Even Michael Jackson couldn’t find a copy. In an interview just before “Thriller” was released in 1982 Mr. Jackson begged a reporter to help him locate a rare videotape of a 1964 James Brown performance because, as Mr. Jackson said, “he got so out of himself.” Years later the producer Rick Rubin would describe this same appearance as possibly “the single greatest rock ‘n’ roll performance ever captured on film.”
In the footage Brown delivers an 18-minute barrage of splits, twists and spins. He hits his knees, drops into a push-up and glides halfway across the stage on one foot. During “Night Train,” he teases the audience into hysteria with multiple fake exits.
But this legendary set, from a concert film called “The T.A.M.I. Show,” hasn’t been available for more than four decades. The film has been celebrated in song lyrics, has circulated on the bootleg market and occasionally surfaced on the film festival and museum circuit. But it now has been released on DVD for the first time.
Of the 12 acts in the movie, 7 went on to become members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, including the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, Chuck Berry and the Supremes. And incredible for the time, not only did black and white artists share the spotlight, but the audience and even the onstage go-go dancers were integrated. Filmed on October 29, 1964, at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in California, the show has had an air of mystery .
The artists were happy because T.A.M.I., which stands for Teenage Awards Music International, was going to be a genuine rock ‘n’ roll concert film, considered the first of its kind. “There weren’t a lot of people making movies except movie stars,” Mary Wilson of the Supremes said.
Steve Binder, who would later direct Elvis Presley’s comeback special in 1968, was brought in as director. The roster for “The T.A.M.I. Show” was a remarkable snapshot of a moment in pop music . Taking the stage were representatives of Motown (Marvin Gaye, the Supremes, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles), the British Invasion (the Rolling Stones, Gerry and the Pacemakers ), surf music (the Beach Boys, Jan and Dean), first-wave rock ‘n’ roll (Berry), hard-core soul (Brown), pop (Lesley Gore) and even proto-garage rock (the Barbarians).
“It had never been done before, and it’s never been done since,” Keith Richards said in the 2003 book “According to the Rolling Stones.”
The show had two full run-throughs, but all the movie footage is taken from a five-hour shoot on the evening of October 29, in front of a delirious crowd of 3,000, mostly students from the nearby Santa Monica High School.
Tension brewed backstage because the Rolling Stones had been granted the final slot of the evening, and Brown was furious. “No one follows James Brown,” he told Mr. Binder.
Brown responded by hitting the stage at maximum intensity. His famous cape routine during “Please, Please, Please” ? in which his aide draped a leopard cape around Brown and led him toward the wings, only to have him repeatedly shake it off and run back to the microphone ? escalated the excitement. Members of the Rolling Stones have often said that going onstage after Brown was the worst decision of their career.
The impact of “The T.A.M.I. Show” was undeniable. Mr. Binder said that the integrated lineup was a strong statement itself, a year before the passage of the Voting Rights Act. “White audiences were listening to black artists at the time,” he said, “but they never really saw them.”
By ALAN LIGHT
