Wow! This is even better than his legendary Live At The Apollo CD, as great as that one is! Live, energetic funk (or any other kind of music) doesn't get any better than this!

LOVE, POWER AND PEACE is one of the best live albums ever made. It is in the same league as SAM COOKE LIVE AT THE HARLEM SQUARE CLUB 1963 and DONNY HATHAWAY LIVE. If you really want to know WHAT IS FUNK, you oughta listen to this!

LET THE BROTHER RAP!!!!

Think back to anytime before, say, 1990, back when James Brown was considered an over-the-hill, overhyped Little Richard wannabe. Back then, James Brown was considered at best a guy who took several strong singles and parlayed this into 20 or more awfully spotty albums replete with some of the worst filler ever to hit the grooves this side of Tom Jones, Jerry Lee Lewis and yes, Little Richard. The Godfather's limited vocal range, poor songwriting, unimaginative interpretive abilities, and repetitive song styles did little to endear him to his listeners who actually bought his increasingly embarrassing records in the 70s until, sadly, he literally became a punch line in Rocky III.

The conventional wisdom's revision of this historically accurate view of James Brown began in the early 1990's, when similarly unimaginative hip-hoppers began sampling or copying the alleged master's "grooves." At the same time, music critics began re-evaluating his late 60s and 70s work, learning -- surprise -- that the music was genius. As part of this process begat this previously unreleased James Brown concert from 1971.

Trust me, this is not the second coming of P-Funk. Put aside what the critics would have you believe, this album confirms that the older view of Brown is the accurate one. He is a limited but high energy groove supervisor who once produced several very strong singles. What you have here is impressive yet repetitive single chord jam workouts, not unlike a Dead show but with more backbeats. At times Brown seems lost as his band continues chugging on seemingly without him, though he is quick to throw in some vocal utterances to let you know he is still on stage. Brown's nonsensical mutterings do not touch the intelligent approach to the groove/nonsense lyrics style perfected in early 80s Talking Heads albums.

That said, the band does show highly impressive chops, and the mood is intense and electric. Think what that band could have done with some real imaginative writing and singing. Oh yeah, you don't have to imagine -- that's what Sly or P-Funk are all about.