Star Time


Star Time is a 1991 71-track, 4-CD box set by James Brown. Its contents span most of the length of his career up to the time of its release, starting in 1956 with his first hit record, "Please, Please, Please", and ending with "Unity", his 1984 collaboration with Afrika Bambaataa. Writing in 2007, Robert Christgau described it as "the finest box set ever released... as essential a package as the biz has ever hawked, not just because it's James Brown, but because compilers Cliff White and Harry Weinger invested so much care and knowledge in it." Its title comes from the question Brown's announcer would ask concert audiences, as heard on the album Live at the Apollo: "Are you ready for star time?"
Star Time's liner notes, written by Cliff White, Harry Weinger, Nelson George, Alan Leeds, and Brown himself, won a 1991 Grammy Award for Best Album Notes. The notes also include a discography and a one-page comic by Mary Fleener, a visual interpretation of the song "I Got You."
In 2003, the album was ranked number 79 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. It was the second-highest ranking box set on the list. In 2012, the rank moved up to 75.

Track listing

Disc 1 ("Mr. Dynamite")

  1. "Please Please Please" – 2:43
  2. "Why Do You Do Me" – 2:59
  3. "Try Me" – 2:30
  4. "Tell Me What I Did Wrong" – 2:20
  5. "Bewildered" – 2:21
  6. "Good Good Lovin'" – 2:18
  7. "I'll Go Crazy" – 2:05
  8. "I Know It's True" – 2:40
  9. " Mashed Potatoes, Pt. 1" – 1:39
  10. "Think" – 2:46
  11. "Baby, You're Right" – 2:58
  12. "Lost Someone" – 3:28
  13. "Night Train" – 3:38
  14. "I've Got Money" – 2:29
  15. "I Don't Mind" – 2:29
  16. "Prisoner of Love" – 2:24
  17. "Devil's Den" – 4:48
  18. "Out of the Blue" – 2:15
  19. "Out of Sight" – 2:19
  20. "Grits" – 3:58
  21. "Maybe the Last Time" – 3:02
  22. "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" – 3:22
  23. "I Got You" – 2:27
  24. "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag, Pts. 1, 2 & 3" – 6:56
Track 9 published under the James Brown pseudonym of Dessie Rozier. Tracks 17-21 & 23 are published under the James Brown pseudonym of Ted Wright.
Tracks 1-7, 10, 12, 15, and 21 recorded with The Famous Flames

Disc 2 ("The Hardest Working Man In Show Business")

  1. "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag, Pt. 1" – 2:06
  2. "I Got You " – 2:45
  3. "Ain't That a Groove" – 3:31
  4. "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" – 2:46
  5. "Money Won't Change You" – 6:01
  6. "Don't Be a Dropout" – 4:31
  7. "Bring It Up " – 3:48
  8. "Let Yourself Go" – 3:53
  9. "Cold Sweat" – 7:30
  10. "Get It Together" – 8:57
  11. "I Can't Stand Myself, Pt. 1" – 3:29
  12. "I Got the Feelin'" – 2:39
  13. "Licking Stick-Licking Stick" – 4:52
  14. "Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud, Pt. 1" – 2:59
  15. "There Was a Time" – 4:59
  16. "Give It Up or Turnit a Loose" – 3:10
  17. "I Don't Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing " – 5:59

    Disc 3 ("Soul Brother No. 1")

  18. "Mother Popcorn" – 6:18
  19. "Funky Drummer" – 7:00
  20. "Get Up Sex Machine" – 5:15
  21. "Super Bad, Pts. 1 & 2" – 4:26
  22. "Talkin' Loud & Sayin' Nothing" – 8:59
  23. "Get Up, Get into It and Get Involved" – 7:03
  24. "Soul Power, Pts. 1 & 2" – 4:25
  25. "Brother Rapp/Ain't It Funky Now" – 7:44
  26. "Hot Pants, Pt. 1" – 3:06
  27. "I'm a Greedy Man, Pt. 1" – 3:36
  28. "Make It Funky, Pt. 1" – 3:34
  29. "It's a New Day" – 3:48
  30. "I Got Ants in My Pants, Pt. 1" – 3:01
  31. "King Heroin" – 3:57

    Disc 4 ("The Godfather Of Soul")

  32. "There It Is, Pt. 1" – 3:20
  33. "Public Enemy #1, Pt. 1" – 5:09
  34. "Get on the Good Foot" – 4:07
  35. "I Got a Bag of My Own" – 3:44
  36. "Doing It to Death" – 5:14
  37. "The Payback" – 7:28
  38. "Papa Don't Take No Mess, Pt. 1" – 4:22
  39. "Stoned to the Bone, Pt. 1" – 3:28
  40. "My Thang" – 4:37
  41. "Funky President " – 4:01
  42. "Hot " – 5:03
  43. "Get Up Offa That Thing " – 6:14
  44. "Body Heat, Pt. 1" – 4:29
  45. "It's Too Funky in Here" – 5:39
  46. "Rapp Payback " – 4:36
  47. "Unity, Pt. 1" – 3:40

    Other compilations

At the time of its release Star Time was the most comprehensive collection of James Brown's recordings ever issued. A series of Polydor compilations released in the 1990s expanded on Star Time by including additional songs, alternate takes, previously unreleased recordings, and longer, unedited versions of key tracks:
Two other Polydor collections similarly anthologize Brown's instrumental recordings:
In 1992, Scotti Brothers Records released The Greatest Hits of the Fourth Decade, a compilation of Brown's charting songs from the 1980s which were left off of Star Time. The album's cover art was modelled on ''Star Times.
In 2006, Hip-O Select Records began a multi-volume reissue of James Brown's complete singles on CD. The volumes are only available through mail order., eleven volumes have been released, covering the periods 1956-1960, 1960-1963, 1964-1965, 1966-1967, 1967-1969, 1969-1970, 1970-1972, 1972-1973, 1973-1975, 1975-1979 and 1979-1981.