Album: There's A Riot Goin' On
For me, it remains a mystery why I prefer this album to Sly & The Family Stone's much more positive, Woodstock-era release Stand! There's the fact that this album has been around in my life much longer, a good example of my wife's small but significant contribution to our CD collection. On top of that is the fact that, as you scratch behind the veneer of this brilliant collection of songs, you find a raw layer of suffering and personal breakdown. This chronological blog also helps me see the album in its historical context, as a response to Marvin Gaye's What's Going On?, released earlier that year, with its angry and anarchic reply, There's A Riot Goin' On. This angry tone is reflected in the music and the album cover, a dark and heavy funky sound revealing a pessimism about the state of the nation and also the state of Sly's mental wellbeing. As a pioneer in marrying soul and psychedelia, Sly was a huge influence on groups like the Temptations (see Cloud Nine), and he developed this sound during the two drug-fuelled years following Stand!'s release, adding drum-machine beats and tape-overs, to create a distinctive brand of funk. Despite this backdrop, the group (uniting white & black, brother & sister) was still able to produce some moments of pop genius, notably Family Affair.
A No.1 single in the US at the time of the album's release, it's a much more downbeat record than earlier Sly hit singles like Thank You and Everybody Is A Star, as if soundtracking the post-civil rights and Vietnam war malaise that the country had slipped into. On tracks like Time the group even reference the optimism of their earlier singles, but with a dark twist ("everyday people looking forward to a simple beating"). On opener Luv n' Haight (a reference to the hippie district of San Francisco, Haight Ashbury), the band's signature groove is there, along with the wah-wah keyboards and other key elements of the funk sound. Both sides of the records also have extended workouts that lack any obvious sense of melody or peak, with Africa Talks To You and Brave & Strong both fragmented in terms of flow and lyrics, but also revealing Sly's more militant politics. This is lightened by the occasional song where the light breaks in, notably (You Caught Me) Smilin' and Runnin' Away, the latter sung by Sly's sister Rose, voicing a simple solution to society's problems and backed by a great sound. Personal breakdown rarely ever sounds this good.
Artist: Sly & The Family Stone
Born: San Francisco
Released: November 1971
Genre: Funk
Influenced: Parliament, De La Soul, Prince, Beastie Boys, Primal Scream
For me, it remains a mystery why I prefer this album to Sly & The Family Stone's much more positive, Woodstock-era release Stand! There's the fact that this album has been around in my life much longer, a good example of my wife's small but significant contribution to our CD collection. On top of that is the fact that, as you scratch behind the veneer of this brilliant collection of songs, you find a raw layer of suffering and personal breakdown. This chronological blog also helps me see the album in its historical context, as a response to Marvin Gaye's What's Going On?, released earlier that year, with its angry and anarchic reply, There's A Riot Goin' On. This angry tone is reflected in the music and the album cover, a dark and heavy funky sound revealing a pessimism about the state of the nation and also the state of Sly's mental wellbeing. As a pioneer in marrying soul and psychedelia, Sly was a huge influence on groups like the Temptations (see Cloud Nine), and he developed this sound during the two drug-fuelled years following Stand!'s release, adding drum-machine beats and tape-overs, to create a distinctive brand of funk. Despite this backdrop, the group (uniting white & black, brother & sister) was still able to produce some moments of pop genius, notably Family Affair.
A No.1 single in the US at the time of the album's release, it's a much more downbeat record than earlier Sly hit singles like Thank You and Everybody Is A Star, as if soundtracking the post-civil rights and Vietnam war malaise that the country had slipped into. On tracks like Time the group even reference the optimism of their earlier singles, but with a dark twist ("everyday people looking forward to a simple beating"). On opener Luv n' Haight (a reference to the hippie district of San Francisco, Haight Ashbury), the band's signature groove is there, along with the wah-wah keyboards and other key elements of the funk sound. Both sides of the records also have extended workouts that lack any obvious sense of melody or peak, with Africa Talks To You and Brave & Strong both fragmented in terms of flow and lyrics, but also revealing Sly's more militant politics. This is lightened by the occasional song where the light breaks in, notably (You Caught Me) Smilin' and Runnin' Away, the latter sung by Sly's sister Rose, voicing a simple solution to society's problems and backed by a great sound. Personal breakdown rarely ever sounds this good.
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