I’ll Go Crazy/Try Me/Think/I Don’t Mind/Lost Someone/Please Please Me-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 Me (Medley)/Night Train
James Brown, dubbed the Godfather of Soul, achieved his first US top twenty album with this live performance from New York's Apollo Theatre. Brown funded the recording himself as his record company considered that a live album of already released songs would not be profitable. It is recognised as a milestone in black music. Unfortunately, the raw, often repetitive, chanting heard here is a harbinger of the wrong turnings that would be taken by popular music from the mid 1970s onwards. Many pundits confuse an 'energetic' or 'exciting' performance for one displaying musical ability. The final comment below outlines the inherent destructive tendencies Brown and his many followers would deliver to properly structured popular music. (US:2)
"There is no more exciting document of live performance in the history of R & B. Decades later, this is still one of the greatest live albums of all-time."
"The Apollo audience, hysterical with adulation, plays as big a part in Live At The Apollo as Brown himself. The affirmative screams and cries of the audience are something you've never experienced unless you've seen the Brown Revue in a black theatre."
"He must have stronger, more energetic and fulfilling material elsewhere in his discography."
"This record never really 'kicks off' for me."
"I found James Brown fairly boring then, and I must admit I still find him fairly boring."
"Disposing of the conventional verse and chorus structure, eliminating even chord progressions, James Brown distilled his sound to its essence: rhythm."
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