No. 186: Fresh

Band: Sly & The Family Stone
Album: Fresh
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: The last of Stone's great records, "Fresh" has Sly further developing his funk sound. Moving away from the rock and roll he played before, the bass and Sly's low voice take center stage on "Fresh," including the fantastic "If You Want Me To Stay."
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: It's not on par with "There's A Riot Goin' On" or "Stand!," but "Fresh" is pretty great. This is a fine place for it on the list.
Best song: "If You Want Me to Stay" is the highlight, though "Thankful 'N Thoughtful" is amazing.
Worst song: There isn't really a bad song on the record, though "Let Me Have It All" isn't great.
Is it awesome?: I love Sly Stone, so I love this record.

My unfamiliarity with funk is reflected not necessarily in my distaste for the genre. Rather, with a band like Sly & The Family Stone, anything they've done is good to me, mostly because I can't really tell good from bad. Certainly, there are funk record that were hits -- the ones you and I know from years of radio play and such -- but the non-single album tracks and the non-popular albums may not be great. I love them because they're different from what I know and have a distinct sound.

So goes "Fresh" in my head. I've listened to "Fresh" for the first time the past few weeks and I certainly enjoy it. There's a real groove to the records and Stone's voice, smoother than ever, fits the music perfectly.

But, I don't want to fall into a trap in which I don't keep the same standards for funk that I do for punk rock. "Let Me Have It All" and "Thankful 'N Thoughtful" are mostly just chant-type lyrics over a fantastic groove (of course, the difference between those songs and the Stooges' "We Will Fall" is that the Stooges record has a crappy backbeat). Lyrics like that aren't my bag; Though the voice as an instrument is something to behold in Sly & The Family Stone's case.

Nevertheless, I like "Fresh." Save for the strange cover of "Qué Será, Será (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)," the record is less of a negative, post-hippie reflection as it was a portending view of the '70s drug and hedonism culture. "Keep On Dancin'" borrows and repositions "Dance To The Music" while "If You Want Me to Stay" is a great breakup/makeup song, sung with a real forlorn feeling in Stone's voice. "Babies Makin' Babies" and "I Don't Know (Satisfaction)" are really the only "spirit of the '60s" songs on the record; Optimistic protest music just isn't here.

The common criticism of "Fresh" is that the band fell apart during "There's A Riot Goin' On," prompting seminal bass player Larry Graham, original drummer Gregg Errico and sax player Jerry Martini to leave. It may be my untrained ear (documented above), but I don't see a huge drop off. Yes, the band isn't as good as its earlier albums, but it's also a different time. A lot of bands only have three great records in them. "Fresh" is a quality record and holds up very well. Sure, it's not as good as "Stand!" or "There's A Riot Goin' On," but no records stand up to those two.

No. 118: Stand!

Band: Sly & The Family Stone
Album: Stand!
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: "Stand!" could easily be an early Sly Stone greatest hits album, as mot of the songs you know from them are on this record. "Everyday People," "I Want To Take You Higher" and the title track are all classic.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: Easily the best Sly record, this should be higher.
Best song: Pick it. Basically any song on the record is great.
Worst song: "Sex Machine" basically goes on too long. That's about it.
Is it awesome?: Absolutely.

Where would we be without Sly & The Family Stone? We probably wouldn't have Parliament, which means that West Coast rap -- one of the three or four most important musical movements of the last twenty years -- probably wouldn't have happened. Prince took a great deal from the band, so we'd probably have a considerably different Prince for the 80s.

I don't want to live in that world.

---

The album alternates between satire and unabashed optimism. "I Want To Take You Higher" has the distinctive guitar riff, the alternating yelps and the organ that everyone knows. The song's message of rising up because of the music is a sweet one, however silly it is. "Sing A Simple Song" is similarly optimistic, building on the same rhythmic style.

"Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey" is biting satire at the level of racial discourse present in the late '60s, with basically each side screaming at one another. The message of the song is made all the most powerful by knowing that Sly & The Family Stone was biracial and bigender. "Everyday People" follows the same pattern, albeit in an actual song structure situation. As opposed to having only two lines, "Everyday People" is a full song, with the fantastic verse of "There is a blue one who can't accept the green one for living with a fat one trying to be a skinny one." Stone's admission that "I am no better and neither are you/We are the same whatever we do" is the perfect example of a great "live and let live" ideal for the late 60s.

(Bassist Larry Graham also, basically, invented slap bass on this track. It's the first recorded instance of the technique and is as much a mainstay of 70s and later funk as the genre's complex rhythms.)

