James Brown - In the Jungle Groove

The true Godfather of funk

I expected this disc to be off the hook and boy was it, me being a musician I put this disc on pull out my instument and I'm in another world. I'm amazed at this mans mind set and the times when came up with such a funky sound compare that to the artists of today and the so called freedom in the music industry, not just something, but a whole lot of something is missing. December 7, 2007

What do we want? Soul power!

This is my favorite James Brown album - arguably my favorite funk album, too. It's basically a collection of remixes and single-only tracks, with a couple well-known album cuts ("Hot Pants"; "Talkin' Loud and Sayin' Nothin'") reprised. So who needs it? Everybody! For one, the remixes aren't just anyone's remixes, they're James Brown's remixes! This sure isn't Black Eyed Peas doing their 8,000,000 remix of "My Humps (Jimmy Hoffa Mix)" or whatever. This is JAMES BROWN! The Godfather of Soul! And when he remixes, he REMIXES - you'd expect a song titled "Give it up or Turnit Loose" to be loose, and while the original sure was, this is even more so. It's almost out-of-control. And I love it! By the way, if you listen closely you can also hear a few licks from my one of my favorite James Brown tunes, "Sex Machine". So that's where they came from... I always thought the groove was made up on the spot, but I guess not.
Anyway, this has a lot of the best of the Bootsy Collins band. Bootzilla is all over "Soul Power", a total classic with memorable vocal tradeoff between Brown and Bobby Byrd (Who plays an impressive organ, too!) This also contains my favorite Brown track ever - "Funky Drummer". For one, JB plays some awesome organ on it; for another, Maceo plays a classic solo; and of course there's the Clyde Stubblefield drum break, which I believe makes it the most sampled song of all time. You gotta hear that one! And you gotta hear the full "Hot Pants", too. That is excellent stuff. A more overlooked track is "Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved". Why is it always forgotten? That heavy rhythm guitar part is stunning, and as usual the vocal hook and bass part is marvelous. It also contains the powerful Nixon indictment "Talkin' Loud and Sayin' Nothin'" - a fantastic song, be it this remixed version or on There It Is (my second-favorite James Brown album). "I Got to Move" is one of the weaker songs here, but removed from its company and spliced onto another album, it would've been the high point. It's a lot like "There Was a Time" (actually, I think they have the exact same lyrics), only longer and funkier. And Brown puts a lot of soul on "It's a New Day".
This is JB how I like him! No saccharine ballads; no misfired covers; just givin' up the funk. The recordings here are some of the most influential in R&B history, paving the way for both funk and rap, and you'd be doing yourself a disservice in missing out on them. October 24, 2007

Amazinggggggggg

Fast Delivery the item like descript in very good condition and this time i had no pay a Italian Dogana.... and at the end James Brown is The King ::::::::::::: Thank-U Amazon!!!!! Andrea. June 27, 2007

James Brown, In The Jungle Groove

CD was received within days after ordering. CD was in good shape. January 10, 2007

gangstasoul

When the establishment bemoans the advent of gangsta rap and takes the moral (b.s.) highground in trying to say that rebellious music of their time was not so bad, this is a CD you can shove up their noses just to remind them that the joy of music and the despair of oppression has been around since J.B., since gospel, since plantation songs...but J.B. never made it all sound sooo funky.

I am amazed at what James Brown can pull off. This disc has some long jams, with little more than a single riff while James screams intermittently over it, and yet...that's all a great J.B. song needs. And this is some heavy J.B., something with a little edge to it, soul comign up like steam from the sewer, a little angry, but James isn't going to let all that bring the funk down. Just like the spliff he's putting together on the back cover, he's going to roll his own version and make it funky.

Obviously, a classic track on this is "Funky Drummer," a track that has been sampled from PE to LL Cool J to (no lie) Sinead O'Connor, but you'll be grooving to "Give It Up Or Turn It Loose" and "Hot Pants."

But don't think you'll just be getting down mindlessly. Well, you may, but J.B. is too smart for that. He's just got too much soul, and it stretches way back and way forward, putting himself square in the river of music man, and this album is genius for that.
December 25, 2006

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