Top 500: 75. Star Time

It has taken me a long time to get through this album. I have read a lot of stuff about James Brown. I don't think I ever realized how strong he influenced, the extent of that influence or the musical intricacies of his influence on music. You can check out his Wikipedia page if you're interested. It's pretty fascinating. I have never been a big fan of funk. Just not something I really like and want to listen to for a long period of time. It gets very repetitive to me and I loose interest. In doing this experiment and listening to the fantastic Live at the Apollo, I came to realize that Brown started out as a soul singer and a really really great one at that. Now soul I like. Through this set you can hear his evolution. You can hear him invent and perfect funk music. Whether you like it or not, it's a pretty impressive thing to hear one artist over his career invent a type of music.  Then when you can hear the early stages of rap, hip-hop, and modern R&B in there as well, you have to come away from the experience a little bit awe inspired.