The James Brown Show: Live At The Apollo

I got to see James Brown play at Woodstock ‘99 and even then he was full of explosive energy. On this recording that energy threatens to overwhelm the tape and set it on fire. What an incredibly badass ensemble he’s got behind him too!

A pleasant enough live experience. Few high-highs, no low-lows. 3/5.

Okay it’s a James Brown live show. It’s well executed and produced. Not sure it’s all that special.

Quite fun. 3.5 if I could, but I really enjoy these old rock albums. Except Elvis.

Although I respect James Brown, I rarely listen to his recordings because I'm almost never in the mood for up-tempo dance music and shouting.

Surprisingly, there were some nice slow burners on here. The mix left something to be desired with vocals primarily in my right ear and random instruments occasionally jumping out too far. And of course crowd noise.

Overall, though, I enjoyed it and feel it is a valuable piece of music history.

This was a pleasure to listen to. This crowd was super excited to listen to The Godfather, and so was I.

4

C'MON TAKE ME TO THE BRIDGE

It's James Brown. You know what you're getting with James Brown already don't you?

Definitely seems like a classic of the genre. Just not my favorite genre. 3/5

Hacía tiempo que no me tocaba un directo. Año 1963 a ver. Ufff cómo suena desde "Introduction" Pero no están sus éxitos, así que aunque es algo a escuchar una vez creo que hay trabajos que lo representan mejor.

He puts on a show

It’s a pretty decent 4.

James Brown has incredible crowd control on this album, which works well live, but occasionally hits some lull points when you’re dealing with nothing but the music – I thought Lost Someone really started to drag by the end, but the medley afterward started red hot. That’s the sort of thing where I imagine it was way cooler live than how it feels on this album. I also think Night Train was… sort of the “wrong” closer for this set? It seems like it was either recorded separately or recorded in a way where the crowd’s energy was drained.

Speaking of the crowd, they’re basically their own instrument on this album with the way James Brown and his excellent band basically hit every transition in a way to let them realize what’s up next without much of a pause (again, except for the extended dragout section on Lost Someone). Those little lulls are what get this a 4; honestly, it’s probably closer to a 3.5 than it is a 4, but I know it deserves higher than a 3. It’s just a really strong listen that didn’t quite click with me the way some of the other live albums we’ve gotten have, but it's enjoyable regardless.

Honestly, a really awful recording of a great artist. the live sections really took away from what was happening in this.

I guess you had to be there

Not a fan of live albums, but this was a decent listen

After a while there's just too much yelping

Honestly killer. He really shines with the energy of a live performance. The instrumentation is super tight and intense as well and his voice is so intense and powerful, especially for the early 60s.

Det lyder som om at kvinderne havde en fest (eller nærmere poolparty, if you catch my drift 😏🍑🍑💦)

What a voice, what a band, what a performer.

4/5

Wonderful album. The thing that always strikes me about James Brown is how great his band is. This record is no exception. I wish they would record live albums like this still - no overdubs (probably), lots of audience noise, uneven in parts, electrical hum here and there, all the good and the bad. Anymore a live album might as well be a studio recording with applause between songs.
This album is as close as you can get to being at an early 60's James Brown show. Highly enjoyable and replayable. I'm curious as to why it was decided to only include half an hour of material. Seems like a double live would have been a good choice for this. Loses 1 star just because it's so short.

That is a crazy list of accolades. The fact that it's a live album from the 60s makes the audio quality pretty bad, and the screaming is just ugh. You can feel James Brown's energy, and it's crazy that this is such an early album. Overall didn't wow me though, 3*.