Perhaps no musician in rock history has set the standard for live performance quite like James Brown: the sweating, the falling to the ground in seizured ecstasy, the capes coming on and off, the legs akimbo. It was like Brown had his finger in a soulful electrical socket. Before you see Get On Up, the new biopic about Brown life’s, out today, watch these seven legendary performances—one of them, in Boston the night after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, was so powerful, it helped quell a riot.
The T.A.M.I. Show, 1961
Live in Paris, 1967
Live in Boston on April 5, 1968, the night after Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot.
On Soul Train, 1974
Live in Kinshasa at Zaire '74, 1974
With Michael Jackson, 1983
Live at Woodstock '99, 1999