James Brown: I'm Real (Polydor)

HE ISN'T, of course. He's Mr James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, the Funky President, the Original Disco Man. He's a numbing backbeat tightened to intolerable ice-precision, a petulant scream driven towards operatic tragedy, a funny, screwed-up little man whose whole aspect was turned towards The Hardest Cranking Show in the Jerk-Business. Without reasonable equal. Who needs reason?