For the People. You really can't go wrong with any JB's release or anything that James Brown touched back before about 1975. "Same Beat," "Blow Your Head," "Damn Right I'm Somebody," the JB's are the funkiest of the funky shit, still. It is a pretty weird record, when the JB's were getting strange by simultaneously getting freer and more electronic. They go space funked B-released and double time stretched out which produced some weird things, like "Blow Your Head." It starts with the Moog buzzing noise made famous by "Public Enemy No. 1" and untarnished by the lead touch of Bluff Paddy. A dancefloor knocker in any situation. "Same Beat" is another strong track, featured in two parts with spacey organ work and a classic JB chant. As with other JB's records of the time, there's lots of great skits and interludes between songs. The best is the band getting together and trying to get Hank Ballard to come on in. "You know how we get down... Hank you remember meee": sounds like ODB's grandfather. It's an amazing album. Recorded during the same session as James Brown's The Payback.

• black vinyl pressing
• housed in Stoughton tip-on jacket
• original release year: 1974
• music label: Get On Down 2024

reviewed by the mgmnt 10/2005