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92. 'Live At The Apollo' - James Brown (1962)
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In the first episode of 2025, Laz & Felipe take a casual look at one of the most impressive and renowned live albums of all time and a staple show of the 60s. James Brown and The Famous Flames place energy, funk and, most importantly, soul into their 1962 performance at the Apollo.
- Episode Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/74Oo8Txd3oJDvWyazNxohd?si=a58aca97100a418a
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Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Long Live Rock and Roll Podcast. Happy 2025, everybody. I mean, you guys are hearing this in 2025. It's a bit odd for us because we're actually recording this at the end of December because we're time travelers. Yeah, exactly. ah we've yeah we've had We've taken a couple of weeks off over the Christmas and New Year period. But just to get ahead of the game, we kind of decided we'd record this.
00:00:25
Speaker
Um, our what day is it today? It's the 18th of December. So yeah, we're just getting an episode in to start the new year off, but giving ourselves a couple of weeks break. So we hope you will have a lovely Christmas and new year. We hope the world hasn't ended or something like that. You know, how embarrassing would that be? We put the podcast out and actually there's no one to listen to. ah Um, but yeah, I wasn't being embarrassed cause no one would know. Yeah. But I die with shame, Felipe. I die feeling full of shame and regret. Um, but yeah, anyway, um,
00:00:55
Speaker
As you said time travelers and what we're going to do is we are traveling back today to 1962 and we're going to make this a very casual episode you know everyone's I think maybe everyone's still a bit hungover from the new year and Christmas I'm going to I'm going to assume everyone is still a bit hungover from yesterday yeah excellent So this is going to be a very casual episode. We're just going to literally talk about Live at the Apollo by James Brown from 1962. We're not going to talk any music history or what it did for this or how it was innovative. We're just going to talk about how bloody good this album is, just as a nice relaxed way in to to see us into 2025. So yeah, anyway, how are you man? Are you good?
00:01:34
Speaker
Yeah man, doing great. had you Yeah, looking forward to the break. I've kind of checked out already for the year. I'm just waiting, like waiting for that Christmas to come round. um But anyway, they don't care about this, the audience, because it's 2025. Yeah. Anyway, twenty throw five now get yeah get your head in the game. like um Cool. Anyway, right. Live at the Apollo, James Brown, 1962. Like we said, not going to even give any historical context. It's just an amazing live album. um I want to start off with, well, let's start off with how it's looked at in history because It is one of those renowned live albums that people just keep coming back to that is on the list forever of um one of the best. And if we just look at some of the accolades it's received, ah the Rolling Stone have put it 24th in the greatest albums of all time. Rolling Stone called it the greatest live album of all time in 2015. And Colin Larkin put it at number 248 in his 1000 albums. You must hear before you die.
00:02:32
Speaker
um It spent 66 weeks on the billboard 200 peaking at number two. And I was reading that when the shops, when when it was released, the shops couldn't keep up with the demand of how intense people wanted it. And it was just selling out all up and down the country. I mean, that's a testament to how how excellent this show must have been and how big of a guy James Brown was at this time, right? Yeah, exactly. And he knew he was good and he knew this album could take him to another level. But the thing is, ah the label didn't agree with him. How many times we say this in this show? I think it's been proven over time that labels don't know shit about it. And the thing is, um the the the big boss of the record label didn't want to release a live album because he had and had this argument with James Brown ah saying like,
00:03:19
Speaker
Well first, if if if you put a live album out, why would people come to your gig? Which I think is a very stupid argument. The other one was there was no new songs actual new songs in the album and you know he wanted to take it like he wanted James Brown to record new material like studio material instead.
00:03:39
Speaker
a lot The other reason probably was that ah James Brown's LPs were not selling well, but the singles were like massive, but the albums were not doing well. so And again, at that time, people were focused on singles anyway. So it's kind of yeah that's what made you a successful artist in the 60s. If your singles are doing well, Led Zeppelin and the Beatles kind of tried to change the game a little bit. Well, we we kind of time stamped 1965 when Rubber Soul came out. I mean, again, so many people are very quick to give the Beatles credit for everything. And I don't want to say that there was no band that made an album before the Beatles. But generally we know why the Beatles are so famous because they were the biggest names to innovate and pioneer at that time. And so we rubber stamp, rubber stamp, pun not intended. We rubber stamp, rubber sold. Yeah. We rubber stamp, rubber sold.
