This excerpt from James Brown's 1986 autobiography The Godfather of Soul tells us everything we need to know about the Hardest Working Man in Show Business's approach to performance.
For the many who have yet to join the congregation at one of his incendiary gigs, one exceptional recording is testament to the rapture-inducing force of his talent.
Live At The Apollo was recorded on October 24, 1962 at the much revered Harlem music hall at Brown's own expense, the project having been scorned by King Records boss Syd Nathan due to doubts about commercial prospects in the absence of fresh material to promote.
Nathan soon changed his mind on hearing the tapes, and was no doubt delighted he did so. The album went on to become Brown's first million-seller, being played on high-rotation - often in its entirety - on the nation's R&B radio stations.
The performance finds the gospel-inspired R&B singer on the cusp of his transition into the cold-sweating funkster of his later career, an exuberant soul searching for a new vessel to inhabit.
Along with a razor-sharp band and long-time vocal backline the Famous Flames, he pours his heart into a compact 30-minute set that includes a bracket of early singles Try Me, I'll Go Crazy and Think, an 11-minute version of Lost Someone, an eight-song medley and a frenetic version of Night Train.
On Lost Someone, split in two by the side break on the original vinyl release, Brown relishes his role as charismatic preacher, coaxing an animated audience into a call-and-response segment that leads one woman to release a full-throated scream, and others to hoot and cackle in sympathy. Their shared troubles are, for the moment, traded for communal joy.
