Live at the Apollo [1963]

本作是R&B,SOUL音乐之父，James Brown的1962年10月24日演唱会现场记录版。当时James Brown不顾唱片公司的反对，自己策划录音制作的这张唱片，无疑是R&B,SOUL演唱会唱片史上最灿烂的一张作品。望竹认为至今为止尚无人能及。整场演唱会丝毫没有做作之处，散发着充满原始野性的热情。在一段激烈的开场白之后毫无间歇送出JAMES BROWN的早期热门曲目I''ll Go Crazy，Try Me，Think。其后趁热打铁似的端出大菜:长达11分钟的Lost Someone。顿时使得会场气氛热的发烫。即使是唱片的听众仿佛都能闻到当时充满整个会场的汗味。此后James Brown又接二连三的扔出早已脍炙人口的Please Please Please/You''ve Got the Power/...等等佳作将现场气氛推向高潮。最后以一首Night Train收尾。可谓一气呵成，爽快淋漓！James Brown毫无疑问是演唱会气氛制造专家,在下以为就连后来的Prince殿下都无法与之媲美。

这张专辑在滚石杂志选出的500张历代最强专辑中排名第24位。

In 1963, James Brown had earned a handful of hits on the R&B charts and had won a reputation as one of the most dynamic performers in the nation, but he hadn''t yet made a record that reflected the full range of his musical personality or his magnetic stage presence. Live At The Apollo killed these two birds with one smoking hot platter; while this performance predates the brittle but powerful funk grooves which would later make Brown the most sampled man in show business and focuses on his earlier and (relatively) more conventional hits, the building blocks of his pioneering sound are all here in high-octane live versions of "I''ll Go Crazy", "Think" and especially the frantic closing performance of "Night Train", while the ten-minute-plus rendition of "Lost Someone" captures the sound of Brown baring his soul with an almost unbearable intensity, which drives the audience into a manic chorus of shouts and screams. Brown''s band (which at this time included Bobby Byrd and St. Clair Pinckney) is in stellar form, tight as a fist (especially the horn section) and supporting their leader with both strength and subtlety, but Brown is truly the star of this show, and by the end of these thirty-two minutes, no one will doubt that James really was the hardest working man in show business (and this without even seeing him dance!), and his communication with his audience is nothing short of astounding. While James Brown would later make more amazing music in the studio, Live At The Apollo left no doubt in anyone''s mind that he was a live performer without peer, and that his talent could communicate just as strongly on tape as in person; a watershed album, both for James Brown and for the burgeoning soul music movement.