00:04:32
Speaker
1965 as the album that really showed people you don't just need to write three singles and a bunch of fillers you can write an album full of 10 songs that all matter as much as as much as one another yeah exactly so james brown was trying to do that with a live album if he wanted to do this as a live album and because the label didn't back him do you know what he did he paid for all of this. So basically he hired the Apollo, which was just under $6,000 at the time, which would be $70,000 in today's money. wow He would go bankrupt if the album didn't sell well. So that was a big, big gamble.
00:05:11
Speaker
from James Brown. He he knew he he would work or he was really relying on it. ah So basically he paid that ridiculous amount of money to hire the venue. He did a residency like several evenings in a row and decided to record one specific evening. So basically he hired all the gear, the microphones and and and and the equipment for the the PA system and everything for the show. And they had these microphones hanging from the ceiling. So which was how they captured the audience. It might have been one of the first times in in history that that they this happened, because I don't know any earlier like live albums that have so much audience sound in it. So this so you can hear people like shouting, talking, and everything. It's great. I was going to say the audience, um it's arguably
00:06:01
Speaker
as important to the album as the music because I just try to imagine what it would be like listening to this live album. with fantastic production, everything crisp and clean, all polished with no audience. It would not be as good as it is. The beauty in this album is the rawness. Imagine if all of James Brown's vocals on this album were crisp, clean and polished and produced beautifully. It would not sound good. how he edited as yeah He doesn't hit every note. There are notes he misses, there are phrases, there there are lyrics he gets wrong, but that's because
00:06:38
Speaker
he's focused on the performance, which is what you want from a live album. um But the audience, the back and forths he does with them, ah you know, I can't remember which song he is, but he's like, um he says, I want you to scream and they scream. And he goes, no, he actually goes, he goes, say, ow. And the audience goes, ow. And he goes, no, not ow, ow. He's just having so much fun. And in the song, um in Lost Someone,
00:07:06
Speaker
Oh, that's because he's just the whole... That's the 10 minute one, isn't it? Oh my God, unbelievable. And I'd spend hours listening to that over and over again. it's funny I get goosebumps just thinking about it. What a boss song. um But he's discussing things with the audience and there's just random, you know, obviously there's lyrics, but then there's random moments where he's like, you know, I don't need to go see my neighbor. the You know, I want to bring you home. It's just like...
00:07:31
Speaker
proper ad-libbing improvising yeah but involving the audience and there's a moment in that song as well where for two minutes or so his voice is so low and the reason of that is not because of editing it's not because the mic cut out it's because i well I imagine the microphone yeah I think he's gone away from the mic and gone to one side of the stage and probably talking to the horn section or talking to the audience and he goes to the other side of the stage and then you get 10 seconds of silence before he comes back and then he's right in the mic again This is performance 101, isn't it? This is how you perform a show like this to an audience. Yeah, exactly. And he managed to camp capture the energy of a live gig. He wanted to do this because he said that any artist who who takes his music music seriously should make the song sound twice as as as good live as you know when compared to to the yeah studio recording. He said, if you could ask, your song should be even better live than it is on record.
00:08:28
Speaker
And, well, I think, again, imagine all the what really really surprised me it's like with all that investment, think about it put all your money into something and it has to be good. So, most people would just be really really careful and and and and try to I don't know, play safe. you know like I'm going to do like a a more ah focused performance. Maybe I'm not going to move around that much. I'm going to just sing correctly and make sure there's no mistakes. yeah It's not really about that. It's about like, this is my gig. This is how I play. And I want everyone they listening to the album to actually feel like they are there.
00:09:05
Speaker
in the concert and I had a feeling there was like a thousand people around me when I was listening to it yeah and it's it's super cool. I think um when you said about not being too polished in in a way, what compensates for that is how tight the band is, it's just insanely tight. i i've I've got here um for me, let just find it,
00:09:31
Speaker
Each instrument as it is as important as the other because they all provide. And I i know you can say that. it' That's such a fair way comment that you could say about any live album. But if you look at what did we do before Peter Frampton? okay yeah The vocals and the guitar are more important than the rest of the band. Whilst we said the bass and drums do a brilliant job here, the keyboard player does a great job there. It's Peter Frampton's show.
