April 5th: The 45th Anniversary Of The Night James Brown Saved Boston

Join us in remembering the iconic performance James Brown delivered at the Boston Garden on April 5th, 1968... The day after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, TN.

"Hey everyone, today is April 5th and it marks the
45th Anniversary of the night James Brown saved Boston.

His televised concert at Boston Garden
the night after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated
played a major role in helping to calm what was a growing unrest
between civilians and the city's police department.

To celebrate this anniversary, we'll be featuring clips from that
legendary concert, as well as the documentary made about that night.

It was only one man that could make America
stand still and think,
and that was a man who didn't have a PHD from Boston University
like Dr. King did, and he wasn't a proponent of non-violence
and never he got a Nobel Prize but he was a man who knew how to express the gutturances
and the screams and the feelings of a whole people
and because people say he feels like us
we're gonna at least give him the benefit of the doubt and hear what he has today
because if anyone understands what we feel tonight, it's James Brown.

He knew that he was taking that anger and that fury
and channeling it to a show business performance
but he also made the choice that that was the only thing he could do
to show respect for Dr. King and to save people's lives that night.

so even though there were those the criticized him
of trivializing this to a show
he understood that it may be a trivial way of saving lives
and preserving Dr. King's legacy.

Brought to you by the folks at SHOUT! factory,
a group of people dedicated to preserving the legacy
of artists like James brown."