apparently felt that the live show that he brought rolling into town had never been properly commited to an LP. I myself was lucky enough to see JB live before he passed, and I can certainly tell you, there's nothing like being there. But being there in 1963, when the black population must surely have been feeling that the times were indeed a-changing; well that would have been something else indeed. On this particular record the manic performer hardly pauses between songs (sometimes he doesn't, creating wonderful medleys) and the feverishly fun atmosphere just continues to rise and rise. This is without a doubt one of the finest live albums I have ever heard, but for once it isn't because of the live venue's ability to translate inspiration and improvisation so well...it's because when you listen to the screams and cries of the fans in the audience, you feel like you're there, and damn does it feel good.