00:09:58
Speaker
arguably James Brown does not come off looking as good as he does if the band is not 100% on. The bass and drums are keeping the groove so well, providing the back beat and the backbone to that rhythm section. The guitarist perfectly articulates the chords, really just adding harmonic emphasis whilst the horns I swear, their job must have been so all they got to do all night is play stops. like Give it to me. that Give it to me again. But you follow the vocal cues. That's not easy to hit those notes exactly like on the right time. And so the horns are there for the stops and the solos.
00:10:42
Speaker
But the backing vocals, I think these are the unsung heroes of the famous flames made up of ah Bobby Bird, Bobby Bennett and Lloyd Stallworth, who were James Brown's backing vocalists.
00:10:56
Speaker
um It's interesting, so sorry to interrupt you, but it's interesting that um the, yeah I don't know who's, ah what's his name? Thad Gonder is a guy who's introducing the show. He speaks on the microphone before before the band comes in. And he does introduce it as James Brown and the Famous Flames.
00:11:16
Speaker
and the group was sold like this at the time and it's I don't know why they're not credited in the album cover like that should be an album by James Brown and the famous flames they feel as important don't they they add oh yeah they had so much soul and emotional depth to to especially those solely songs um talking of styles and genres I have to say that there's a there's a I can't, we're going to do more James Brown eventually, is this as this podcast goes on, as we get into the, you know, we're almost at 100 episodes man, looking forward to that one. As we get into the next hundreds and two hundreds, James Brown will inevitably come up. But what I haven't done is study him or learn his place in music history, funk history, soul history. But what I do know about James Brown is two things.
00:12:03
Speaker
He's normally the first name anyone talks about when you hear funk, yeah yet his name is the godfather of soul. And this has always confused me because I've, you know, wait, so you're the godfather of soul, but you're also one of the most pioneering funk acts. And when I hear soul, I think Otis Redding, Donny Hathaway, Aretha Franklin. When I hear funk, I think Parliament, Funkadelic, Chic, Naya Rogers. So I think they're two quite, quite distant apart. However,
00:12:33
Speaker
this album the the bridge between soul and funk and that middle ground James Brown occupies fantastically and I think that's got to the credit has got to go to the person who put these songs in order because if you look at this um Oh, where have I put it? um that that yeah how How they switch between funk and soul throughout the whole show. You start off with I'll Go Crazy, which is really upbeat and funky. Then Try Me is smooth, mellow and soul-like. Back to Think, which is funky.
00:13:08
Speaker
then it goes to I don't mind which is again mellow and solely then it goes to the funky bridge and the intro of lost someone which is again is funky to lost someone which is solely yeah and it's and it' really yeah all the soul ones are swing ballads aren't they yeah so you're kind of going between that like a um fast tempo, even i I would even call rock and roll, rock and roll slash funk. gun I think it's rock and roll energy for sure, yeah. And then you go between that and and the swing ballad, so you actually change the vibe and the beat. They really alternate well between those songs and then credit to the band once again with the instrumental bridges.
00:13:47
Speaker
There's like three sections of the show that they just play the short instrumental piece to connect songs. So the feeling we have with that is they're playing a 30 minute song rather than a collection of songs. It feels to me like they just ah they just connected all the songs in one long piece.
00:14:09
Speaker
Well, that's that's amazing. That's exactly how it feels. And the best and the best way to epitomize that is listen to the end of Lost Someone into the the medley that comes after, because it is it's like you said, it's like a theater show um in the sense that, you know, whilst I don't imagine the band would have had music sheets in front of them, you and I have both done theater shows and you sit there and you just sort of watch your page and then it's like, OK, quick segue into the next song and you turn your page and you go there quickly.
00:14:38
Speaker
They do that here to such a masterful level that you can't, do you know what? right Let me tell you what it reminds me of. It reminds me of those American TV shows where the TV show has a band.
00:14:51
Speaker
Yeah. And i I don't know which. i Yeah, I know. Let's say let him or Jimmy Kimmel, one of them. They'll say David Letterman will say. And my next guest, he's a Grammy Award winning, you know, funk master. It is James Brown. And then the band play and as he introduces it. But this is like this. James Brown is like the TV host and excuse me. And the band are like the TV band. But my God, I mean, it is it is a show. it it It doesn't feel like a gig. It feels like a show that he's putting on for the audience.
