James Brown - The Singles Vol. 4: 1966-1967

The year Mr Dynamite created a funk explosion

James Brown’s music has always been a curious and sometimes perplexing mixture of the revolutionary and orthodox. In 1967, this seemingly uneasy dichotomy between modernism and tradition was encapsulated by the Cold Sweat LP, basically a conventional collection of R&B covers and MOR standards augmented by the radically innovative title song, which laid the foundation stone for funk.

As this new limited edition 42- track/two-CD compilation cogently illustrates, Brown’s single releases also reflected this eccentric pattern. Only a couple of months before Cold Sweat dropped like an H-bomb on the US charts, changing R&B forever, Brown released a cover of the blues-tinged showstopper Kansas City and also tried his hand at the jazz ballad I Loves You Porgy. It’s Brown’s maverick nature, combined with his foibles and idiosyncrasies, which makes his career so fascinating. This fourth instalment is every bit as enthralling as the previous three volumes. Covering a particularly fertile 12 months in Brown’s career and climaxing with the incredible Cold Sweat, it also contains the classics It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World, Money Won’t Change You and Get It Together. There’s some good unreleased stuff too, like the unissued 45 It’s A Gas, while Alan Leeds’ superb track-by-track annotation tells the story behind the songs.

Hip-O Select | B 0009472-02 (2-CD)

Reviewed by Charles Waring
<< Back to Issue 346