Join Amazon Prime and ship Two-Day for free and Overnight for $3.99. Already a member? Sign in.

Live At The Apollo and over 300,000 other books are available for Amazon Kindle � Amazon�s new wireless reading device. Learn more

Quantity:

More Buying Choices

43 used & new from $0.95

Have one to sell? Sell yours here

Share with Friends

Share your own customer images

Search inside this book

Start reading Live At The Apollo on your Kindle in under a minute. Don�t have a Kindle? Get yours here.

James Brown's Live at the Apollo (33 1/3) (Paperback)

by Douglas Wolk (Author)
Key Phrases: James Brown, Night Train, Lost Someone (more...)

4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

List Price:	$14.95
Price:	$11.21 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save:	$3.74 (25%)
	Special Offers Available

In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Only 2 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).

Want it delivered Tuesday, July 14? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details

27 new from $7.65 16 used from $0.95

Also Available in:	List Price:	Our Price:	Other Offers:
Kindle Edition (Kindle Book)		$9.99

Special Offers and Product Promotions

Purchase this entertainment book and get 12 issues to either Rolling Stone, Men's Journal or Us Weekly for $2.95 each. That's less than $0.25 an issue. Here's how (restrictions apply)

Interact With Your Music: Discover, listen to, and buy new music, all from the pages of SPIN's digital edition, free to Amazon customers.

Frequently Bought Together

Price For All Three: $28.73

Show availability and shipping details

This item: James Brown's Live at the Apollo (33 1/3) by Douglas Wolk
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited (33 1/3) by Mark Polizzotti
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
The Beatles' Let It Be (33 1/3 series) by Steve Matteo
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland (Thirty Three and a Third series)

by John Perry

3.6 out of 5 stars (7) $9.31

Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. (33 1/3)

by Geoffrey Himes

3.5 out of 5 stars (2) $9.31

Songs in the Key of Life (33 1/3)

by Zeth Lundy

2.5 out of 5 stars (2) $9.95

Prince's Sign O' the Times (Thirty Three and a Third series)

by Michaelangelo Matos

2.0 out of 5 stars (13) $9.95

The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds (33 1/3)

by Jim Fusilli

3.6 out of 5 stars (5) $8.76

› Explore similar items

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
James Brown's Live at the Apollo is famed as the best concert recording of his raw showmanship. Taped in fall 1962 at the venerable, and even legendary, showcase for black performers, the Apollo Theater of Harlem, the recording captured Brown when he was still something of an underground phenomenon. With a series of hits on the R&B charts to his credit, he was poised to move in on the pop charts. The show recorded was Brown's twenty-fourth that week--testimony in itself that he was indeed, as his publicity claimed, "the hardest working man in show business." Wolk neatly assesses the record's context and its function as the fuel for Brown's ascent to the pop stratosphere. Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Description
In this remarkable book, Douglas Wolk brings to life an October evening in 1962, at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem: an evening at the height of Cold War tensions. In great detail, Wolk pieces together what took place (and what was recorded) that night, and illustrates beautifully the enduring power of one of James Brown’s – and popular music’s – defining moments: Live at the Apollo.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

Paperback: 117 pages
Publisher: Continuum (August 30, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0826415725
ISBN-13: 978-0826415721
Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 4.7 x 0.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #471,534 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in these categories: (What's this?)
#62 in Books > Entertainment > Music > Musical Genres > Gospel
#62 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Music > Gospel
#72 in Books > Entertainment > Music > Musical Genres > Soul

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

This item is part of The Thirty Three and a Third Series.

Front Cover | First Pages | Surprise Me!

Inside This Book (learn more)

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
James Brown, Night Train, Lost Someone, King Records, Syd Nathan, Les Buie, New York, Fats Gonder, Yvonne Fair, Hal Neely, Bobby Byrd, Honky Tonk, Pure Dynamite, Mashed Potatoes, Star Time, Ray Charles, Little Willie John, East Coast, Brand New Bag, Want You So Bad, You've Got the Power, Papa's Got, Baby Lloyd, Just Won't Do Right, Nat Kendrick

Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Surprise Me!

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	71% buy the item featured on this page: James Brown's Live at the Apollo (33 1/3) 4.8 out of 5 stars (5) $11.21
	11% buy Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited (33 1/3) 4.8 out of 5 stars (4) $8.76
	7% buy Live at the Apollo 4.8 out of 5 stars (26) $7.97
	6% buy Live at the Apollo, Vol. II 4.5 out of 5 stars (21) $29.98

Explore similar items

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

(What's this?)

Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.

33 1-3 series(4)

33 1-3(3)

james brown(2)

thirty three and a third(2)

douglas wolk(1)

live at the apollo(1)

See all 8 tags...

Help others find this product — tag it for Amazon search

No one has tagged this product for Amazon search yet. Why not be the first to suggest a search for which it should appear?