00:15:19
Speaker
with instrumental bridges, medleys, you know. Yeah, and it's it's justs great. Again, I love the fact that you yeah you don't feel the transitions, then out of the blue, a new song starts and you're just into it. And it takes you into the vibe of the next song immediately. like it's it's yeah I think there's like, there's a the amount of energy that man has, it's like unseen in music history. And I feel like,
00:15:50
Speaker
there there was no other way for him to to express himself rather than being on stage. i think I imagine how frustrating it was for him to release an album war or a single studio like album and and listen to anything. No, that doesn't have half of the energy I can ah can put on on a live show. And and I think that's that was probably frustrating. Maybe that's why he wanted to invest in and in this album so much.
00:16:16
Speaker
i think One of my favourite interviews with Frank Zappa, who's one of my musical heroes, is when he talks about live performances and um the interviewer's asking him and she says, you know, so every show you do something different. He says, yeah, I mean, you know, I hate every guitar solo I've ever recorded on an album because I know I could have done it better. Or if I was doing it live, the energy I would have put would have been different. And I feel like maybe James Brown is of this opinion where he's like, well,
00:16:45
Speaker
you know having to listen to myself on an album because on an album you can't put those little extended five-minute musical sections where he's just talking to the audience or he's just spouting the random lyrics. You can't get that energy across in a properly polished single and so for people like James Brown and Frank Zappa, I mean there's many artists like that to have the freedom of a live gig. And funnily enough, Frank Zappa did the same as James Brown. Once he was established, Frank Zappa would um pay for all, he'd take all the costs on himself, but then he'd obviously reap all the financial benefit after, which is why he was so rich. um But for for James Brown to have that freedom, to have 10 minutes to do what he likes and to express himself, to exert his energy, yeah it's what people like that need.
00:17:38
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. And he was like, this is my gig, right? Yeah. This is my gig, my band, my show. I'm going to do it the way I want to do it. So that's him being the boss like properly. and And he paid off, right? Absolutely. um what do what i mean What do you think? We touched on it briefly earlier. What do you think about that funk, soul, R and&B?
00:18:00
Speaker
I think this does this switch between i think when but a lot of people would think of James Brown as the guy who sang Sex Machine and I Feel Good. yeah And those songs are definitely funky. They funk songs. They're not soul numbers, in my opinion. And the early stuff that you can hear from this album, I think it it reflects a yeah a side of his musical personality that I i actually enjoy much more, I think. b too Me too, and it's hidden, isn't it? because it's got It's got the blues, has got so it's got a bit of rock and roll, and it's so different to what everyone else was doing in the early 60s. I think but for people who are familiar with ah the James Brown stuff that that made true TV adverts and movies, you know the the the classic image you have of James Brown singing those funk numbers,
00:18:55
Speaker
Have a listen to this album because it's something else and it's like you wouldn't even think as the same artist in a certain in a certain way. ah I don't feel that the hit that his hits really do justice to how good his voice was.
00:19:11
Speaker
Yeah, obviously, you you know, in I Feel Good, you hear there's a couple of wow, like a couple of screens that are really cool. But other than that, I don't think it shows off his voice, neither does Sex Machine really. There's moments in the songs. Listen, you know, I'm talking about the general performance, of course, is good.
00:19:26
Speaker
but compared to this live album where he gets to just let his voice go loose. Yeah. Incomparable. Yeah, exactly. And and a lot of people, um I know a lot of even musicians, I know from the blue scene and and even country music and other stuff, they really admire what James Brown was doing in the early sixties. And I always wondered why now that I've listened to it carefully, I'm like, wow, that makes of sense. and Yeah, it makes sense. it it's It's something else. There's another another kind of beast.
00:19:55
Speaker
yeah definitely and a ah this it's It's amazing how you have this, again, this tight band and and him kind of out of control running around and shouting. And the thing is, I haven't watched the video for this show, but I know he's running around and performing like crazy. I just don't know. It comes out in the voice. There is, I think you can find it on all the internet.
