I got this at the end of 2002 for what I think was a knock-down price from Fopp. My collection at the time was shamefully lacking much James Brown (to be precise, I had one CD of his), and this was the most comprehensive way to remedy that.
Like most boxed sets by a single artist or band, it's best consumed in small doses. I'd say about half a CD (i.e. 35 minutes, old-fashioned album length) at a time. Having listened to all of CDs three and four in little over 24 hours, I was certainly getting diminishing returns — though a decline in freshness of the later material may also be partly to blame. I was also tempted to count the number of times JB exclaimed "take it to the bridge", but that would have involved listening again from the beginning.
I have to admit I haven't read all the essays in the booklet yet. I just have the reassurance that I can catch up with it all whenever the mood takes me.
 MusicBrainz entry for Disc 1Disc 2 Disc 3 Disc 4 Full tracklisting and writing credits on Wikipedia. |
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