Let's start with the obvious: James Brown was among the two or three most incendiary performers of the rock 'n' roll era. He presaged the likes of Michael Jackson, Prince and all the other brothers with soulful voices and slick dance moves who came after them.

In the 1960s, Brown didn't cross over to a white audience; the white audience crossed over to him. He achieved widespread commercial success without ever sanitizing, without ever suppressing the essential African-Americanness, of his music.

Yet as much as white folk listened to Brown on the radio, bought his records and watched him on TV, attending his concerts remained a shaky proposition, one that brought out the pervasive fear and distrust of the black inner city — because most of the time that's where you had to go to see James Brown in concert.

Many a white JB fan walks the earth today having never seen the man on stage in his prime (me included). That ship has sailed, of course, but the loss can be mitigated a little with the release of a three-DVD set titled I Got the Feelin': James Brown in the '60s (Shout! Factory).

Actually, the set's title underplays its value. These DVDs do more than show an extraordinary entertainer on stage, they capture a fascinating slice of American micro-history. Spring of 1968. James Brown's status as a figure in the black empowerment movement is on the rise. He is not a believer in Dr. Martin Luther King's policy of passive resistance; neither has he aligned himself with strident black militancy. But he respects and supports both.

Then King gets shot down in Memphis. Riots beset many American cities.

This article appears in Apr 22-28, 2009.

Eric Snider is the dean of Bay area music critics. He started in the early 1980s as one of the founding members of Music magazine, a free bi-monthly. He was the pop music critic for the then-St. Petersburg...