00:20:18
Speaker
But i I found it, but I didn't watch it intentionally because I really wanted to have the feeling of just listening to the album and see if that because if you see James Brown stage, you could just see James Brown moving around if even if there's no sound, it's really, really I'm going to put it as an extraordinary performance. Really, you can't keep your eyes out of him. It's just it's just great when you watch him perform. But ah I wanted to see if the music is as good as his visual performance. right So that's why I've listened to the album without watching anything. And gosh, I could see him running, jumping and shouting. It was like a picture there in my mind. He's out of breath, his knees running around, his energetic, everything.
00:21:05
Speaker
Yeah. And I like this because ah in in this day and age, you can find videos of everything. we We live in an extremely visual world, which is good. Not a problem with that. ah But it's interesting to sometimes just close your eyes and listen to the music and try to create your own version of that gig in your mind. Try to imagine the faces that were there in and the crowd and how the band was smiling on stage and stuff like that. So I love that feeling of like having my own movie in my head yeah whilst I'm listening to the music. exactly um Well, talking about his voice, I just had some notes that what was what I found really interesting was um obviously Godfather of Soul, as we've said, but his vocals don't remind me at all of anyone who you would typically associate with with soul. um If you think of Otis Redding and Donny Hathaway, how smooth and silky their voices are. Whereas James Brown, his voice is quite aggressive, it's aggressive, it's abrasive it's gritty.
00:22:04
Speaker
you know if if If you were just to play an isolated note of Otis Redding singing, and you compare that to an isolated note of James Brown, when you hear James Brown in your ears, you're going to go, oh, hold on. I didn't expect that. That's quite out of nowhere. Whereas Otis is obviously very smooth.
00:22:24
Speaker
do you think that
00:22:27
Speaker
Do you think the soul music, the R and&B and soul music coupled with James Brown's abrasive voice, pushed him to the next level because it was a bit different. I think that's what it is because in a certain way, in a technical way, I'm not going to say this is a bad thing, he shouts rather than sing at some point. yeah And no one no one was brave enough to do that in that kind of music because like if you're singing soul music, it's got to be somehow polished and and
00:22:59
Speaker
How can I put it like clean? And and as I said, smooth. you got You got a sound like that. Because if you're singing about love. you can't just shout. But I think James Brown had some sort of anger, some sort of, it's like the dark side of his personality. yes It's getting in the way of him just singing smoothly about love. So even if he's singing about love, he sounds angry and desperate sometimes. And I think all those feelings combined, when you look at the lyrics and you hear the the way he uses his voice, you think like, how does that even relate to the lyrics? But it works.
00:23:36
Speaker
you know ah it's it's And he was they used to call him the hardest working hardest working man and in the music business. He was playing about 300 gigs a year at that time. wow So basically this guy is on stage every night. And as far as i'm as I remember,
00:23:54
Speaker
he died in, them well, I think it was New Year or just before New Year or December or something. And they said that he was in, you know, in his bed in hospital, like, ah ah calling the nurses and say, like, when do I get out of here? I have a gig before. I have a New Year's Day. Yes, I have read that. Yeah. Yeah. So he wanted to play. He wanted. So he's literally dying and he still wanted to get up and play. And the thing is, he was so i I don't I don't see him as a guy who was passionate about singing. I think he was desperate to sing. I think there's something about it. I think that like he it's like he couldn't he couldn't stop singing and he wanted to shout. I think he wanted to put all his feelings in every song. If that song is about love, but I've got a little bit of anger is going to come through. That's how I see it. I mean, I'm not talking about any technical aspects of his singing. Yeah, I'm just talking about the the emotion of it. Yeah, that's what makes him different. Yeah.
00:24:52
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. Excellent. I mean, anything else you want to talk about? I mean, I just got here that that final medley. Well, no, the final songs Night Train, but that medley. Yeah, it's just so beautiful. And again, the transition. Yeah, please, what is it please please, please. You've got love and I found someone. yeah What a beautiful journey through a whole host of styles, feelings and emotions. It just takes you up and down.
00:25:17
Speaker
um And even just the structure of it, even it's hard enough to create a medley and to make one song run into another into another. But then five minutes in, there is a gorgeous key change that just makes my heart melt because it's just so nice that the the key they've chosen is perfect. And then it sits on that for a couple of minutes and it's feeling so soulful and so mellow. Then right at the end, there's another key change that feels so triumphant and big and powerful that the medley is, I mean, it's it's not my, lost someone is my favourite and we can, I won't talk about that after, but the second place is this medley. And I think you've got to give credit here. I mean,
00:26:02
Speaker
I don't want to talk about, I don't want to say James Brown wasn't a musician and didn't know music theory because I don't know whether he did or not. But on the notes, the music director is the trumpet player Lewis Hamlin. And having no information about who wrote these arrangements, I'm just going to say, you know, but and like guys, anyone listening, if you know, tell us, tell me if I'm wrong. I'm just going to give credit to the musical director.
