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James Brown - Make It Funky - The Big Payback: 1971-1975 (1975)

Track listing:
CD1
  1. Escape-ism 4:10
  2. Hot Pants, Parts 1 & 2 6:54
  3. I'm A Greedy Man 7:06
  4. Make It Funky, Parts 1, 2, 3 & 12:46
  5. King Heroin 4:02
  6. I Got Ants In My Pants (And I 7:25
  7. There It Is 8:08
  8. Get On the Good Foot 5:44
  9. Don't Tell It (complete versio 8:26
  10. I Got a Bag Of My Own 3:44
  11. Down and Out In New York City 5:19
  12. Think 3:09
  13. Make It Good To Yourself (inte 2:16
CD2
  1. The Payback 7:38
  2. Stoned To the Bone 4:01
  3. Mind Power (Alternate Version) 4:03
  4. World Of Soul 5:46
  5. Papa Don't Take No Mess 13:50
  6. Coldblooded (Undubbed version) 5:02
  7. I Can't Stand It '76 8:08
  8. My Thang 4:16
  9. Funky President (People It's B 4:07
  10. I Feel Good 3:02
  11. Problems 2:48
  12. Turn On the Head And Build Som 6:05
  13. Hot Pants Finale (Live) 7:11

Notes


While the first half of the 1970s saw Brown's sales and art start to slowly decline, at their best he and the J.B.'s remained capable of generating a lot of heat. Record-wise it was a very erratic period, especially on his albums, which makes this two-and-a-half-hour double-disc compilation of his best material from the era especially welcome. Besides his biggest hits from the time ("Make It Funky," "Get on the Good Foot," "The Payback," "Funky President"), it has a number of high-charting R&B 45s that didn't make it onto the Star Time box. Familiar hits are sometimes presented in their full unedited mega-versions (12 minutes of "Make It Funky," 14 of "Papa Don't Take No Mess"), and there are also a few previously unreleased outtakes and alternate versions. It's only a disappointment relative to the towering accomplishments of his 1960s and early-'70s classics. On its own terms, it's excellent funk, if rather homogenous taken all at once, with occasional departures from the formula, like "Down and Out in New York City," with its poppy woodwinds.