Sex Machine | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album and live album by | ||||
Released | September 1970 | |||
Recorded |
| |||
Genre | Funk, soul [1] | |||
Length | 64:29 | |||
Label | King | |||
Producer | James Brown | |||
James Brown chronology | ||||
| ||||
James Brown live albums chronology | ||||
| ||||
Singles from Sex Machine | ||||
|
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
Allmusic | [1] |
Billboard | (favorable) [2] |
Christgau's Record Guide | A [3] |
Rhapsody | (favorable) [4] |
Rolling Stone | [5] |
Spin | (favorable) [6] |
Yahoo! Music | (favorable) [7] |
Zagat Survey | [8] |
Sputnikmusic | [9] |
Sex Machine is a 1970 double album by James Brown. It showcases the playing of the original J.B.'s lineup featuring Bootsy and Catfish Collins, [10] and includes an 11-minute rendition of the album's title song,different from the original recording of the title song which was released as a two-part single in 1970.
Sex Machine purports to be a live recording. However,the first LP's worth of material consists of tracks recorded in studio settings with added reverberation and overdubbed applause (some of which subsequently were released in unadulterated mixes,most notably on the 1996 Funk Power compilation CD.). All but one track of the second LP apparently were recorded live in concert in Brown's hometown of Augusta,Georgia,although this material,too,features added reverb and overdubbed applause.[ citation needed ] It charted #4 R&B and #29 Pop.
Sex Machine is often considered to be one of the greatest and most important funk records of all time,and arguably the high point of Brown's creative heyday from 1967 to 1971. It was ranked 1st in SPIN magazine's 25 greatest albums of all time in 1989,and 96th in a 2005 survey held by British television's Channel 4 to determine the 100 greatest albums of all time. [11] Sex Machine was also voted the 34th greatest album of all time in a VH1 poll of over 700 musicians,songwriters,disc jockeys,radio programmers,and critics in 2003. [12] In Rolling Stone's 2020 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time,it was ranked number 439. [13]
All tracks on sides one and two and "Lowdown Popcorn" on side three are studio recordings with added reverberation and audience noise. All other tracks on sides three and four were recorded live at the Bell Auditorium in Augusta,GA.
"Brother Rapp" and "Lowdown Popcorn" are the same studio performances initially released as singles. Audience-free studio versions of "Get Up I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine" and "Give It Up or Turnit a Loose" appear on the CD compilation Funk Power 1970:A Brand New Thang ,along with a previously unreleased take of "There Was a Time" from the same session. "Mother Popcorn",which was indeed recorded live,appears without added audience noise and with a longer running time on the CD compilation Foundations of Funk:A Brand New Bag 1964-1969 . In addition,the album Motherlode includes a live rendition of "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud" purportedly from the same Augusta concert. The full 1969 Augusta concert was released in 2019 as Live At Home With His Bad Self.
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Get Up I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine" | James Brown, Bobby Byrd, Ron Lenhoff | 10:48 |
2. | "Brother Rapp (Part I & Part II)" | Brown | 5:06 |
Total length: | 15:54 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Bewildered" | Teddy Powell, Leonard Whitcup | 6:09 |
2. | "I Got the Feelin'" | Brown | 1:07 |
3. | "Give It Up or Turnit a Loose" | Charles Bobbit | 6:26 |
Total length: | 13:42 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "I Don't Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing (Open Up the Door I'll Get It Myself)" | Brown | 4:31 |
2. | "Licking Stick - Licking Stick" | Brown, Byrd, Pee Wee Ellis | 1:19 |
3. | "Lowdown Popcorn" (studio recording) | Brown | 3:25 |
4. | "Spinning Wheel" | David Clayton-Thomas | 4:02 |
5. | "If I Ruled the World" | Leslie Bricusse, Cyril Ornadel | 4:03 |
Total length: | 17:20 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "There Was a Time" | Brown, Bud Hobgood | 4:04 |
2. | "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" | Brown, Betty Jean Newsome | 3:42 |
3. | "Please, Please, Please" | Brown, Johnny Terry | 2:26 |
4. | "I Can't Stand Myself (When You Touch Me)" | Brown | 1:28 |
5. | "Mother Popcorn" | Brown, Ellis | 5:50 |
Total length: | 17:30 |
Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine, Medley
Bell Auditorium, Augusta, GA
"Funky Drummer" is a single released by James Brown in 1970. Its drum break, improvised by Clyde Stubblefield, is one of the most frequently sampled music recordings.
Clyde Austin Stubblefield was an American drummer best known for his work with James Brown, with whom he recorded and toured for six years (1965-70). His syncopated drum patterns on Brown's recordings are considered funk standards. Samples of his drum performances were heavily used in hip hop music beginning in the 1980s, although Stubblefield frequently received no credit.
The J.B.'s was James Brown's band from 1970 through the early 1980s. On records the band was sometimes billed under alternate names such as Fred Wesley and the JBs, The James Brown Soul Train, Maceo and the Macks, A.A.B.B., Fred Wesley and the New JBs, The First Family, and The Last Word. In addition to backing Brown, the J.B.'s played behind Bobby Byrd, Lyn Collins, and other singers associated with the James Brown Revue, and performed and recorded as a self-contained group. In 2015, they were nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame but failed to be inducted and can be considered for Musical Excellence in the future. They have been eligible since 1995.
John Henry "Jabo" Starks, sometimes spelled Jab'o, was an American funk and blues drummer best known for playing with James Brown as well as other notable musicians including Bobby Bland and B.B. King. A self-taught musician, he was known for his effective and clean drum patterns. He was one of the originators of funk drumming, and is one of the most sampled drummers.
