Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sly Stone's dark masterpiece., May 16, 2007
Sly and the Family Stone's "Stand!" was an album of optimism and the brightness of '60s counterculture, but creeping just below the surface on that record was a darkness and claustrophobia-- an edge that separated "Stand!" from any of its predecessors or its peers. That darkness is the sound of "There's a Riot Goin' On", Sly Stone's bleak masterpiece, in its way the sound of civil unrest and, in my assessment, the greatest funk album ever recorded.
When I speak of claustrophobia, I mean it as a production vaue, and it's something evident throughout the record. There's a density to the record, even on the looser and less arranged pieces, that really sets the tone for the album. And while not all the album's songs have a message to match this claustrophobia, it does have a tendency to make even the optimistic material sound like you're trying to remember a dream after you've woken up. Take single "Family Affair"-- it's loose, based around a gentle pop vocal hook and is presented with a smooth baritone lead, but it sounds like "Stand!" dragged through the mud. It works out fantastically. All of this is accentuated by the tendency to move towards funk vamps for everything-- sometiems as much as seven minutes of the same riff feeds into this feeling of density.
But really, it's dark funk that dominates the record throughout-- wah wah guitars, dirty basslines, snapping horns, and Sly Stone vocalizing and singing all over the map, fierce and at times nearly out of control-- opener "Luv N' Haight" and Brave & Strong" are two fine examples of this. Along the way, he manages occasional moments of delicate beauty with a hint of melancholy that keeps the album from being a bit too bleak ("Poet", "(You Caught me) Smilin'") and closes things up with a recasting of "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" as a slice of slow funk that somehow manages to be as intriguing as the original.
This reissue remasters the record, appends a handful of bonus tracks (a single mix of "Runnin' Away" and three instrumentals leftover from the sessions) and includes a nice liner notes essay. The remastering alone makes this a worthwhile pickup, all the dark beauty of the record really comes forth and the feeling of the record is, if anything accentuated by it.
Truthfully, "There's a Riot Goin' On" may not be for everyone, it's a pretty dark record, but it's also the kind of thing that can really reinvent someone's opinion of Sly & the Family Stone (it certainly reinvented mine). It also serves nicely as a companion to "Stand!", they are very much opposite sides of the same music. I give a slight edge to "There's a Riot Goin' On" as Sly Stone's masterwork. This is essential listening.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Rock amid the Civil Rights Movement, June 1, 2008
If memory serves me, I first received this album as a birthday present from my brother when I turned twelve in 1971 . I was a a fan of my brothers counter culture music and was always getting into his records, one that I liked was Stand by Sly and the family Stone Stand!, understandably, the message and lyrics were not acceptable by my parents, so naturally, my brother did something unusual and bought me a present (at all) and made it one that would not be popular with my folks. I of course was very happy to get this album.
Recently some of my friends (I sometimes share an office with) and I were taking about the music of the 70's and Sly came up so I went and got a greatest hits CD, but this is the album I have played over and over through the years.
I think the problem with the success that this album was the death of Jimmy Hendrix, because he along with acts like Sly & the Family Stone had been making Rock music the common denominator for the (Pepsi) younger generation. Coinciding with the death of the amazing Hendrix, was the boiling tension of the civil rights movement, and Sly (Sylvester Stewart) Stone was pummeled with pressure to make a more "Black Statement" in his music. And although for me at least this is a very successful social statement of an album, I think it was a break with the ones who brought him to the dance ( those who wanted to put differences aside and move on).
Personally, I think that any way you slice it, this is very good music and worth a look to anyone interested in the beginnings of Classic Rock and the schisms that eventually separated Rock Music into color camps for over a decade.
But that's just me.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Eerie funk, May 27, 2008
If you're wondering what the big deal about Sly is, start here. Sly's famous "response" to Marvin Gaye's What's Going On is his masterpiece, a dark, murky funk album recorded while he was in the deepest throes of his depression. His drug dependency was hurtling out of control, his band was collapsing, and he had lost all faith in the counterculture he once banked his life on. Conflicts within the band got so bad that most of it was actually performed by Sly alone - any other musicians there may have been were dubbed in later. More proof that the best of music often comes from the worst of times. The album doesn't seem like a collection of individual songs, but instead a dark, deep, murky stew of foreboding grooves. But for simplicity's sake I'll describe these songs individually. "Family Affair" was the #1 hit, and its primitive drum machine rhythm is way ahead of its time - it also boasts a fine chorus (co-sung by Rosie Stone) and electric piano (courtesy of Billy Preston). And while it's the best song on the album, there are plenty of competitors. Like all of them. "Brave and Strong" has wonderful slap bass, horns and organ; "Poet", some of the best lyrics on the album; "Just Like a Baby" contains a beautifully melancholy melody; "You Caught Me Smilin'" is a light, mellow break from all the menace; "Luv `n' Haight" is a powerful indictment of the hippie culture; the gentle waltz "Time" is at once mournful, soothing, and desperate; the tripped-out yodeling on "Spaced Cowboy" is a blast and much-needed comic relief; "Running Away" makes for a triumphant, if wizened, return to the Family's old sound. The two extended pieces are controversial, but I like them: "Africa Talks to You `The Asphalt Jungle'" is eerie and entrancing, and it's helped along by both the falsetto vocals and the long guitar solos; "Thank You for Talkin' to Me Africa" (pretty much "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin" slowed down and with added guitar noodling) is a completely different interpretation of that classic - it's haunting, slow, druggy, and awesome. The peak of Sly's career and a funk milestone.
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