Younguns, take note. This man has been and will continue to be copied and sampled. He wasn't going for the quick shot at fame. He put the work in and became a Legend.
When I was 8 years old, I would skip school from a cold and I would play this album (which belonged to my older brother) from start to finish and was mesmerized by this sound, this groove and the funk!
a million years ago I had the utmost experience seeing and hearing and feeling James Brown & The Famous Flames in FULL blowout, velvet tux , howling grooves at Summer Stage in Central Park over a Summer and I think the ticket was 15 bucks(?) ...Chaka opened for him... I still pinch myself at the privilege of being there. 👏👏👋
I was so aggravated when this album came out in 1971. I was 15 years old and I was so pissed off when I found out that was not MAKE IT FUNKY, which was his latest single when the album was released. The whole thing was ESCAPISM. Mr. Brown and the record company really pulled a fast one on their fans. I ended up loving the track but like everyone else I was expecting the actual song MAKE IT FUNKY. They did make it funky a few times when they were doing ESCAPISM, and that’s probably where he got the idea to do this actual song make it funky which no doubt was not recorded at that time of the concert .
Now that I listen to the performance this is much better mixed than the actual album was. The original album was mixed like crap the drum sounded like a tin can and Mr. Brown would way too in the front and the band was way too far in the back. This is a much superior mix.
![James Brown -- Escape-Ism-Make It Funky [1971]](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
