Dec 8, 2009 |
James Brown, Live at the Apollo Vol. II
On Christmas morning, 2006, the hardest working man in showbusiness died. Every year, when returning to mistletoe-mistle-legs and eggnog forays into stockings of chocolate and midnight mischief, I always dig out some Mr. Dynamite, the father of soul, to commemorate his passing and celebrate family ties in a funky, funky way.
This year, as maybe it ought to be every year, my memorializing is centered around “Live at the Apollo, Vol. II” (1968). His transition from Sam Cooke-like R&B heart-squeezing wheezing into hard funk, rollicking perfected sexual music, is a gut-telling you to get down and enjoy yourself, god damn it.
Of all the stand up tracks, the one that gets me time over time is, “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World.” If you ignore the superannuated chauvinistic quality of the piece, then the raw, the bitter, and the brass — it all sums to a purple explosion of passion and compassion for your trodden wife or woman or girl. He coaxes the essential bit of it: Baby, if I called you, tell me, would you answer?
Below is some youvideo from the show, though the recording quality is shameful compared. For the full record, take this slow road: http
Other posts you may be interested in:
I think this is absolutely fantastic. One of our best youtube posts.
Its interesting to think about the sexism of it. I recently attended a poetry festival where one poet, a ’slam’ poet, kept using the terms “boy” and “man” to blast an ex-lover. I found it totally sexist and ridiculous. This is a long the same lines. I think because James Brown is straight out of the seventies that I can let it go. The poet was producing contemporary art while this is a recording – a historical artifact.
Of course, I dont really feel anything here because it isnt me being marginalized (its hard to feel outraged, especially today if it isnt you being marginalized). I do however, see some sort of parallel. But it doesnt make it any less fantastic.
I think that the sexism and degradation of women in this song is not able to be “let go” because of the times – because it wasn’t meant to be let go in their time. That type of chauvinism did not happen by accident, and if you don’t recognize that he was a woman-hitting bastard, his admittance of “needing” a woman has loses power.
You can’t actually find bad James Brown performances, even the black and white recordings are astounding. Hell, he doesn’t even dance in this video.
Thats a good point.
Though I would like to suggest that you dont believe anything by choice. Beliefs just have higher or lower likelihoods depending on the circumstances. In this case, its likely that James Brown would be sexist given his historical positioning. A likelihood that, on some level, may seem higher in probability then the slam poet that I am referring to.
The slam poet seems ironic, silly and ridiculous given her historical context (or, perhaps more specifically, give her audience) while James Brown seems quite the opposite. He seems to be expressing some sort of chauvinistic zeitgeist and I find that powerful, however objectionable.