Stand

Sly & The Family Stone | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B0000024VT
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #185,161 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Stand!

2. Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey

3. I Want to Take You Higher

4. Somebody's Watching You

5. Sing a Simple Song

6. Everyday People

7. Sex Machine

8. You Can Make It If You Try

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Need proof of how great Sly and The Family Stone were? Just check out the track listing for Stand! The title track, "I Want to Take You Higher". "You Can Make it if You Try", "Everyday People",(before it was a car commercial)--and this isn't even the greatest hits package! Hippies with attitude (and serious soul moves), Stone and crew were one of the most influential and free-wheeling forces in R&B/rock. Stand shows why. Gut bucket bass lines (thank you Larry Graham), joyous take-you-there anthems, and seething racial politics that made you move--and think--while on the dance floor. --Amy Linden

Product Description

Stand!, the fourth album from Sly & the Family Stone, could have almost pulled double-duty as a greatest hits package for the band. Laced with sure-fire winners, this 1969 LP put Sly and Co. firmly on the road to super-stardom. Four of the album's seven songs, including the Hall of Fame tracks "Everyday People" and "I Want To Take You Higher," shot straight into the national charts. This visionary work also introduced far-sighted FM radio stations to the goosebump-inducing sounds of "Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey," a song that accurately portrayed racial tensions in America in a manner that no one could have seen coming. On a musical level, the band was now tight as a cork in a bottle of vintage wine. No doubt about it: Stand! has to be the tastiest mélange ever of rock, politics, funk and soul! --This text refers to the Vinyl edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intoxicating and Superb!, May 3, 2004

By 

Samhot (Star Land) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stand (Audio CD)

To say that Sly & The Family stone were influential is probably an understatement. Prince has admitted many times that he grew up listening to (and loving) Sly & Company's music, and if you listen to Prince's music, you can hear where he got some of his ideas and techniques. George Clinton and Parliament/Funkadelic were influenced as well. Sly was probably the singlemost interesting (not to mention, the baddest) funkmeister this side of James Brown (and for what it's worth, I grew up listening to, and loving the music of other funksters like The Ohio Players, Rufus/Chaka Khan, Earth, Wind & Fire, George Clinton and others.)

1969's _Stand_ is a non-stop joy-fest: it's almost impossible not to feel uplifted after listening to this. Similarly, it'll also be difficult to stay still, as the grooves on here are just sexy, funky, infectious and downright delicious. Sly mixed up genders and races in his band, and when listening to the music, you can feel the celebration of harmony, and desire for transcendence over the many ills that have plagued society for the longest time. It was all about injecting positivity and exuberance into this mix of psychedelic funk, soul and rock, and the sunny vibe that runs throughout this album is one of the many things that make this effort highly intoxicating - so intoxicating, that even after three decades since it's release, listeners are, more than possibly, still feeling drunk from it's juices.

Just take a look at some of the song titles: "Stand!," "I Want To Take You Higher," "You Can Make It If You Try" -- the vibes are positive and spiritually uplifting throughout. And leave it to clever Sly to turn something as controversial and touchy as racism ("Don't Call Me...") into something so sexy, intoxicating, scrumptious and downright orgasmic. It's one of the most powerful forms of irony, I think. A reviewer below says there's not enough substance in the lyrics to support the topic. Well, all I have to say about that, is sometimes it's best to let the music do most -- if not all -- of the talking.. and this music doesn't just talk, it hollers! Just listen to the motif in particular (it opens up the song) where Sly is featured on what sounds like a guitar talk box (not sure if it's that, or a production technique), and how it blends with the trumpet calls, the wah-wah (or what I call the 'wow-wow') pedals, the underlying funky two-note bassline punch, and other subtle things. This particular motif is repeated many times throughout the song. However, when this particular motif is heard the final time, it reaches such an intense climax, as these instruments increase in volume and dynamics, not to mention sprinkles of soulful voices coiling around the whole thing, it becomes a devouring, orgasmic ocean of sound and emotion.

The aforementioned gargantuan of sound heard in the previous track said alot more to me than most things ever have (or could) through words. What is it that this music is hollering about? What is it trying to say? What is it pleading for? Transcendence - it's begging and screaming for transcendence over most of the unfortunate happenings (and stupidity) that plague society - racism being a part of this stupidity.

