James Brown’s scream could bring down buildings, but he opened his April 5, 1968 concert seated on a stool, sweetly singing “If I Ruled the World.” It was the night after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, and Soul Brother No. 1 had a message for his audience: “Go to school and get yourselves together.” He spoke long, even introduced Boston’s mayor (“a swingin’ cat”) before lifting the roof with dynamic renditions of his hits.
