Here's an early scorcher!  

Thanx Mike for this killer song! This Tami-show from´64 is simply great. 
Yep, the best to me, as a dance-freak, has been to dance with him and his fellows! The were all sooooo fucking good! I will never forget the laugh, the good mood and the dancing that night, never! (by the way, we were on all sides pretty drunk and stoned too;)

Mike said:

Teriscore, that is a story for the ages, pool party with Soul Brother #1!! I'll have to come clean, I only saw him once in the mid 80's at a large street fair in LA. Free none the less he was great, but we were pretty drunk and fairly far back from the stage. Shortly before his death I know he played a few club dates in NYC which I heard were really great. Here's another youtube video I love, him doing "Outta Sight" at the TAMI show at the Santa Monica Civic in Los Angeles back in '64. His whole set is great here and the DVD of this is really high quality.

Teriscore, that is a story for the ages, pool party with Soul Brother #1!! I'll have to come clean, I only saw him once in the mid 80's at a large street fair in LA. Free none the less he was great, but we were pretty drunk and fairly far back from the stage. Shortly before his death I know he played a few club dates in NYC which I heard were really great. Here's another youtube video I love, him doing "Outta Sight" at the TAMI show at the Santa Monica Civic in Los Angeles back in '64. His whole set is great here and the DVD of this is really high quality.

I can't beat that story , and , I doubt many of you could either , but , I first saw James Brown in 1991 at Soldiers' Field in Chicago. On his own , James Brown could not have filled such a venue , even with the added spectacle of his then - current tour being a "Homecoming" celebration after his release from jail. BUT , the ads promised Aretha Franklin , Little Richard , Johnny Taylor , Al Green , The Winans , and more. What we GOT was Artie "Blues Boy" White (Doing , as Dan Epstein recalls , teh same set , twice. He might as well have , it was so dull.), The Chi - Lites , and Gene McDaniel doing three songs , Karaoke style , to a recorded backing (And , he was still the best of the three.), not to mention , Al Sharpeton , trying to save the dwindling momentum after a long day of interruptions and no big name talent ( Even the Black attendees were booing him at this point.) by saying "I may be a Preacher , by , tonight , WE'RE GONNA ROCK". But , rock we did , when James Brown hit teh stage . DID HE HIT IT AND QUIT IT ? YEAH !!! His bvoice and his moves , of course , were not what tehy used to be , but , he was STILL The 'mazin' Mr. Please , Please , Please. It was worth all the bullshit.

A few years , later , my friend , Pat , told me of a bizarre promotional stunt. Marshall Fields (I think) was doing a tie - in campaign. If you bought a large bottle of this $60 cologne , you got two tickets to see James Brown get down at The Arie Crown , A CONSIDERABLY SMALLER VENUE. We agreed to each put in our $30 (Which was the going rate for James Brown tickets , then , anyway.) , and buy the damn cologne ( Which was'nt bad. I used to wear cologne , sometimes , but , I'm all better, now.). The only catch was , you would'nt know where your seats were until you got there. We ended up getting  great seats , about 14 rows back , dead center. Not only was James Browns' show better than the previous in almost every way , but , there were some surprises. JB played the organ a bit (He seldom did , at that point.) , and he did a great Jumpin' Jive number , even dancing like Cab Calloway. They also had an amazing psychedelic light show. They'd throw a light on Brown , and multicolored shapes would bounce back off him into the crowd.It was so cool to see The Godfather in more intimate surroundings than The Chicago Bears' crunching grounds.

So , no , I did'nt see James in his prime , but , I saw him , and I'm none the worse for it. Happy Birthday , Soul Brother #1.

Happy Birthday to your Soul Mr. Brown!

He surely had more than one nut loose! I could convince myself of this once in the very early 80s after a concert in Italy, he and his band, invited me and a couple of friends (we were just teens) to go with them to have a Pool-party at their hotel. I have to say we all  (not much people, maybe 15 or 20) had lots of fun, drunk and smoke a lot, swum and some almost drowned, danced and laughed all through the night... Well, actually until the police came in the morning to close the party...  The funniest part came than as they really hard tried to convince us to follow them and split in the rooms... we all disappeared pretty quick! ;D  Tcha, sorry James & co, maybe next time, in another life!  
But Thanx, was lots of fun! :)