Mother Popcorn (Soul Brother)
James Brown always had impeccable taste in choosing female singers for his touring revue in the 1960s and 1970s. Anna King, Tammi Terrell, Marva Whitney and Lyn Collins all did their bit admirably. But the soul godfather’s favourite was the leather-lunged Vicki Anderson. “She was not just the best singer I had with the revue, she was the best singer I had, period. She could out-sing anybody I know, any day, standing flat-footed,” he claimed.
And the evidence is here, from the early funk of Answer through to Super Good (Answer to Super Bad) and If You Don’t Give Me What I Want (I Gonna Get it Some Other Place). Anderson also duets with Brown on Think and You’ve Got the Power, as well as with her husband, Bobby Byrd, on You’re Welcome, Stop on By. The only mystery is why we have waited so long for an anthology as good as this.
John Clarke