James Brown & The Famous Flames

Listen: Cold Sweat (Part 2) / James Brown & The Famous Flames JamesBrownColdSweat2.mp3

“Excuse me while I do the boogaloo”.

And meanwhile the rest of us can try finding ‘Cold Sweat (Part 2)’ on any number on James Brown comps and anthologies. Well don’t waste your time.

The full seven/eight minute take is out there, but not the original two part monos like on the 7″. That’s the problem with many reissues. Someone goes back, finds the master – the stereo master that is, cleans it up and sells the ‘remastered version’. Never the two mono sides from the original single. We’re supposed to get excited about this? What it really means is all the good stuff gets scraped off, leaving something clean and polished, and dull.

That’s why the oldies stations don’t ultimately get me excited. All those remastered versions of ‘California Girls’ or ‘The Sounds Of Silence’, as if we need to hear them ever again to start, come off sterile and missing something. The dirt, that’s what.

Well here’s the mono ‘Cold Sweat (Part 2)’ before the wash and wax.

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