00:26:25
Speaker
I mean, you know what, it's still gonna be a shorter episode, this one. So let's just list off the band, because they deserve it. Hubert Perry on bass, Clayton Filleau on drums, Les Boy on guitar, Fats Gonder on organ, Clifford McMillan tenor sax, Claire Pinckney, or St. Claire Pinckney on tenor sax, Al Clark on tenor sax, William Burgess alto sax, Dickey Wells trombone, Roscoe Patrick trumpet, Teddy Washington trumpet, and Lewis hamel lewis hap lewis said louis Hamilton.
00:26:54
Speaker
He wasn't there at the time. and And Lewis Hamilton Ferrari. Lewis Hamlin, trumpet and musical director. ah So massive credit to those guys, because as we said, each of those instruments, although you've got three trumpets, three tenor sax, a trombone and an alto sax,
00:27:11
Speaker
they They all played their part to make this album sound as big as it did, and little arrangements, key changes. The the use of dynamics as well, man, the whole show, there's ups and downs, you know dynamically speaking. Massive credit to those guys, that band, Lewis Hamlin, for directing that band, um because they sound ace.
00:27:30
Speaker
yeah It's incredible. They sound like one. They sound like is yeah it's it's one person, one soul making that sound. Yeah, exactly. ah Favorite song? And do you want to talk about it? Oh, think. but Okay. yeah Yeah. Yeah. Because I love the original and this one has got another level of energy. It's like, if you can, yeah, put the original on the playlist so for people to compare because it's ah we'll do um oh quickly yeah you know yeah it's ah it's a song that I like and and I didn't imagine that song could sound sound the way it sounds live. And it proves James Brown's point about making the live version better than the album. I believe it is. um For new listeners and viewers, we have a dedicated playlist in the show notes below. So we're going to put in the whole album that we're talking about.
00:28:21
Speaker
plus any other songs we've mentioned and although we haven't mentioned any other songs I will put in a Donny Hathaway song, an Otis Redding song, Aretha Franklin, what else did I say, Sheik, Parliament, Funkadelic. I'll put a little example so you can hear what we're talking about and I'll put in think that Felipe said. um I have one more, one more I want to mention. yeah okay um it It's not this song, it's of the transition from I'll go crazy to Try Me. The way that, that so when it's not like when they start Try Me that song has a different feeling because you're coming from all go crazy. So the contrast between those two songs is just insane. I think they yeah both both songs are beautifully played and there's no lack of energy when they transition and they change the feeling completely in in a matter of seconds. It's just yeah brilliant. Yeah. So if you you if don't have time to listen to the whole album, no, you should have. That's only 30 minutes. I will go crazy trying me and think we're my favorite ones. Yeah, I mean, there's there's nothing wrong with any of them. But funnily enough, my favorites are on the second half of the album. ah I don't mind so beautiful, so sweet, soft and mellow medley we already spoke about. But for me, lost someone. This epitomizes everything good with live music, because you have the time
00:29:40
Speaker
the space, the adaptability to just let the music go free. And it's not even just James Brown who I'm talking about in this song. My favourite part, and I wonder if it goes under the radar because they just play it so well, the horn section. yeah Because for 10 minutes, apart from the odd stab here, the odd 30 seconds where it goes, well, whatever, it it's got that part where the horns go... And then it swings. Bit of time.
00:30:08
Speaker
dad and But then randomly they'll play that up an octave and then after that they'll go down back to what it was. And it's just so engaging.
00:30:22
Speaker
yeah It's engaging because although the familiarity is there, duhooh-dada and du du and that's the pattern, that's the note, that's the melody, that's the motif. But what keeps you on your toes is, well, hold on on, am I hearing it at this octave? Oh my God, they've taken it up one. Okay. We're stuck here for, oh, on their way back down again. It's like, it's like an oxymoron because there's familiarity because you know what you're getting. Yeah. So register, they choose to play it and you don't know what you're getting. Yeah. So simple, but so effective, man. it is It's just, yeah, it's beautiful. It's well arranged. they They really thought it through. And it makes it like a long song feel like it's only three or four minutes. That's how I i felt about it. how yeah When I looked at, you know, you look at the length and say, oh, that's gonna be a long one. And then you just yeah just get carried away. yeah It's super cool. And again, that's probably the song that makes you feel more like you're in the middle of the crowd. That's the effect that had on me.
