Can anyone suggest a good James Brown DVD.... especially live? I've got Body Heat and its fab. Any other recommendations?......

Most of the ones I've seen are from well past his peak (starting mid 70s there was a sharp creative decline, & he started getting saddled w/outside producers), but the footage from the TAMI/TNT show ('64) which is great & features the Stones and other big acts from the era, is terrific & available under various titles.I've mostly stuck with the CDs (James, always an erratic album artist, has been very well served by the CD era - there's more in print in the past decade than at any other time in James' career), but if there is any killer 60s/70s DVD available I'd like to hear about it too

I'll tell you an ABSOLUTE INDISPENSABLE! Title: "James Brown Golden Greats". It was published in 2005 by "American Legends LTD", ref: AML 1857.

Now for what's in it: a major moment of history - the concert James gave in Boston in 1968, two days after the assassination of Martin Luther King. All the ghettos throughout the US were burning, and the Boston mayor had an idea: asked Brown to do a televised concert so that people would stay at home and watch. And they did, and Boston was the only riot-free major city that night. Brown is purely on fire, dancing like mad, doing the breakdance, the moonwalk, (and this is 1968!) going down and what have you. Highlight is when he calls Maceo Parker to solo and dances and yells face to face with the sax player. The emotional climax, though, is when a riot begins in the crowd, with youth climbing on stage and the police stepping forward; and Brown brushes the police aside, "let me talk to my people". And everything gets back in order. Postlude: the following morning, the mayor himself drove his convertible candillac through the ghetto with Brown standing up in the passenger's seat, waiving to the crowd.

It's just as tough, intense as it gets. I shall say the footage is low sound & picture quality - but that shall by no means stop you. You'll be stuck to the ceiling for days!

Other options: you can dowload from the internet a TV program called SoulTrain with James Brown in 1969. It gets nowhere near concert intensity but is great music and dancing and funny interviews. You can also download a TV program from Olympia, Paris 1971. The quality there is dreadful - but it's a fantastic performance (have you heard the live CD Love Power Peace? It's THAT show, and if you've heard it you'll definitely want to see it.) However, Boston 68 remains the MUST HAVE!

In the Boston video he does a killer version of "There was a Time". Everytime the song goes into the instrumentals he does such a cool dance wher he throws hi head around.

"...no longer shall you trudge 'cross my peaceful mind."