JAMES BROWN PART TWO: I Have A Lot To Pay To James Brown

After Listening to Star Time I needed to dive into James Brown's albums.  There was many and at the time The Payback came out he had 37 studio albums. I decided to take a different path to this album.  If he is so great lets hear his music live.  So I bought Live at the Apollo.  I wanted to hear his  music live, but in a different era. I intern bought Sex Machine.  Then I went back to the Star Time.  I was a fan of the longer songs.  The songs that the music and energy was longer then five minutes or more.  I listened disc three and four of the box set.  It was interesting to hear the rapping James Brown was doing, but the band was on fire.

After a few listens of the 70's stuff that was on the box I went all in and got myself a copy of The Payback.  It was found at a used CD store for next to nothing.  I grabbed it and went home and put it on.  This album was more eye opening some of the live albums.  This band was tight, funky and James Brown's voice was not like anything else. Not only was it powerful, but I think given the time and era of the late 60's and early 70's, it was angry.  It's an album not like previous James Brown albums it had length.  Some albums of the time were short.  This was over an hour.  This was the second studio album that was that length too.  Get On The Good Foot was also over an hour. That album got blasted by the critics and with The Payback it was time to shut them up.

James Brown made me think a bit more with The Payback because his music was true funk.  Not many bands or artists were not doing it at the time.  Sure we had Funkadelic and Parliament they were a band.  We also had Sly and The Family Stone, but his popularity was not as it once was. Some bands were just on the cusp of being in the Funk ways like Ohio Players, Earth, Wind, and Fire. There were many bands who were getting their groove going when James Brown went in for the attack.  James was one guy and a great backing band.  It was even went to number one.  James Brown was back in the game and this time it was on his terms.

After a few more listens I knew I had a great album in The Payback. James's music was better then ever as I said, but the thing that won me over is he could make these songs long.  Not like five minutes long, but seven, eight, or longer.  The Payback's songs are what makes the album there is one song that is over five and half minutes.  There rest of the seven are over that.  I bet if I saw him in concert in 1973 I think these songs could stretch even longer.  This was classic James Brown here.

James Brown had great people backing him and the loyal and understanding of what Brown wanted to create was here.  He had Maceo Parker, St. Clair Pinckney and Fred Wesley all horn players and all who knew how to groove with James Brown.  All of them stayed with him for a while as well.  If a band is together for a while they really can create a creative spark or even in James Brown band, help James feel comfortable when he is either live or in the studio.  I have seen Maceo live and his discipline with his band was pretty tight.  I can only imagine when he played with James Brown how it was.  You need that in any band that backs a string singer.

When you start your James Brown collection you might want to start with Live At The Apollo, but that next purchase should be The Payback.  They are two different eras of his career but they are still vitally important.  The Payback will have you grooving to feeling of what James Brown is doing too. It's lengthy songs give you ample time to feel the power and energy that he had. Take a listen and you will see classic James Brown in action.  Enjoy!!