Customer Reviews

I Got the Feelin': James Brown in the 60's

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

May I respectfully say, "James Brown Live At Chastain Park", take a rest.
Here we have two transcendant excursions into Soul Music history, 1968 concerts made within about two weeks of each other, one at the Apollo, the other at the Boston Gardens, and whether or not the proverbial floodgates will be opened, at this point it doesn't matter. The concerts are amazing: Soul Brother Number One at the very top of his form, a singing, dancing, band-directing, audience mesmerizing phenomenon. His renditions of the ballads "Try Me", "Bewildered", the gospel-jazz expositions like "Get It Together", "There Was A Time", and "Cold Sweat" are of course the best out now on DVD.
The earlier TV Special called "Man To Man" appears to be the final TV cut, no extras. The video quality is not what it should be for an artist of his stature, though let's remember that it was done on videotape by Metromedia in New York, not by a network. The viewer should not be upset with some of the trendy kaleidoscope effects, and some hard edits.
We have the much-discussed, much-requested concert from Boston, telecast one day after the assassination of Doctor Martin Luther King. The atmosphere is naturally tense, involves Mayor Kevin White, who delivers a powerful speech.
As ticketholders were offered a refund so as to stay at home and watch the taping, the audience is comparatively sparse. Yet the consummate showman is still able to elicit audible screams on his passionate, intense, sometimes whispered, sometimes belted "It's Man's, Man's, Man's World". He's also able to excite those patrons...the initiated already know the story of those who rushed the stage on a night that all were asked to remember Doctor King and enjoy James Brown in Peace. It was on outpouring of Love but the camera lens can distort. And Brown knew it.
There are two songs live from the Olympia, 1966 and 1967, though the jacket says 1968 and 1967. The latter was totally unexpected by this Brownologist: the Live At The Apollo, Volume Two arrangemet of "It's A Man's....World"! Not gonna give it all up at this juncture - suffice to say, it's way better on this DVD than on the recent, expanded CD reissue.
The Documentary on Disc Three is surely worth an Oscar.
The bits and pieces of that 1968 concert now form into an amazing whole, which the Documentary Producer duly notes was long, long overdue for commercial release. To support his backstory, is the sensuous Marva Whitney, his 1967-1970 Diva (Disc Two should have included some of her performance); and Charles Bobbitt, his Manager, who tells the story of how he became James Brown's Manager - and how he had to watch the turnstiles that night...and the safety of his friend and client.

Que pasa people que pasa HIT ME! JB fans rejoice! At long last here are (authroized) DVDs of The Godfather at the peak of his powers!

DVD#1 is "The Night JB Saved Boston." The story of how on April 5, 1968 (the night after Dr. Martin Luther King's murder), the Godfather gave a concert in Boston and literally stopped a riot. Lots of good interviews along with some scenes of the famous concert. Similar to Bob Marley bringing warring factions in Jamaica onstage a decade later to declare peace (See Marley's "Time Will Tell" DVD).

DVD#2 is the concert itself. Having seen an, ahem.."unauthorized" DVD of this, I can tell you this is not the entire concert as advertised. Missing are solo performances by JB's stable including Marva Whitney, Bobby Byrd (and a duet with JB and BB), and Maceo Parker MCing and doing standup comedy. This is some really good stuff and we get to see the Godfather do all the dances he narrates in his classic "There Was a Time". We also see where JB stops the show and takes control to stop the riot.

DVD#2 is a rare color TV special from March 1968 with the Godfather at the Apollo. These are pretty much the same songs as the Boston show with a few exceptions, but we get better views of JB relating to his audience and we see him walking in the ghettoes of Harlem, Watts, and Southwest DC talking and relating with his followers along with some of his commentary. "My goal is to make the Black Americna into an American." (Important to consider that this was shortly before he stopped the riots and recorded "Say It Loud I'm Black and I'm Proud").

However, we only get a few minutes of another legendary JB sixties moment. His perfomance at the October 24, 1964 TAMI SHOW only shows his rendition of OUT OF SIGHT on this DVD and not his classic set with unquestionably the best performances of PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE and NIGHT TRAIN preverved on film.

Until recently, very few performances from the classic era of Soul and R&B when the music was as much fun to watch as it was to listen have been available on (authorized) American DVD. As JB would say-Raise up, get yourself togetgher, and drive your funky soul by buying this and encouraging that trend.

I just received my set today, and so far watched Disc Three in it's entirety. I can't add much more than the other three reviewers (so far) have stated, except that Disc One is timed at 175+ minutes! I watched the special "The Night James Brown Saved Boston" when it was originally broadcast on VH-1 (and there are FEW performers that I would tolerate 15 minutes worth of commercials per hour for...), so we are getting about 85 additional minutes of content. While watching the original broadcast I felt that bits & pieces seemed missing, some transitions were too abrupt and some aspects rushed, so this version should fill in the blanks. The only other feature that no one else has mentioned, and to me the most exciting and promising, is that THE FOOTAGE OF "OUT OF SIGHT" FROM "THE T.A.M.I. SHOW" IS IN THE ORIGINAL WIDESCREEN ASPECT RATIO ENHANCED FOR 16:9 TV's!!! When the clip came on, and I noticed that the picture seemed "squeezed" on my widescreen monitor, my fingers began to shake as I reached for the P.Size button on my remote, but VIOLA!, THE T.A.M.I. SHOW and James Brown in glorious widescreen (and the picture quality was pretty darn good too). Maybe I WILL live to see this semi-rare, but unavailable legally in it's original form HISTORIC concert in my lifetime...