"Soul Power" is a song by James Brown. Brown recorded it with the original J.B.'s and it was released as a three-part single in 1971. Like "Get Up Sex Machine" and other hits from this period it features backing vocals by Bobby Byrd. It charted #3 R&B and #29 Pop.
Jimmy Nolen was an American guitarist, known for his distinctive "chicken scratch" lead guitar playing in James Brown's bands. In its survey of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time," the English magazine Mojo ranks Nolen number twelve. Rolling Stone named Nolen the 12th greatest guitarist of all time in 2023.
"Cold Sweat" is a song performed by James Brown and written with his bandleader Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis. Brown recorded it in May 1967. An edited version of "Cold Sweat" released as a two-part single on King Records was a No. 1 R&B hit, and reached number seven on the Pop Singles chart. The complete recording, more than seven minutes long, was included on an album of the same name.
"Get Up Sex Machine" is a song recorded by James Brown with Bobby Byrd on backing vocals. Released as a two-part single in 1970, it was a no. 2 R&B hit and reached no. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100.
"Mother Popcorn (You Got to Have a Mother for Me)" is a song recorded by James Brown and released as a two-part single in 1969. A #1 R&B and #11 Pop hit, it was the highest-charting of a series of recordings inspired by the popular dance the Popcorn which Brown made that year, including "The Popcorn", "Lowdown Popcorn", and "Let a Man Come In and Do the Popcorn". The "mother" of the song's title was, in the words of biographer RJ Smith, "[Brown's] honorific for a big butt".
"Super Bad", originally titled Call Me Super Bad, is a 1970 song by James Brown. Originally released as a three-part single, it went to #1 on the R&B chart and number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song's lyrics include the refrain "I've got soul and I'm super bad." The positive use of the word "bad" is an example of linguistic reappropriation, which Brown had done before in "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud".
"The Grunt" is a funk instrumental recorded in 1970 by James Brown's band The J.B.'s. It was released as a two-part single on King. It was one of only two instrumental singles recorded by the original J.B.'s lineup with Bootsy and Catfish Collins. Large parts of "The Grunt"'s melody and arrangement are borrowed, uncredited, from The Isley Brothers' song "Keep on Doin'", which was released earlier in the same year.
"Get on the Good Foot" is a funk song performed by James Brown. It was released in 1972 as a two-part single that charted #1 R&B and #18 Pop. It also appeared on an album of the same name released that year. Partly due to the unwillingness of Brown's record labels to certify sales of his previous hits, "Get on the Good Foot" was his first gold record. Billboard ranked it as the No. 99 song for 1972.
"Give It Up or Turnit a Loose" is a funk song recorded by James Brown. Released as a single in 1969, the song was a #1 R&B hit and also made the top 20 pop singles chart. "Give It Up or Turnit a Loose" appeared as an instrumental on the Ain't It Funky (1970) album, removing Brown's vocals and adding guitar overdubs, while the vocal version was released on It's a New Day – Let a Man Come In (1970).
Love, Power, Peace: Live at the Olympia, Paris, 1971 is a live album by James Brown. It is the only recording that documents one of his live performances with the original J.B.'s lineup featuring Bootsy and Catfish Collins. Love, Power, Peace was originally intended for a 1972 release as a vinyl triple album, but was cancelled after the key members of the original J.B.'s left Brown to join Parliament-Funkadelic. The album was finally released for the first time in 1992, edited down for a single compact disc; the full show, using Brown's original mixdown was later released in July 2014 on Sundazed Records.
"Talkin' Loud and Sayin' Nothing" is a funk song written by James Brown and Bobby Byrd. Recorded in 1970 by Brown and the original J.B.'s with Byrd on backing vocals and updated with a new melody, it was twice released as a two-part single in 1972. It also appeared on the album There It Is.
There It Is is the 33rd studio album by American musician James Brown. His second release for Polydor Records, it contained five of his early-1970s hits. The album was released on June 9, 1972. It reached #10 on the Billboard R&B charts and #60 on the Billboard 200.
Say It Live and Loud: Live in Dallas 08.26.68 is a live album by James Brown released in 1998. Taped at Dallas Memorial Auditorium soon after "Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud" had been released to the airwaves, it includes one of the only live recordings of the song, with the arena crowd shouting the call and response portions. Village Voice critic Robert Christgau deemed it the second best live recording from Brown's "crucial" 1967–71 period, behind 1970's Sex Machine. Following the 50th anniversary of the recording, the entire performance, including never before released live performances of "That's Life" and "The Popcorn", was released on vinyl by Republic Records on October 12, 2018.
"Lowdown Popcorn" is a funk instrumental recorded by James Brown. It was the third hit single Brown recorded in 1969 that was inspired by the popular dance the Popcorn, preceded by the instrumental "The Popcorn" and the song "Mother Popcorn". It charted #16 R&B and #41 Pop.
Motherlode is a 1988 James Brown compilation album. Created as a follow-up to the successful 1986 compilation In the Jungle Groove, it similarly focuses on Brown's funk recordings of the late 1960s and early 1970s. It includes live performances and remixes as well as studio recordings, most of them previously unissued. Writing in 2007, critic Robert Christgau called it "the finest of the classic [James Brown] comps". Highlights include a live "Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud", the first album release of "I Got Ants in My Pants ", the latter-day UK chart hit "She's the One", and a nine-minute-long remix of "People Get Up and Drive Your Funky Soul" from the Slaughter's Big Rip-Off soundtrack.
Super Bad is an album, that purports to be a live album, by American musician James Brown. The album was released in 1971 by King Records.