"Live At The Apollo Volume II" by JAMES BROWN and HIS FAMOUS FLAMES featuring Marva Whitney, Bobby Byrd, Pee Wee Ellis and more June 2001 Polydor 2CD 'Deluxe Edition' Expanded Reissue - Kevin Reeves Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Get The Feeling...HUH!"

Mr. Dynamite returned to his natural stomping ground for live opus numero duo - 24 August 1968's double-album on King Records 1022 - "Live At The Apollo Volume II". 

But what puts this very cool 2CD Deluxe Edition reissue into the must-own territory (especially for JB fans and lovers of primo 60ts Soul) is the 'extras' and the stunning remaster re-construction of the tapes courtesy of one of Universal’s Tape Supremo engineers - Kevin Reeves. Details of the reissue first...

UK released 26 June 2001 - "Live At The Apollo Volume II" by JAMES BROWN and HIS FAMOUS FLAMES on Polydor 549 884-2 (Barcode 731454988421) is an Expanded 2CD Deluxe Edition of the 24 August 1968 2LP classic on King Records 1022 (USA) and Polydor Records 583 729/30 (UK) in Stereo. The DE Version plays out as follows…

Disc 1 (42:10 minutes):

1. Introduction To The James Brown Show (MC Frankie Crocker)

2. Think (Vocal Duet with Marva Whitney)

3. I Wanna Be Around

4 James Brown (Thanks)

5. That's Life

6. Kansas City

7. Sweet Soul Music (Bobby Byrd)

8. It's A Man's Man's Man's World (19:05 minutes)

This performance incorporates elements of:

 (a) Lost Someone (b) When A Man Loves A Woman

9. Caravan (James Brown Band featuring The J.B. Dancers)

INTERMISSION

Disc 2 (50:51 minutes):

1. Introduction To 'Startime' (MC Frankie Crocker with Sad Sam)

2. Money Won't Change You/Out Of Sight

3. Bring It Up

4. Try Me

5. Let Yourself Go

6. There Was A Time

7. I Feel All Right

8. Cold Sweat

9. Prisoner Of Love

10. My Girl (Instrumental Interlude)

11. Maybe The Last Time

12. I Got You (I Feel Good)

13. Please, Please, Please

14. Bring It Up (Finale)

The Original 2LP running order was…

Side 1:

1. Think

2. I Wanna Be Around

3. That's Life

4. Kansas City

Side 2:

1. Let Yourself Go

2. There Was A Time

3. I Feel All Right

4. Cold Sweat

Side 3:

1. It May Be The Last Time

2. I Got You (I Feel Good)

3. Prisoner Of Love

4. Try Me

5. Bring It Up

Side 4:

1. It's A Man's Man's Man's World

2. Medley

3. Please, Please, Please

As you can see from the two track-lists, the original 2LP set had omissions and edits galore most of which have been returned into this 2CD DE Full Monty running order. A word about that – the original was a lickety-splitly tight as a sumo wrestler's jocks four-sided sucker and the sprawling 2CD set actually isn't – a case of less was indeed more in the first place. You can of course just edit out what you don't want. But right from the off though, it has to be said that some of the inclusions are good – but some aren’t and it's easy to see why show filler like "Caravan" was left off the final vinyl product.

Very much on the upside however is the fab Audio - which for 60ts live tapes is incredibly good. The separation and sheer live-cooking vibe inside say "It's A Man's Man's Man's World" is fantastic. You can hear how tight they were – the sympatico between Brown and his players as he teases and raps with the audience in sexy innuendo is amazing and it's an expert ear indeed that can spot-the-join.

Once the outer DE plastic slipcase is off, the four-way foldout flaps of the DE show James in his late 60ts prime while the 28-page HARRY WEINGER and ALAN LEEDS compiled booklet is the usual class act from him. There are trade adverts from the period, band and tour member lists and colour photos of Godfather Of Soul doing his hysterical Please, Please, Please thing – cape and all. Leeds went on to compile and co-ordinate the stunning 2CD sets "The Singles" from Volume 1 to 11 (I've reviewed from 6 to 11). The Famous Flames band has Bobby Byrd, Bobby Bennett, Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis giving it some Saxophone righteousness, while Waymon Reed, Joe Dupars and Levi Rasbury back them up with even tighter Trombones (they're pictured on Pages 3 and 27). To the music…

Here’s a list of the new stuff: Disc One gives us a short 32-second MC introduction by Frankie Crocker as the show begins and Bobby Byrd's 2:38 minute between sets straddler "Sweet Soul Music" - a wicked uptempo cover of Arthur Conley's then new 1967 hit on Atlantic Records. That newbie comes in as JB ends a fabulous kicking version of Lieber and Stoller’s Little Willie Littlefield R&B classic “Kansas City”. Portions are inserted into "It's A Man's Man's Man's World" turning it into a 19-minute stop-start monster (do you know what I’m talking about – yeah!). Within that showstopper you get portions of “Lost Someone” and the Percy Sledge gem “When A Man Loves A Woman”. A final insert on Disc One includes the Duke Ellington song “Caravan” which accompanies the JB Dancers – an awful instrumental in my opinion and one where the tightest band in the world seem to be all at sea with its Jazz syncopations. It’s not something I ever want to hear again and it kind of sours the final moments of CD1 for me (the covers of I Wanna Be Around most famously associated with Tony Bennett and the smooch standard That’s Life also felt out of place to me too).

Disc Two offers us another Startime intro from MC Frankie Croker but this time with Sad Sam (34 seconds), followed by a 42-second snippet of “Money Won’t Change You/Out Of Sight”. CD2 flips the Side 3 running order of “Try Me” and “Bring It Up” and it works – the get-in-the-groove hit-it Funk of “Bring It Up” first, followed by the smooch of “Try Me” instead (the saxophone break features Eldee Williams and St. Clair Pinckney). This cleverly sets up the guitar-flicking huh-huh funkiness of “Let Yourself Go”.

Both “There Was A Time” (8:55 minutes) and “I Feel All Right” (8:52 minutes) are now extended versions on here that segue seamlessly into each other and the wall-to-wall sweat of the band in a mash potatoes groove on the first is astonishing while the second track elicits the joy of the crowd in a hey-hey call and response – it really cooks (Jimmy “Chank” Nolen and Alfonzo “Country” Starks on Guitars). Brown even puts in a brief drum solo and bit of organ work after the end of “I Feel All Right”. As drummer Clyde Stubblefield goes into their latest hit “Cold Sweat” – there is no doubt that this is magic.

Brown then slows it all down and adds strings to the croon of “Prisoner Of Love” – a surprisingly touching shuffle – looking for someone to share with. There is a brief instrumental interlude with 20 seconds of the Motown smash “My Girl” which then slides into a very cool groove with “Maybe The Last Time” – the crowd joining in the oh-I chants.

The hardest workingman in show business proved it all night between the 16th and 25th of June 1967 at The Apollo Theatre in Harlem, NYC – and despite the ever so slight oddness of CD1 – CD2 is a stone to the bone monster. It only remains for any of us to say, hit it bobby and take us to the bridge…