00:31:22
Speaker
And we've said already the length of songs, you know, two minutes, two minutes, 14, one minute, 45 to 28, 10 and a half minutes, six and a half minutes for the lost someone in medleys and then three and a half minutes for Night Train. That there's um there was a bit of controversy. Well, currently happening now, but for listeners, it will have been a month ago um about Slipknot. I'm going to see them in three days and they're doing an anniversary tour of their um of their first ever album.
00:31:52
Speaker
And they're only playing that album, which is only 11 songs. And people say, well, hold on. I mean, we've seen bands do this before. They play a few hits at the start. Then they play a full album. Then they play a few hits at the end. And they've come under a bit of criticism because obviously in this world, ticket prices are ever rising. And people are saying, well, I don't really know if I got value for money. um i'm Obviously, I haven't seen them yet, but I can't wait. I'm very excited. I love the album. I'm going to enjoy it, whatever. But I get what people are saying.
00:32:21
Speaker
However, this is only 30 minutes long and we don't know what the price of a ticket was or what it's what it's like. We don't know if the show was actually longer than that. That's a good that's it that's a fair point. Yeah, that's a fair point. But even though let's say even so. thirty minutes Yeah. e I mean, you're going to come out of this thinking that you've got your money's worth regardless. You know, when i those people who go to the gym and there's like I don't I don't say anything about work out, as you can tell.
00:32:50
Speaker
but you know people go to the gym and they have all this is like the 20 minute workout that's going to get you in shape and you leave the gym like sweating like instead of spending an hour and a half some people spend 20 minutes and spend and they manage to burn the same amount of colors that's it that's this gig people probably like dying after the first like 20 minutes of it And I'm sure, I'm sure James Brown burned the same amount of calories as a one and a half hour workout. Yeah, exactly. Excellent. All good. Anything else to say or are you happy? No, but I just, I just think it's a great, great choice to start the year. Well, do you know what? And the other thing we've said is because, you know, as it's the end of December, we're just waiting to get to Christmas and have a bit of a break. We've said this is very casual. We haven't made many notes. As I said at the start of the episode, we're not going into what this did for fun, how this is innovative like we normally do.
00:33:44
Speaker
there are three other Live at the Apollo albums from James Brown and there's like 10 years after each other so if we ever feel like having an easy episode bro let's just do the live at the Apollo volume two then number three and then the apollo through yeah well i literally think because the last one was released in 1995 and i don't know if that was i mean i don't even know when he died so that's Um, but yeah, so I literally think there was, when did he die? 2006. Okay. So I think the live of the apology was 62, one in the seventies, one of the eighties and the last one is 1995. So this, even though we're joking about it being a casual and easy episode for us, it will be fantastic to see the development of James Brown. Yeah. 10 years, 10 years, 10 years. So yeah, in, in, uh, in another 10, 20, 30 episodes, we'll do the next one and then we'll make our way through the James Brown Apollo series. Yeah. Oh yeah, let's do that. except Well, guys, Happy New Year. Welcome back.
00:34:44
Speaker
We hope you've enjoyed this episode and thank you for joining us for another long live rock and roll podcast episode. Terms and conditions, if you are listening on Apple, Spotify, Amazon or any of those um podcast platforms, do us a favour, go down to the show, sometimes it's at the bottom, sometimes it's at the top, give us a rating, hit the five stars, write us a little comment, tell us what you love about the show and it just does the world a good for us because it shoots us up the charts, means we'll be seen by more people. It's about 30 seconds of your time but actually means a hell of a lot to us.
00:35:13
Speaker
If you're watching on YouTube, please like and subscribe to stay up to date with new content. We have episodes released every Monday. Thanks for being with us one more time and and I wish everyone a fantastic new year with loads of rock and roll. So keep on rocking everyone and don't do anything I wouldn't do. As usual guys, take care and long live rock and roll.