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

Customer Reviews

5 Reviews

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

Average Customer Review

4.8 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Create your own review

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yeeeeoooow! Hott., September 9, 2004

By	Jess (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

Given a book-length space to fill, many magazine writers do what comes naturally: they write a book-length magazine article. Wolk, however, approaches his narrative from the top down, treating the long form with the reverence and intricate attention of a clockmaker god. His story moves chronologically in an evening's frame, but it's also shot through with a series of gears and patterns, nibble-sized pieces, and odd bits of synchronicity that align in unexpected choruses. Gliding across it all, of course, is the electric, eccentric energy of James Brown. Scrapbookers, beware: this is more than simple homage. It's a work that stands independently, with one hell of a soundtrack to boot!

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring, but the detours were heavy-handed, June 5, 2005

By	fml66 "fml66" (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews

A great short read about the live recording sessions that led to the creation of one of the seminal R&B albums. The writing is punchy, respectful, and never overwrought -- except for the glaring and jarring detours into the Cuban missile crisis. The episode is clearly relevant to the story, because the concert in question took place in roughly the same 24-hour time span that the crisis was unfolding, but while everyone in the Apollo that night may have had the crisis on their minds, the digressions into what the fighter planes and the decision makers were doing at exactly the same time that James Brown was wiping sweat off his brow as he switched gears and tore into another song are distracting and ultimately tell us little about why the crisis made the night charged. Wolk should have stuck to the performances and the music or else found a better way of weaving the crisis into the book.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An "on the good foot" storytelling of a classic live recording , July 20, 2007

By	Siriam (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

A simple but effective running of the history, with comments on the individual recordings, of the songs that appear on James Browns first major album hit, "Live at the Apollo" recorded in October 1962 alongside the then occurring critical world event of the Cuban Missile Crisis, makes for an effective time capsule telling by Douglas Wolk of the making of this classic recording.

While the author veers towards the over stated at times (did the 1,500 in the audience based on the limited public news released really behave as they did based on the belief they could die in a week!) he does a much better job of nailing the history of James Brown. These include how he got to make this recording against his record company's indifference; his on balance limited hit record success to date offset by his constant touring of an all action performance, but most of all that what was on show here was one man's personal and stylistic interpretations of a suite of songs that covered black music across the 20s to the early 60s. Some songs had undergone numerous adaptations and recordings by others plus JB before the versions done here (the ripping of of other peoples songs seems almost to have been a lifelong JB hallmark). What was really being performed was an exercise where songs could only last for less than a minute to over ten minutes as JB backed by his ever tight band riding on their leaders moods and his reading of the audience emotions laid down one of the truly original live recordings made.

The fact that the LP was in popular demand for many months after to be played in full on R&B radio stations at a time when single hits were paramount was testament that something unique that connected with the black audiences of 1962/1963 had occurred and it was to be some time before JB reconnected in such a way again (and certainly never again with another live album, despite several attempts).

Wolk also does a very good expose of Brown's ego and resulting mis-treatment of all around him plus how the recording was not a true full recording from having to be adapted and edited from the true JB live revue show, which while visually spectacular would not have translated into such an effective audio format.

A story telling which is certainly "on the good foot" throughout.

Comment Comment (1) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 5 customer reviews...

Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Recommended pick for any avid fan of Brown
Fans of James Brown will find Douglas Wolk's slim but hard-hitting classic, Live At The Apollo: 33 1/3, brings to life Brown's performance in 1962, piecing together what took... Read more

Published on January 4, 2005 by Midwest Book Review

5.0 out of 5 stars it's a history lesson you can dance to
the cuban missile crisis almost brought an end to life on earth as we know it. who saved the day? maybe it was j.f.k.... Read more

Published on October 4, 2004 by Vitamin X

› See all 5 customer reviews...

.jsOffDisplayBlock { display: block; } .jsOffDisplayInline { display: inline; } .jsOffVisibility { visibility: visible; } .jsOnDisplayBlock { display: none; } .jsOnDisplayNoneBlock { display: block; } .jsOnDisplayNoneInline { display: inline; } .jsOnDisplayInline { display: none; } .jsOnVisibility { visibility: hidden; } .jsOnDisplayBlock { display: none; } .jsOnDisplayInline { display: none; } .jsOnVisibility { visibility: hidden; }

Customer Discussions

Beta (What's this?)

New! See all customer communities, and bookmark your communities to keep track of them.

This product's forum (0 discussions)

	Discussion	Replies	Latest Post
	No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight

Start a new discussion

Topic:

First post:

Receive e-mail when new posts are made

Prompts for sign-in

[Cancel]

Guidelines

Active discussions in related forums

Discussion	Replies	Latest Post
religion a zen joke	35	58 seconds ago
history What if Israel ceased to be. . . ?	43	2 minutes ago
religion What religious freedoms will be taken away if gay marriage is allowed?	708	2 minutes ago
christianity Is slavery condoned in the Bible?	67	3 minutes ago
religion Michael Jackson: More important than god or just more important than Jesus?	47	8 minutes ago
christianity Why the Gospels are unreliable	4035	15 minutes ago
history Did we eat the Neanderthals?	91	52 minutes ago