"Somebody's Watching You" isn't as optimistic -- it's really just paranoid -- as the other songs on the record. It's a funky romp, but, lyrically, it's a little nutty. Like most songs about fame, the lyrics explain that success comes some level of scrutiny. While it's a tired lyrical subject, the song's arrangement is such that it's still entirely lovely and a lot of fun.

"Stand!" is a wonderful intersection of several musical styles, with gospel and soul vocals, R&B rhythms, rock guitar work and psychedelic, well, everything else. It's brilliant and as important as nearly any record put out in the late '60s.

No. 99: There's a Riot Goin' On

Band: Sly & The Family Stone
Album: There's a Riot Goin' On
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: In 1971, America was out of the idealistic '60s and just into the darker '70s. The optimism of Martin Luther King and the Kennedies has turned into Richard Nixon being president. The free love has turned into sexual aggressiveness and the easygoing soft drugs have turned into cocaine and heroin. Sly & The Family Stone put this into song. While not violent or miserable, "There's a Riot Goin' On" is dark. The optimism of the '60s is gone. There's stuff to be done and it's not getting done.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: Well, I still fancy "Stand!" as the best Sly record.
Best song: "Family Affair" was a no. 1 single, but it's hardly the record's best song. "Thank You For Talkin' to Me Africa" is a great extension/reworking of "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)."
Worst song: "(You Caught Me) Smilin'" isn't fantastic.
Is it awesome?: It's amazing.

A year before Curtis Mayfield released "Superfly", Sly & The Family Stone put out the aptly titled "There's A Riot Goin' On." Coming off the heels of the unrest of late sixties, "There's A Riot Going On" focused on a darker sound, largely due to the pessimism brewing, post-civil rights. Martin Luther King's non-violence turned into the Nation of Islam's militancy. Acid, marijuana and freeing one's mind is now heroin and cocaine.

The first tinges of the "what happened?" question that most white boomers refuse to ask appear here. The title track ends the first side, though, it doesn't really exist (Stone told a fan that "There's a Riot Goin' On" has no running time because "I felt there should be no riots.").

The album took nearly three years to make, largely because of Stone's increasing drug use. The line "feel so good/don't wanna move" in the opening song likely is a reference to Stone's recreation at the time. Stone was an optimist in his earlier years, but his lyrics bely something more apathetic this time around. "Time they say is/The answer/But I don't believe it" is a glimpse into the "they've sold me a bill of goods" attitude of the black community at the time.

As Robert Christgau puts it, "The inspiration may be Sly's discovery that the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow doesn't mean shit, but what's expressed is the bitterest ghetto pessimism." Fitting and true.

One thing about "There's A Riot Goin' On" is the use of newer percussion. Before Mayfield's breakthrough, Stone used percussion in layered ways, exemplified by the raucous "Family Affair." Different types of drum lines -- most of which were later copied by so many rappers -- dot the song, accenting Stone's muffled vocal style.

"There's A Riot Goin' On" is, like "Superfly," a darker record than Sly's earlier hits. It's funkier, it's muddy and it's less fun. Just like black America in the 1970s.

No. 60: Greatest Hits

Band: Sly & the Family Stone
Album: Greatest Hits
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: Sly Stone was a musical genius that fused black and white music in a way that personified the sixties. His optimistic hippy outlook of the band's first few singles turned into the gritty realism of the band's early '70s work.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: Greatest hits packages are never a good idea on this list if there are actual non-compilation records on here for the band. "Stand" and "There's a Riot Goin' On" are both on the list, and, like, half of "Stand" is on "Greatest Hits."
Best song: "I Want To Take You Higher" is probably my favorite song by Sly.
Worst song: "M'Lady" isn't fantastic.
Is it awesome?: Well, yeah. It's a greatest hits compilation.

While the band was on a two-year recording hiatus, Epic Records compiled tracks from the band's three albums and with three new tracks -- "Everyone is a Star", "Hot Fun in the Summertime", and "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" -- to satiate the public's need for Sly & The Family Stone.

The reason for the hiatus appears to be that Sly was on drugs nearly 24 hours a day. This caused some internal strife within the band, eventually drummer Gregg Errico left the band.

Nevertheless, Sly was a genius. Because of his years as a radio DJ at Oakland's KDIA, Stone had loads of knowledge of current music trends. As a black artists in the late '60s, Sly was able to bring gospel, dance and soul into the white music of rock and roll and harder stuff (the fuzz bass being the operative thing). The church organ style of "I Want To Take You Higher" melds with the hard rock of the distorted guitar. "Everybody is a Star" is incredibly optimistic, while "Stand!" is a call to arms that predates the quasi-militancy of "There's A Riot Goin' On" and "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" is a furthering of the theme.

If you don't have "Stand!," this package is a must-have. Sly & The Family Stone is wildly underrated as group.