James Brown - Live At Home With His Bad Self (Oct. 25, 2019)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Marry a Carrot, Sep 5, 2019.

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  1. Hatchet Jack

    Hatchet Jack Forum Resident

    Location:
    Europe
    Don't know about the vinyl release of this album, but the CD is unlistenable to me, it hurts my ears like nothing else. The same with the Dallas show CD, just unlistenable. I'm sick and tired of this loud masterings! How come regular people from a forum knows more about what makes a good mastering than the so called "professionals" that make a living doing this crappy job? You can't find a good sounding Rick James album nowadays, cause they ruined his entire discography with terrible loud masterings! The same happened with Mr. James Brown discography. And i don't buy vinyl anymore, just digital or physical CDs, so i don't have many options. I guess things don't look good...
     
    Last edited: Apr 5, 2020
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  2. Hatchet Jack

    Hatchet Jack Forum Resident

    Location:
    Europe
    One more thing: the original version of the "Sex Machine" live album has the same emcee introduction (The star of the show, hardworking...) four times during the album, one for each side of the records? Cause it's a strange choice and i don't like it. I know some later CDs don't have that, but they don't sound that good.
     
  3. Hatchet Jack, what, pray tell, is a great live James Brown recording in your estimation?
     
  4. Hatchet Jack

    Hatchet Jack Forum Resident

    Location:
    Europe
    They're all great, some of the best live recordings of all time in any genre. I'm complaining about the masterings. The "Revolution of the Mind" '93 Polydor CD sounds great, for example, and so does the '92 Japanese Polydor CD of "Sex Machine". But the new "Live at Home with His Bad Self" CD, to me it's unlistenable. Terrible mastering.
     
  5. Mook

    Mook Forum Resident

    It sounds amazing to me.
     
  6. Yeah, it sounds great to me as well. Just a fantastic record to listen to on headphones.
     
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  7. Hatchet Jack

    Hatchet Jack Forum Resident

    Location:
    Europe
    Well, to me it sounds terrible. I can't even listen to the extended version of "Live at the Apollo Vol. II". Because of the mastering, i prefer to stick with the edited Polydor CD.
     
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  8. asdf35

    asdf35 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Austin TX
    Yeah, I gotta say the mastering is pretty peaked-out and brickwalled on the new set. It might sound big, loud and raw on the stereo - but if you compare "Mother Popcorn" on the new set to MP from Foundations Of Funk (same performance), it's a huge difference. FOF version has great dynamics, the horns move all around the sound spectrum. I was really hoping the new set would be mastered like that.

    Here's the FOF version:
     
  9. Hatchet Jack

    Hatchet Jack Forum Resident

    Location:
    Europe
    That's right, "Foundations of Funk" is a great sounding compilation. Most of the 80's and 90's James Brown CDs sound very good. It's in the 2000's that things started to get ugly.

    PS: I talked about the Dallas show being unlistenable, but i meant to say the "Live at the Garden" extended 2CD. It's horrendous! Never heard the original edited LP though, maybe it's bad too. But the Dallas CD ain't that too good either.
     
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  10. Man at C&A

    Man at C&A Senior Member

    Location:
    England
    I've just picked this up on vinyl. A great album but I'm regretting not going for the CD. It doesn't work on vinyl. The end of side three is particularly annoying. I was lost in the music totally enjoying it, then it abruptly stops dead in the middle of a medley when all the band are playing. It sounds wrong. Side one also ends abruptly with James Brown talking, but then you have to turn over to hear the song.
     
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  11. Solace

    Solace Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brussels, Belgium
    Can someone post the DR numbers for this? Just curious. Thanks.
     
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  12. Buy the cd then. When the album is good enough, I'll get the cd and the vinyl.
     
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  13. Man at C&A

    Man at C&A Senior Member

    Location:
    England
    I don't have enough money to buy albums twice. Even if I did I'd rather buy another album. I'll pick up the CD if it turns up cheap sometime.
     
  14. Vintage1976

    Vintage1976 Way Out West

    Location:
    California
    Ordering this next week on CD and waiting for the Apollo IV (1972) CD version to show up from Japan. I have the MP3 download.

    As others have mentioned the Foundations Of Funk double disc is long a favorite of mine. We were definitely spoiled in the 90s with how many solid releases came out year after year.
     
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  15. SoundAdvice

    SoundAdvice Senior Member

    Location:
    Vancouver
    I kinda wish live stuff from his last decade would come out on blu ray in HD. MontreUx is HD since early 90's, Woodstock 99 is HD, Bonaroo might be HD, the House of Blues 2000 show was shot in early HD. Some tv from 2005/2006 are HD, but he looks frail in some of those.
     
  16. Joel S

    Joel S Forum Resident

    I just ordered the vinyl from Udiscover today. I had some points to redeem. The album cost me $12. I'm having second-thoughts now about the mastering. Was it just cut from the digital file? I hate not knowing when I plunk down my money for a record if I'm just buying a CD pressed to vinyl.
     
  17. pbuzby

    pbuzby Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, IL, US
    Just saw this thread title and misread the name as Jackson Browne. That would be a great name for a Jackson Browne album.
     
  18. ILovethebassclarinet

    ILovethebassclarinet Forum Resident

    Location:
    Great Lakes region
    I've "had it living in a shopping cart for a while now..."
     
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  19. walrus

    walrus Staring into nothing

    Location:
    Nashville
    I remember seeing a show of his on TV in the early 2000’s, and...there’s a reason that stuff never came out. It was probably still okay if you were in the room, but it was pretty depressing to watch/listen to at home.
     
  20. SoundAdvice

    SoundAdvice Senior Member

    Location:
    Vancouver
    I thought there was still good moments onstage right until near the end. Hence the repeat business in many places far beyond the "checklist" markers who are one and done. They shot so much stuff over the years that preference was given to earlier stuff. Parts of the shows were cheesy, but he could still be strict band leader.

    Different than someone like BB King were the last 5 years felt like elder abuse and the shows were bad.
     
  21. walrus

    walrus Staring into nothing

    Location:
    Nashville
    Like I said, probably okay if you were there...sound is loud and you don't always notice how weak the vocals are, plus it was probably just a thrill to be in the same room as JB. I've seen that video of him in the UK in 2006 that was televised...it's admirable he's still up there doing what he can, but it's pretty painful to watch at home, and not hard to see why there hasn't been official releases of late-era stuff; it just wouldn't benefit his legacy in any way.

    But also, there probably just isn't enough interest to justify a commercial release. That's usually the answer to "why isn't this [obscure thing] released?"
     
  22. Vintage1976

    Vintage1976 Way Out West

    Location:
    California
    Regarding the quoted comments, the Live At Home CD is fairly disappointing for me. Since Foundations Of Funk came out, I had read about this show and the band's performance. The CD runs right at 1 hour 10 minutes. "The Mother Popcorn" on this new CD seems sped up. It is definitely faster than on Foundations Of Funk. I wonder if it was sped up to fit all tracks on one disc? All the tracks seem lacking in bass and there is a weird echo that is not near as present as on FOF.

    The comments about the 1968 Dallas show are spot on. A tight show, but, the mastering is super loud. I would even say a bit too loud. But, the band is on fire. And this is a CD not to miss.

    I wouldn't mind starting a new topic just to discuss the 1990's era reissues of James Brown. There was some real gold, but also some odd ideas, inclusions, wrong discography into listed sometimes, but overall a great era for reissues.
     
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