Elsewhere, tracks like "Sing A Simple Song" will get you to do just that -- sing (and dance) right along, and many people (especially of this generation) must be familiar with "Everyday People," as it's been used in certain commercials (as well as being covered by hip-hop band Arrested Development), and the 13-minute "Sex Machine" gives a bluesy I-IV-V a sexy, intoxicating, psychedelic twist, topped off by a drum solo, and some joyful laughter from Sly and gang at the end of the track.

Not much more can be said from me, as words fail to do this band and album justice. The positivity sadly turned sour on their next effort, 1971's _There's A Riot Goin' On_ (another intoxicating effort), as Sly would fall (deeper) into drug abuse and depression. Sly & The Family Stone's music has influenced countless musicians, and they are revered for good reason. This album is one example of their talent and influence.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The document of a musical revolution, October 29, 1999

By 

Philip Eldring "Flow de Cologne" (Köln, Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stand (Audio CD)

This is one of the CDs you can't get away from. It was 1969 when this album by Sly & TFS was released and I bet the people haven't heard & seen something like this before. First of all the musical style: Too positive to be blues, too much rock to be soul and too much soul to be rock - the PROTOTYPE of a FUNK album. Then the look: Sly was the first one dressed in multi-colored clothes onstage what even inspired George Clinton for Parliament and -most of all- Funkadelic. Then they were a multi-racial group. The title track "Stand!" is more related to the Beatles' music in the first part of the song but is transforming into Sly's thang in second. Amazing ! Then the other tracks are reflecting every band member (remind Larry Graham's Central Station), they're full of political attitude (f.e. Stand!, Don't Call Me N*****, Whitey !; Sly's tracking down a guitar sound made with his mouth and Wah-Wah effect), sexual exploitation (a sharp bluesy track called "Sex Machine") and Pop standards ("Everyday People"). Wild things and topics were explored on this OVERLOOKED (yes, it is !)'69 masterpiece and you could also find a bunch of HipHop samples in here like Digital Underground's beat for the "Humpty Dance" (f.e.). It seems that the kids 2day are not interested in this music so the way to teach them simply is HipHop. Sampling kept the FUNK alive. But it's all about the promotion, then Sly would even beat out the Stones... !

Other suggestions are: "There's A Riot Going On", "Dance To The Music", "Life" and "Fresh."

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Brilliant Band At the Height of thier Powers., August 7, 2000

By 

WILLIE A YOUNG II "willow" (Houston, TX.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stand (Audio CD)

Time has done nothing to diminish the impact of this music. This is the most perfect collection of songs this dynamic band ever recorded. Notice I used the term band? Because Sly Stone and Co. were truly a band in every sense of the word; a strong, cohesive unit that kept pushed one another to new hieghts on every new release and played with such funk and fire in concert, that thier power could get an entire audience dancing and chanting to the heavens (for proof, check out the bands appearance on film at Woodstock!) From Sly's soulful singing and organ playing, to the (still unmatched) funky fervor of Larry Graham's bass playing and Cynthia 'Ecco' Robinson's drop dead, blaring trumpet the band finds a groove on EVERY tune, locks in and never lets up until the closing song. The title track is a transendent piece of pop music that still gives me chills (on the second chorus when all the voices join in to sing, with building intensity;STAND! STAND! STAND! , crank up your volume and see if it doesn't give you goosebumps!) and urges the listener to take responsibilty in thier lives. "Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey" is still one of the most overtly political, innovative songs ever recorded. With it's almost robotic, hypnotic arrangement, and pointed lyrics, it's a mini-masterpiece on an album chock full of them. "I Want To Take You Higher" does just that, it's simply impossible to not dance when this tune is playing. "Sing A Simple Song" has yet another tricky arrangement with several breakdowns, vocal interludes, spoken word courtesy of pianist/vocalist Rosie Stone, and a jazzy horn section over Greg Errico's snapping, funky drums in the background that will have you nodding your head and pressing rewind, several times! We are all familiar with "Everyday People", a classic that secures Sly Stone's place in history as a brilliant songwriter, and is still uplifting no matter how many times you've heard it. The sprawling, epic and almost unbearably bluesy "Sex Machine" is the bands' recorded tour-de-force, and not a single note is wasted. The group truly stretches out on this extended (13:43) track that, breaks down to the slowest drumbeats I've ever heard and a really cool coda (Special Note: the joy these people felt when recording is apparent when you hear them say, 'Time' which is followed by a burst of laughter, and Sly accurately summing up the listeners' feeling with a classic one-liner, 'we blew your mind huh! ')

DAMN RIGHT.