The James Brown Show: Live At The Apollo

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 😏🍑🍑💦)

Not a style of music I listen to but it was fun hearing the audience and imagining the showmanship

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

4/5

Концертик коротенький, половина это попурри и женские крики. Ну не солидно как-то. Сорян, Джеймс Браун

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*.

This record is so tight - it’s shocking it’s a live record. A brisk 30 minutes, James Brown and his band never miss a beat.

Instrumentals were great, the songs were good. I’m preferential to later James Brown, this was cool but mostly ballads.

Would be so much better if it wasn’t a live album by him

The sounds isn't great the but the performance is pure heat. Incredibly tight rhythm section doing instant switches between soul ballads and funk rave ups so uptempo it sounds like they're playing on 1.5x. The horns and bass carry the songs along, with some subtle guitar counter melodies and syncopation. It's all about the the vocals though: they reach beyond his throat's breaking point becoming raw screams and then dive back to controlled crooning. The songs are mostly short RnB/pop compositions that don't develop into the deeper grooves of later 60s/70s funk. They introduce James Brown and then it's over before you know it.

Another live record? There's a lot of energy and vibe captured here, but also perhaps too much. There is a lot of screaming. A lot of unrefined energy. There's a 10 minute track of James riffing over a repetitive blues riff and hyping the crowd to scream for him - which is great if you're there but I'm not there. I'm not here for any of this.

Am I going to listen to this again? NO. Do I know why this is on the list? No. It could be left off. But I could listen to it. Solid 2/5 from me.

Best live album I've ever heard!

This album sounds very dated. Much of it seems like a holdover from the 50s. I’d like to think I like James Brown but I don’t really know.

I don't normally agree with live albums being on here, but this one is an exception. There's such energy on here, and the recording is great. James Brown sounds like he has the crowd eating out of his hands. I'm not very familiar with his work, so this serves as a good "Greatest Hits" of his early period as far as I can see.

As is evident from the crowd reaction on this live album, James Brown was one hell of a showman.
His band is airtight and when told to scream everyone at the Apollo joins in. Fortunately that’s quite fun being a part of - even from your own living room!

But - and there’s a big but…

James Brown, the singer not the showman, might just be among the most overrated in history.
His voice is generally okay, but his shouting and screams, his signature, are nothing but average at best. Sue me.

Get up!

Performance was stellar, even when the songs weren’t as strong. Wasn’t until “Lost Someone” that I understood the gravity this concert/live album possessed.

February 6, 2023

I love the dramatic way in which the MC introduces not only James Brown but the whole damn set list. When live albums go right, they go oh-so right. And this recording is a shining example of the live magic a master like James Brown can summon up. I feel like I'm right there, screaming along with the ladies, body swaying with the crowd. Those interludes, though... it's like I'm in church!

All the funk