Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 298 - Live at The Apollo

Live at The Apollo Theater - Bruce Springsteen & E Street Band
Bruce Springsteen Archives

Recorded 9th March 2012

Released November 2014

Mixed by Bob Clearmountain

Mastered by Bob Ludwig

Setlist

(Click on Links to see Video Footage)

 We Take Care of Our Own
Wrecking Ball
Badlands
Death to My Hometown
My City of Ruins
The E Street Shuffle
Jack of All Trades
Shackled and Drawn
Waitin' on a Sunny Day
The Promised Land
Mansion on the Hill
The Way You Do The Things You Do
634-5789
The Rising
We Are Alive
Thunder Road
* * *
Rocky Ground (with Michelle Moore)
Land of Hope and Dreams/People Get Ready
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
Hold On, I'm Comin'

 Personnel
The E Street Band
    Bruce Springsteen – lead vocals, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar, harmonica, piano
    Roy Bittan – piano, synthesizer, accordion
    Nils Lofgren – rhythm guitar, lead guitar, pedal steel guitar, acoustic guitar, accordion, background vocals
    Patti Scialfa – background vocals, some duet vocals, acoustic guitar, occasional tambourine 

    Garry Tallent – bass guitar, background vocals, rare tuba
    Steven Van Zandt – rhythm guitar, lead guitar, mandolin, acoustic guitar, background vocals, occasional featured lead vocal
    Max Weinberg – drums, rare tambourine

 
  and
    Soozie Tyrell – violin, acoustic guitar, percussion, background vocals
    Charles Giordano – organ, accordion, electronic glockenspiel, rare piano, occasional background vocals
The E Street Horns:

    Jake Clemons – saxophone, percussion, background vocals
    Eddie Manion – saxophone, percussion
    Curt Ramm – trumpet, percussion
    Barry Danielian – trumpet, percussion
    Clark Gayton – trombone, tuba, percussion

The E Street Choir:
    Curtis King – background vocals, tambourine
    Cindy Mizelle – background vocals, tambourine
    Michelle Moore – background vocals, rapping on Rocky Ground
    Everett Bradley – percussion, background vocals

***********

The Way You Do The Things You Do / 634-5789

I was thinking about The Apollo Theater in Harlem this morning because on this day in 1962 James Brown recorded his famous and possibly one of the greatest live albums that was released in 1963 at the historic venue. I then remembered that I had already posted about it earlier in the year and thought I wouldn't get away with posting it again! If you want to check out that post you can do so HERE.

So instead of James Brown and the Famous Flames I thought I'd post another of my favourite shows that was recorded at the venue. 

The show was a "warm up" for the Wrecking Ball Tour in 2012 and was broadcast on SiriusXM Satellite Radio as part of their 10th Anniversary celebrations.

Springsteen's introduction of himself is reminiscent of M.C. Fats Gonder's introduction of James Brown & The Famous Flames on that October night in 1962.

This performance saw the 61 year old Springsteen in among the crowd during Waiting For A Sunny Day and other songs and even climbing up the balconies and standing on a ledge during a medley of classic Soul tunes!

(Photo by Christopher Phillips)

Tributes were paid to the departed Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici with the reminder : "The only thing I can guarantee tonight... if you're here and we're here, they're here."

Tracks from the brand new album, Wrecking Ball, were unveiled with eight of the twelve tracks getting an airing. The E Street Band were joined by the E Street Horns and the E Street Choir meaning there were eighteen people on stage!

The show was the first of the "Bruce Springsteen Archives" to be released via Springsteen's Website in November 2014 along with 30 shows from the High Hopes Tour.

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!

The Soundtrack4Life Concert Series: James Brown

Next in The Soundtrack4Life Concert Series is a real cracker. Filmed in 1968 at The Olympia in Paris it's in Black and White and features James Brown. Hope you enjoy this.

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 177 - James Brown and The Famous Flames

Live At The Apollo - James Brown and The Famous Flames

King

Produced by James Brown

Released May 1963

Billboard Top Pop Chart #2

2004 Deluxe Edition with Bonus Tracks

I wanted to end this week of looking at some Live Albums with One of the Greatest Live Albums I think. I would totally disagree with the NME and their 50 Greatest Live Albums Ever which saw this classic James Brown album at only #37... and they had Jay-Z at #7!... What is the world coming to?

There's a few things I love about this album. First, the fact that James Brown believed in making this album even when his record label scoffed at the whole idea. He paid for it out of his own pocket. I wonder who had egg on their faces when on release it was a huge seller and spent 66 weeks on the charts!

Secondly, I love the legacy this album has.  In 2003, the album was ranked #25 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2004, it was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to The National Recording Registry. That's not bad for an album that was deemed "unprofitable" by his label King Records.

Thirdly, I love it for the music, which is of course the most important reason. Recorded at The Apollo Theater in Harlem on 24th October 1962 and featuring The Famous Flames who had also sung backing on many of his singles from 1956 right through until 1968.

The Famous Flames by the way were actually a band that James Brown was a member of and he emerged as the lead vocalist in time for their debut single release Please, Please, Please in 1956 (on Federal which was a subsidiary of King Records). They consisted of Bobby Byrd (who had founded the group in 1953), Lloyd Stallworth and Bobby Bennett. One of the greatest TV performances ever of  Please, Please, Please by James Brown is from the TAMI show in the Sixties, man I could watch that clip all day it's so magnificent (it was also used in the film The Commitments).

The original album only lasts 31 minutes and 31 seconds and Brown demonstrates what an incredible showman he was even back then as he raises the temperature through out the set and yet manages some sweeter, quieter moments only to burst into some of the finest R&B, Soul and Funk that you've ever heard.

They don't really make Live Albums like this anymore...maybe because there are so few artists around that can cause such an incredible stir in such a short space of time. I was so blown away listening to it again last night that I ended up playing it twice in a row, because it's that darn good!

Oh, and one last thing about the album that I totally love is MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer citing Live at the Apollo as the inspiration to Kick Out the Jams:

"Our whole thing was based on James Brown. We listened to Live at the Apollo endlessly on acid. We would listen to that in the van in the early days of 8-tracks on the way to the gigs to get us up for the gig. If you played in a band in Detroit in the days before The MC5, everybody did 'Please, Please, Please' and 'I Go Crazy.' These were standards. We modeled The MC5's performance on those records. Everything we did was on a gut level about sweat and energy. It was anti-refinement. That's what we were consciously going for."

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!

Greatest Live Album of All Time?

Rolling Stone Magazine yesterday posted their choices for the 50 Greatest Live Albums of All Time. Looking at it I realised I have 24 of the albums mentioned!

The James Brown album (above) is considered to be the #1 Greatest Live Album. Now, I'm not wanting to be too picky about this because it's an outstanding album, but surely The Allman Brothers 'At Filmore East' is way more superior!

On that note here's my favourite Live Albums:

The Soundtrack4Life Top Ten

Live Albums

10. Live In New York City - Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.*

09. Live at The Marquee - 9 Below Zero.

08. Stop Making Sense - Talking Heads.

07. Live at the Harlem Square Club - Sam Cooke.

06. It's Alive - Ramones.

05. At Fillmore East - Allman Brothers.

04. Live At Leeds - The Who.

03. Slade Alive! - Slade.

02. Live - Status Quo.

01. All Those Wasted Years - Hanoi Rocks.

* You will notice the absence of the Live 1975-85 boxset from the list, this is due to it being recorded over a decade rather than one or two nights. The Live in New York City album would have been higher on the list if those who had been editing the show and sequencing it had put the songs in a logical order because whilst good it actually sounds quite disjointed!