Customer Reviews

CD of Jb

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This compilation oozes assertive confidence. It amazes me how much James Brown did with so little.

One of the things I like about this James Brown disc is that it isn't perfectly balanced -- the vocals are mixed way up. Some of the tracks sound like party jams. On "Super Bad", the trumpet gets a chance to improvise over a solid foundation of repetitive bass, guitar, and handclaps. I don't think there are even any drums on this track. Amazing.

When I would DJ at parties, James Brown was always a good choice for the music mix early in the evening -- lively, energy-raising, and too assertive to blend into the background later on, but great to kick things off with.

The disc has one jarring quality, and that's the way it veers from Brown's younger, more balladic studio efforts ("Try Me [I Need You]," "Prisoner of Love,") to the rougher, more aggressive quality of his later, funkier cuts. I might have put them in chronological sequence or even stretched out the material over two discrete discs. Still, it's hard to believe there's only a two-year gap between "Prisoner of Love" (1962) and "I Got You" (1964), the cut that precedes "Prisoner" on this disc. Stylistically, they're a world apart.

The subtle yet effective use of reverb on "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag," along with that simple volley of sixteenth-notes (an amazing single-note guitar riff) sounds as fresh today as it did when this take was cut in 1965.

There is not a weak track on this CD, which is why it made such good party-kickoff music. For me, though, the album ends two cuts from the end, with the question posed at the end of "Sex Machine": "Can we hit it and quit?" JB poses as a repeated call-and-response with his players. How many vocalists would have the nerve to create such sustained drama out of a question with such a predetermined answer? It's pure foreplay, and yet another assertion of Brown's confidence. Then the brass section hammers in the nail with five orgasmic blasts: BOM-BOM-BOM-BOM-BOM! And it's quit.

back in the mid 80's CD's were the new medium and early adopters eagerly awaited the conversion of some of their favorite albums from vinyl to silver discs. what a pleasant surprise to find this CD only release of this great compilation of JB "soul classics". there are eighteen tracks that highlight some of the godfather's best work with a few rarities thrown in. greatest hits albums by a lot of artists seem to be recycled , repackaged and reissued. if you have a chance to grab one of these original issue CD's, go for it.

This CD is from the very earliest days of digital technology. It features 18 of James Brown's greatest songs. Interestingly, a few of the songs here are not the hit versions, but instead are alternate versions. Either way, they are all great performances. Highly recommended.

If you're just starting out with James Brown and want a compilation, you've got plenty of options. 20 All-Time Greatest Hits! is definitely the best one-disc JB overview they've got, spanning his career from "Please, Please, Please" to "Get up Offa That Thing" and covering all the bases except for "Soul Power", some early singles, and a few choice cuts off There it Is. This and The CD of JB II give you the best possible picture without actually buying some of his best albums (There it Is; Hot Pants; The Payback; Live at the Apollo I and II; In the Jungle Groove), which if you ask me should be done in the first place. It's a nice balance between his great early singles - "Please, Please, Please", "Try Me", "Think", "Bewildered", "Maybe the Last Time", "Prisoner of Love" and so forth; those mid-'60s proto-funk sides ("I Feel Good", "Out of Sight", "I Got the Feeling", "Papa's Got a Brand-New Bag") and the full-on '70s funk classics, the ones that every rapper in existence has sampled: "Mother Popcorn"; "Sex Machine" (my favorite JB song), "Licking Stick-Licking Stick", and "The Payback". A couple downsides - for whatever reason, neither of these albums include "Hot Pants", "King Heroin", or "Funky Drummer" and neither "I Feel Good" nor "It's a Man's World" are presented in their best-known forms. But you can find "Hot Pants" on the superb LP of the same name; "Funky Drummer" is on In the Jungle Groove, my favorite James Brown album ever; "King Heroin"'s on There It Is, another great LP; and you probably know "I Feel Good" and "It's a Man's, Man's, Man's World" in the first place. So buy this, and buy the CD of JB II, and let your James Brown experience begin...