It was so heartwarming seeing James Brown again. I grew up feeling that James Brown, Aretha Franklin and the Temptations was the totality of everything positive that we, as children, needed in the ghetto in Chicago to give us direction and keep us within correction. Instead of getting into trouble, we formed groups and sang and danced to their marvelous songs. This item is beautiful, however, the ONLY thing missing is footage of the Famous Flames. I miss them dearly and was hoping that purchasing this set would return them to me. Hopefully, one day I will locate more vintage footage of James Brown and the Famous Flames. Nevertheless, this item still rates 5-stars.

This boxset is a long awaited collection of footage documenting one of the most important decades of Brown's career.

David Leaf's documentary, The Night James Brown Saved Boston, is a stunning account of how Brown halted riots in the wake of Martin Luther King's murder. Featuring commentary from band members, managers, backing singers, city officials and many more, Leaf lets those involved tell the story from each of their perspectives and in doing so presents an even handed and holistic picture of Brown at that time.

The documentary special features are superb, featuring almost 90 minutes' worth of extra interview footage with commentators such as Dr Cornell West and Reverend Al Sharpton. It is all supremely interesting and highly watchable.

The second disc, featuring the concert in full, shows Brown's powerhouse performance in pristine condition for the first time in four decades. brown is on fire and his band are impeccable. His performance of There Was A Time is absolutely stunning, as is the extended medley of Man's World/Lost Someone/Bewildered.

The third disc may seem a little superfluous to some. The setlist is nearly identical to that of the Boston Garden concert. Brown completists will value the third disc but casual fans may find it a little repetitive. It does, however, contain three stunning bonus performances.

Overall, this set is fantastic value for money and a must have for any soul or funk music fan.

First, to all of you who complained about the sound or picture quality: You are all idiots. What do you expect from 1968 recordings, 2009 quality???
You should just be happy that you get the priviledge of seeing the greatest entertainer in history perform in his prime.
His performance of 'Bewildered' from the Apollo DVD, in and of itself, is worth the price of the whole collection.

Cosidering that most popular (rock 'n' roll?) music since the 1970's has been either a joke or a blatant ripoff or materialistic (greed, money-making) emulation of the real thing, this dvd is essential for those music fans who are genuinely interested in where soul and the michael jackson's of the world came from. James Brown, along with Aretha, Al Green,Marvin Gaye and many other soul pioneers too numerous to mention are overlooked (unknown?) to the majority (all?) of today's music listeners. Buy this dvd and enrich your musical understanding, education and enjoyment to the highest level.

Little needs to be said about James Brown as a performer. He was not only an electrifying showman but also an extremely talented bandleader and singer. What a voice!

And make no mistake, merely listening to James Brown is not the same as being able to see his dancing and general stage performance at the same time. Until this set, there was precious little available for viewing at home, and most that was available was from the later part of his career.

With this set you not only get an amazing performance - and even more on the third disc - you also get a fascinating and important story about the context of how the concert happened. Brown put his other plans aside to do the concert because he believed in reaching out to his community when it needed him. The City of Boston reversed its initial decision to cancel the event. The live concert and television airings not only de-fused the situation but they helped raise political support for the Mayor through his personal speech right before Brown took the stage. Then the City defaulted on paying Brown for his performance. All in all, it's a fine documentary, and far better than your average DVD featurette and making-of material.

My main criticism, as with other reviewers, is that the producers did not include all extant footage from the Boston Garden and the TAMI Show. So I give the set four and a half stars out of five.
UPDATE: the TAMI Show is now available again as a separate DVD release!

if your new to james brown take a look at this dvd collection and watch a master of the art perform this is james brown young a energetic histrionic performance see how a real performer works and learn , for JB collectors well you will love this 3 dvd set very clean pic and sound and a must have , well you know that already this is the real deal enjoy.

in a bias-free america, james brown would have been our elvis. the proof is on this three-dvd set. nothing against The King, but james brown was by far the stronger stage performer, wrote a lot of his own material, led his own band, put his mark on nearly every popular performer who followed him (prince and michael jackson are unimaginable without brown's example), steered his own career without a col. parker pulling the strings, and put out hits that sound as fresh today as they did when new. most of the commercial james brown videos to date have shown him in the late years of his career, when he was far from the lion he was in his prime. check out the 1968 boston show on this set. it has long circulated on butchered, grainy bootlegs -- i have a couple of them. seen here on a clean black-and-white print with decent-for-its-time tv sound, it's revealed as the best performance by a male popular singer on video. his dancing will make your jaw drop; the band is his most accomplished ever; the energy level never falls below a furious boil. this is what a star looks like.