On August 26, 1968, two weeks after releasing his civil rights anthem, “Say
It Loud – I’m Black And I’m Proud,” James Brown recorded his concert at
Dallas, Texas’ Memorial Auditorium. First released on CD in 1998,
Brown’s Say It Live and Loud: Live in Dallas 08.26.68 album makes its vinyl
debut in an expanded 2LP 50th Anniversary Edition. Say It Live and Loud: Live in
Dallas 08.26.68 captures James Brown and his band laying it down onstage in the
heat of a tumultuous summer, just months after the assassinations of Martin
Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, and on the same night the turbulent
Democratic National Convention opened in
Chicago. The album features the first-ever live recordings of “Say It
Loud – I’m Black And I’m Proud,” which Brown performed twice.
The new 2LP vinyl edition add two previously unreleased recordings,
“That’s Life” and “The Popcorn,” as well as an updated essay by James
Brown’s former tour manager, Alan Leeds. An essay by Public Enemy’s Chuck
D, written for the album’s 1998 CD package, is also included.
Recorded August 7, 1968 and rush released on August 14, James Brown’s “Say
It Loud – I’m Black And I’m Proud” rose to the top of
Billboard’s R&B chart, reaching No. 1 on October 5, 1968 and holding
the top spot for six weeks. The single also peaked in the Top 10 of the
BillboardHot 100 singles chart. “James Brown singlehandedly took a lost and
confused nation of people and bonded them with a fix of words, music and
attitude,” recalls Chuck D in his liner notes essay for Say It Live and Loud:
Live in Dallas 08.26.68. “‘Say It Loud – I’m Black And I’m Proud’
was the phrase that prepared me for the third grade, 1969, and the rest of
my life.”