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Soul, sermonising and wrestling Satan: James Brown’s 20 best albums – ranked!
As Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag turns 60, we rate the prolific funk/soul powerhouse’s finest studio, live and soundtrack albums
Tom Waits described seeing Brown live as “like putting your finger in a light socket”, which fits the music here: the handbrake turns of the “fast medley” (three songs in 80 seconds! Over half of the album patently isn’t live, but given how awesome the extended takes of the title track and Mother Popcorn are – not to mention the thrillingly improbable transition from a version of If I Ruled the World into a warp-speed There Was a Time – is anyone really bothered? The result was an atmospheric, electrifying document of classic Chitlin’ Circuit soul, both raw and incredibly tight: a relentless, no-pauses barrage of songs, strafed with the audience’s screams and cries.
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