James Brown - Keystone, Berkeley, CA, 1-30-1982

Good God, poeple! Take it to the bridge! Here's Jaaaaameeeees Brooooown!

I've long wanted to post something here by James Brown, since he is one of the soul music greats. However, my policy is to only post worthy music, and there have been so many zillions of James Brown albums officially released, including about 30 live albums, that I didn't come across anything worthy. 

But that's finally changed. I came across an unreleased concert that has excellent sound quality and performance, plus a great selection of songs. Also, it's from a time, the early 1980s, when there are no official live albums (at least that I know of). In fact, if you just wanted one James Brown live album from the second half of his career, it would be hard to beat this one, official or not.

Brown had a pretty rough time in the late 1970s. Disco was all the rage, largely replacing his style of funky soul music. His sales plummeted. He tried disco, but it didn't work. Thankfully, by the time of this concert, disco fever had broken. Brown wisely went back to doing the funky soul he did so well. Although this concert was recorded in 1982, the set list and performance could have easily come from 1974.

Brown did two shows on this evening. Most of the music here is from the first show. But he played three different songs in the late show, so I added those to the end. 

This concert is 55 minutes long.

01 Show Intro (James Brown)
02 James Brown Intro (James Brown)
03 The Payback (James Brown)
04 It's Too Funky in Here (James Brown)
05 Doing It to Death (James Brown)
06 Try Me (James Brown)
07 Talk with Me (James Brown)
08 Get on the Good Foot (James Brown)
09 Prisoner of Love (James Brown)
10 I Got the Feelin' (James Brown)
11 It's a Man's Man's Man's World (James Brown)
12 Cold Sweat (James Brown)
13 Please Please Please (James Brown)
14 Jam (James Brown)
15 [Get Up I Feel like Being A] Sex Machine (James Brown)
16 Georgia on My Mind (James Brown)
17 Papa's Got a Brand New Bag (James Brown)
18 I Got You [I Feel Good] (James Brown)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16036901/JmesBrwn_1982_KystneBerkelyCA__1-30-1982_atse.zip.html

The cover photo isn't from this exact concert, but it's close. It's from a concert only one day later, in Reseda, California. With the text, I drew upon the style of old James Brown concert posters for inspiration with the font type and colors and so forth.