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The Payback by Fred Wesley St. Clair Pinckney Maceo Parker James Brown (R&B) (CD, 1973)

Rarewaves Outlet (1430962)

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Price:

AU $26.86

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Estimated delivery Wed, 27 Aug - Mon, 8 Sep

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30-day returns. Buyer pays for return postage. If you use an eBay postage label, it will be deducted from your refund amount.

Condition:

Brand new

Japanese pressing. The album was released in December 1973, by Polydor Records. It went to #1 on the Soul Albums chart for two weeks and cracked the Pop Albums chart in the Top 40. It was Brown's only studio album to be certified gold.

About this product

Product Identifiers

UPC4988005846006

eBay Product ID (ePID)16050165293

Product Key Features

FormatCD

Release Year1973

GenreR&B & Soul, Funk

ArtistFred Wesley, St. Clair Pinckney, Maceo Parker, James Brown (R&B)

Release TitleThe Payback

Additional Product Features

Number of Discs1

ReviewsEntertainment Weekly (4/30/93, p.55) - "...A fascinating, complex record--just don't expect to dance..." - Rating: B

Additional informationPersonnel: James Brown (vocals, electric piano); Jimmy Nolen, Hearlon Martin (guitar); Maceo Parker (flute, alto saxophone); St. Clair Pinckney (tenor saxophone); Darryl "Hasaan" Jamison, Isiah "Ike" Oakley, Jerone "Jasaan" Sanford (trumpet); Fred Wesley (trombone); Fred Thomas, Charles Sherrell (bass); John "Jabo" Starks (drums); Johnny Griggs, John Morgan (percussion). Recorded at International Recording, Augusta, Georgia. Includes recent and original release liner notes by Alan Leeds. All tracks have been digitally remastered. THE PAYBACK was originally released in 1974 as a 2-LP set. For this reissue, the album was digitally remastered from the original master tapes, including a recently discovered longer version of "Mind Power", which is included here for the first time. In 1973, Brown was hospitalized for exhaustion. Mere days after his release from the hospital, his oldest son was killed in a car accident. A few months later, he'd completed the sessions for THE PAYBACK. There are echoes of Brown's anger and suffering throughout the album. The title song, with its drop-dead funky bassline, is full of vitriol, as Brown cries out for revenge and compensation. "Doing the Best I Can" is an attractive soul ballad in which Brown sings of maintaining one's balance against adverse circumstances, despite "wondering which way to turn." Though the grooves are propulsive, this is a relatively low-key effort for Brown, filled with a subtly masked darkness. On the harrowing, bluesy "Forever Suffering," Brown sings of separation and loneliness, asking how long the suffering will continue. As the tune progresses, he sings with unsettling detail of the lengths to which his pain drives him. After repeated vows to beat his head against the wall, it becomes clear that the emotions being expressed here, and on the rest of THE PAYBACK, are very real. Fortunately, an artist of Brown's caliber is capable of channeling these feelings into great art.