James Brown and the Famous Flames - Cold Sweat (1967) {JPN Mini LP}
01 - Cold Sweat Part 1
02 - Cold Sweat Part 2
03 - Fever
04 - Kansas City
05 - Stagger Lee
06 - Good Rockin' Tonight
07 - Mona Lisa
08 - I Want to Be Around
09 - Nature Boy
10 - Come Rain or Come Shine
11 - I Loves You Porgy
12 - Back Stabbin'
AMG
If "Cold Sweat" was a revolutionary single in 1967, clearly pointing the way to funk music, the Cold Sweat LP at least promised to be something new in James Brown's catalog as well. Where Brown's albums had been collections containing his current single and miscellaneous older tracks, this one proclaimed on its cover, "All New," "Great Songs," "Never In," "An Album." This was not quite true. While half of the tracks had been recorded during the first half of 1967, the other half (though previously unreleased) dated from 1964. That wasn't the main problem with the album, though. Having taken a giant step forward with "Cold Sweat," Brown spent the rest of the album stepping back, covering standards such as "Nature Boy" and "Mona Lisa" (associated with Nat King Cole), "Fever" (Little Willie John), "Stagger Lee" (Lloyd Price), and other oddities, including "I Loves You Porgy" from Porgy & Bess. Brown was never anybody's idea of a smooth ballad singer, and this material was all the more incongruous when packaged with his most remarkable slab of funk yet.
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