65. James Brown, "Live at the Apollo"

 


What's the Best Live Album of all time?  Some people say it's the Allman Brothers' At Fillmore East, but that album's a bore and they're wrong.  Some people say it's Cheap Trick's at Budokan and they might be right.  I know at least one person who thinks it's Live Rust by Neil Young.  But a lot of people say it's this album (which came in at #1 on Rolling Stone's "50 Greatest Live Albums of All Time") but I have to disagree.  I think this album is fine, but it's not the best live album of all time and it's not even close to the best James Brown album.

For one thing, it's oddly subdued.  When you think "James Brown live" you're expecting a fucking ferocious barn-burner, dripping sweat from every groove and setting you aflame.  This album has its moments like that - "Think" is full of verve and life - but there's a lot of mellow.  You could put on "I Don't Mind" to put a child to sleep, it's so gentle.  "Lost Someone" is 10 minutes long and feels like it.  What you're really waiting for is the last 60 seconds, where Brown uncorks his famous scream and the audience responds in kind.

"I'll Go Crazy" is the big highlight for me, the first song (after the famous introduction by Fats Gonder) that made me think the album was going to be what I thought it was, a rave-up where the band shows off how tight it is and Brown uses his voice like a virtuoso.  But then it's followed by "Try Me," a doo-wop that's pleasant enough but I kept wishing would explode at some point and it never does.

Sigh.  Once again, I'm on the lonely island of contrariness.  I'm the dipshit who thinks this is fine but doesn't love it.  I could use this opportunity to discuss my fear of being seen as a musical rube who can't see pure gold in front of his face but that would be boring.  So I guess I'll say that my favorite live album to this day remains the very first album I ever bought with my own money, Wings' Wings Over America, a three-disc set that features all of Paul McCartney's best Wings songs, some choice Beatles songs, and the worst Wings song, "Let 'Em In."  It's not really a universally loved album ("Wings Over America as a set of music does little in the way of providing fresh or even different perspective on the material," PopMatters sighs), but it will always have a place in my heart.  Awww.

Is this album in my personal Top 100? No.  We ended the week 0-for-5.

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