James Brown
Live at the Apollo

THE REVIEW

How much legend surrounds this historic live performance... the legend of a producer who went down in history as a perfect idiot for not wanting to release James Brown’s first official live album, considering his product "the worst crap I have ever heard"!!! Legend has it that Mr. Dynamite sponsored the evening at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem on his own to then deliver the tapes to the record company executive, and legend says that Brown threatened his musicians, decreeing that every mistake on stage would result in a financial penalty (can you imagine? he would have fined them...), the legend delivers us this live recording that will go down in music history... and here the legend becomes reality!!!

Once this platter is placed on the turntable, it still sweats, reeks of cigarettes and bourbon, listening to it today reveals many things, even fifty years later, it undeniably delivers a strong dose of adrenaline! That night the undisputed king of Soul was born, and the laws were delivered to R&B. The 1500 people who witnessed this live show must have spent hours sitting on their couches to recover their lost breath once they got home, their clothes and handkerchiefs must have been soaked with sweat, immediately thrown into the wash, because a concert like this can't be witnessed sitting on a chair around a table drinking coke, getting distracted by watching girls’ asses, or chatting with friends. A live show like this must be experienced from the intro to the final medley, you take off your jacket, unbutton your shirt, roll up your sleeves, and hit the dance floor, following (as much as you can, let's be clear) Mr. Dynamite and the Famous Flames with its horn section until you almost reach collapse.

In perfect American style, a huge black man introduces the band, rhythmically announcing the concert lineup with soul, until shouting along with the audience, and it begins in a blaze of sound with "I'll Go Crazy", "Try Me", "Think" and you’re already out of breath, but the good Brown gives us a break with "Last Someone" which is THE SOUL, a track with a smoother gait than a cat, ten minutes of pure, true, and unique soul where James screams, sings, cries followed by the audience like children behind the teacher. Immense! You roll up your sleeves again, the train returns with a scorching medley that starts and ends with "Please, Please, Please", the final blow is delivered with "Night Train", a dirty funky, R&B, and Black piece (also somewhat terribly ska). Everything I've heard about (and here's where the legend returns) is here: James Brown's famous screams and shouts, which I imagine him wearing a sequined shirt, teeth whiter than milk, kilograms of gold scattered on his neck, wrists, and fingers, call and response with the audience, the power of the horns, the black soul of soul!!!

I would have never thought I’d find such adrenaline in a work that is now half a century old, but I arrived at 28 years old to understand it and to feel envy for those who were there that evening: I don't believe there are exorcists capable of expelling the demon that enters you and takes possession of your body to the rhythm of the pieces in this historic live that delivers us the legend Brown; even before "Sex Machine" and "I Got You": I'm going to sit in the armchair now, I need to catch my breath...