Customer Reviews

James Brown: Mr Dynamite

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Exploring the jacket art you read "contains no music or performances by the artist" but it's only partially true: there are intriquing performance *excerpts* from Senegal and Mexico; from the Mike Douglas Show in 1971; from the T.A.M.I. Show. These small pieces of the 125 minute pie work for me, but if that's not enough, consider the long interviews from circa. 1980 and from 1986, just after the Godfather Of *Soul* was inducted in the *Rock and Roll* Hall of Fame! His statements sound spontaneous and are deeply philosophical, as he speaks on subjects many fans might only have noticed that he addressed in print, i.e., how Politicians seem to be inconsisent after they exploit the talents of performers - Brown speaks of his own experience, supporting these Public figures, who apparently left him by the wayside when he asked for guidance on how to properly complete his tax forms. It's not clear who proved not to be a friend to Brown, but his impassioned speech in the presence of Hubert Humphrey is one of the greatest ever made by a man *not* running for office: he offers plain-spoken observations on the late '60s state of affairs for minorities and the candidate nods his head in affirmation.
There is very little in the dept. of fellow artists pouring on the glorifications, the typical dopcumentary. The content is propelled by the words of the man.
In intimate close-up, Brown gives one of his most eloquent expressions of the meaning of Soul; suddenly, he's on a rotary phone (probably 1978-79) revealing the hard-driving, no nonsense businessman: "Cashiers' check or cash money....45 thousand" - take it or leave it.
Modest production values shouldn't disturb the viewer.

...for anyone else it's a bit less than a must have.

This DVD is made up of parts of two obscure documentaries on James Brown--one from the 70s and one from the late 80s--along with three tv interviews. If you're a hard core fan like myself, you can overlook the fact that these segments were all either recorded directly off tv broadcasts or from vhs tapes from someone's private collection (the picture quality ranges from decent vhs quality to "late night uhf broadcast recorded on slp mode vhs" quality). The documentaries both start in the middle and end somewhere before their conclusions, with no particular rhyme or reason; no credits sequences are included. Also, the producers of this DVD have tried to hedge their bets by cutting out most of the performances, leaving in only snippets (I know this because I've seen the missing bits on YouTube). It seems obvious to me that these documentary clips were taken without the original producer's permission. Basically, I could have compiled a similar dvd from VHS tapes I've recorded over the past 30 years--except that it would violate copyright laws.
BUT I have to say that I didn't have most of this stuff.

HAVING SAID THAT, I'm really glad that I, as a hardcore JB fan, was able to get my hands on this fascinating collection while it is still available. Cool stuff! BUT I predict the lawsuits are going to start flying fast and furious very soon. SO if you are obsessed with the Godfather, and want to see a couple of hours of docs snippets and interviews you wont' see anywhere else--buy NOW, before the people who put this together get their pants sued off.