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The concerts caught the James Brown Band at an important transitional phase. The previous month Pee Wee Ellis had taken as over musical director and with Maceo Parker recently restored to the line-up on tenor sax the music had taken a new, more funky direction (at a time when funk didn't exist), as demonstrated on the first groundbreaking piece they had recorded together that same month, Cold Sweat. James Brown did not waste the opportunity to bring his audience up to date with his sound, performing new titles such as Cold Sweat and Let Yourself Go, the current single.
However, less than two minutes into the latter song the Band go into an extended locked groove jam called There Was A Time, with both Clyde Stubblefield and Jabo Starks whacking out the tempo on twin drum kits, plus bongos by Ronald Selicoe, and this soon developed a life of its own when an edit of the performance appeared as the B-side of the next single, I Can't Stand Myself (When You Touch Me). It did better in the R&B charts than the A-side, reaching number 3, and boosted sales of this legendary live album. The liner notes claim that this track "may well be the single most riveting Brown performance on record."
However, James Brown was off to Las Vegas the following month and also had an eye for the mainstream, so as well there are violin-filled renditions of standards like That's Life and I Wanna Be Around, which owes as much to Tony Bennett as it does to Dinah Washington.
This two CD set reconstructs the original set-list as far as is possible, restoring material edited from the original 1968 double-album because of running-time constraints, including in their entirety Sweet Soul Music from Bobby Byrd's set and the James Brown Band's revival of Duke Ellington's Caravan, and edits removed from longer pieces such as It's A Man's Man's Man's World, There Was A Time, I Feel All Right and Cold Sweat, with its Maceo Parker sax solos, all taken from the four-track remote recording master tape
The third Apollo album came in 1971 and by now it was almost *pure* funk for the duration, with a strong dose of eros. This one was definitely not for the kiddies. Apollo 4 happened in '95, and had a great "Make It Funky 2000" with the Reverend Al Sharpton, and a terrific new ballad, "Georgia-Lina" but when the CD ends you're not overly inclined to crank it up again. It was mostly the same ol' stuff.
With that perspective, let's look at the contents of this expanded edition. The opener "Think" is an uptempo duet with JB's new discovery Marva Whitney, and we start with a show-stopper! The Vicki Anderson-James Brown version of this arrangement on 45rpm [still not on CD!] is more exciting, but the '67 live track is excellent. "I Wanna Be Around" and "That's Life" are taken at a slow pace, unlike previous studio and TV Special performances - James sounds tired on these, but delivers memorable performances. "Kansas City" is his classic arrangement - too bad he didn't continue it into present day.
"There Was A Time" is a bit more relaxed than on the Dallas '68 set, but is tighter.
Additional material includes Bobby Byrd's "Sweet Soul Music", a full instrumental of "Caravan", and short takes of "My Girl" and "Money Won't Change You" (what a disappointment to learn that this one was not offered full-blown). The vocal track is far superior.
"It's A Man's...World/Lost Someone" is much longer, including a previously unissued brief reference to Percy Sledge. Again, we have sections not exactly for General Audiences, but the Soul is undeniable. As the tracks are presented in the original order, this cut is heard earlier in the set. It actually works better in the *original* release order, just before the closer, "Please, Please, Please".
It's interesting that this session was cut only about six months after the "Live At The Garden" [actully live at the Latin Casino in New Jersey] recording. That album, though technically-challenged, is Brown's most *exciting* live effort.
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