James Brown's Live at the Apollo (33 1/3)
James Brown'sLive at the Apollois famed as the best concert recording of his raw showmanship. Taped in fall 1962 at the venerable, and even legendary, showcase for black performers, the Apollo Theater of Harlem, the recording captured Brown when he was still something of an underground phenomenon. With a series of hits on the R&B; charts to his credit, he was poised to move in on the pop charts. The show recorded was Brown's twenty-fourth that week--testimony in itself that he was indeed, as his publicity claimed, "the hardest working man in show business." Wolk neatly assesses the record's context and its function as the fuel for Brown's ascent to the pop stratosphere.Mike TribbyCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved