At this point in the group’s existence, Larry Graham, whose deep baritone and thumping bass were highlights of the Family’s act, was way too popular with audiences and the press for Sly’s taste. (Sly supposed paid a hit man to meet Graham at a hotel to convince him to leave the group. Graham later said the only thing that saved his life was his tardiness. He took the hint and soon left the group anyway.) Drummer Greg Errico felt similarly slighted and was leery of Sly’s insatiable drug use – he quit midway through the album, replaced by a drum machine, and later, Gerry Gibson. Johnny “Guitar” Watson, (who would borrow Sly’s act for his superb album “A Real Mother For Ya”) and Herbie Hancock also hung around to watch the original Dr. Funkenstein slather the new record with overdubs.

“Just Like a Baby” locks itself into a Sorrowful Jones beat and stays there, with Sly and the gang chanting wearily. The three tier harmonies are just wobbly enough to make Sly sound like a he’s contentedly nodding off on a street corner. It may not sound too appealing on paper, but it’s one of the CDs finest tracks; a warm rush for your ear.

The hit single “Family Affair” was anything but. Rosetta Stone shares the vocal with Sly, and is the only other member of the original band to make an appearance. Sly sings in a somber, dry tone throughout, as if trying to impart the wisdom of his experience: “One child grows up to be a child that just loves to learn, and another child grows up to be somebody you’d just love to burn…” Rose’s steady vocal and the rump-bumping bass help sustain the loafing beat. A mini-opera lamenting growing up and growing apart (certainly something Rose and Freddie could empathize with), “Family Affair” was Sly’s last #1 single.

“Africa Talks to You ‘The Asphalt Jungle’” is introduced by a rare bluesy guitar lead and coupled with another lesson in slap bass playing. “Africa” struts its stuff for an elongated period (8:45) and boasts a telling lyric: “Tim…ber! All fall down!” which may have either been inspired by the riots in Detroit or Sly’s horizontal position in the studio. Either way, the opening guitar and bass solos are a funk clinic; after that…Timber, it falls down.

“(You Caught Me) Smilin’” is more like “you caught me leerin.’” As with everything Sly wrote during the period he was studying to be rock’s version of Howard Hughes, Sly takes what should be a happy song and infuses it with a sense of foreboding. The horns blow like pursuing cop cars and Sly hollers as if he’s been wounded. But is he happy he’s making us squirm? Oh yeah, that’s why he’s smilin’.

“Time” drips out of the speakers like a drop of dirty H2O from a faucet, slowly dissipating into a sonic void. Sparsely adorned with Sly on measured wah-wah guitar, “Time” is another song of prideful regret from a drowning man: “Time, they say it is the answer, but I don’t believe it.”

Despite the gleeful tone of “Runnin’ Away,” Sly was still dancing in the shadows: “Runnin’ away, to get away, ha, ha, ha, ha, you’re wearin’ out your shoes. Look at you foolin’ you.” The guitars jangle smartly, the bass pops like a fat rubber band and the horns blare as if they were coming from an approaching low rider. A radio friendly duet with Rose that clocks in at a slight 2:42, “Runnin’ Away” inexplicably only made it to #23 on the charts.

If you doubt accounts claiming Sly supported a small South American country with his drug habit during this period, listen to the demented “Spaced Cowboy.” With “Spaced Cowboy,” Sly created a whole new genre – hillbilly funk. It’s twisted pig sloppin’ music with Sly yodeling like Slim Whitman against a drum track supported by Graham’s decidedly inner city bass. Sly blows out a trippy harp solo and rambles like a wino with the DTs, which would be a deterrent on any other album, but fits Sly’s narcotic vision of the world.

“Riot” and the follow up “Fresh” inspired George Clinton to funkify his group’s sound by taking R & B into outer space with his group, The Parliament Funkadelic. The Ohio Players, Earth Wind and Fire, and Rick James also took note, worshipping Sly’s pompatus of funk. “Riot” is Sly’s finest hour, a socially conscious, brutally honest pre-cursor to his musical and social melt down.

More Riotin’ Goin On – The Bonus Tracks
The remastered “Riot” has four bonus tracks, the single version of “Runnin’ Away,” shortened even more for A.M. radio and three previously unreleased instrumentals, “My Gorilla Is My Butler,” “Do You Know What ?” and “That’s Pretty Clear,” that catch Sly experimenting in the studio with themes and effects he’d incorporate into the finished product.

Fresh 3 out of 5 stars

“Fresh” may have been more of a state of mind than a description of the music contained in Sly Stone’s 1973 follow up to “There’s A Riot Goin’ On.” Larry Graham, who was persona non grata with Sly, makes only two appearances, on “Que Sera, Sera” and more noticeably on “If It Were Left Up To Me.” Rusty Allen, who would eventually join Robin Trower as his bassist, lent his slick skills to “In Time,” “Keep On Dancin’,” “If You Want Me To Stay,” and “Let Me Have It All,” while Sly approximated Graham’s distinct slap treatment on the rest of the songs. Studio vet Andy Newmark tries his hand at replacing Greg Errico and succeeds through number of hits per second rather than skill.

“In Time” has a touch of Latin funk, with scratchy guitar and punchy horns. Sly picks up James Browns’ staccato singing style, Newmark snaps at his high hat, emulating AWB’s Steve Ferrone, and new band member Pat Rizzo is given some room to levitate the groove on sax. There are plenty of lyrics, but few of them are readily clear. Oddly, the line “Two words, get it straight” are pushed forward in the mix, a message Sylvester Stewart was sending to alter ego Sly Stone that went unheeded.

Rustee Allen shows himself to be an able replacement for Larry Graham’s magic hands, slapping out a memorable intro on bass for “If You Want Me to Stay.” In addition to dealing with the façade that The Family Stone was still a band, Sly was embroiled in a tempestuous relationship with model Kathy Silva, one of the inspirations for the song: “If you what me to stay, I’ll be around today, to be available for you to see. I’m about to go and then you’ll know, for me to stay here, I’ve got to be me.” Sly takes a deep breath after the first verse and later screams as if he’s snorted Comet. Ah, suffering for one’s art.

Only Sly Stone could be egotistical enough to declare “Let Me Have it All.” Newmark is given the back end of the song to do some impressive cymbal crashing, but Sly spends too much time catching the spirit of the funk in the same personal way a Baptist feels the Lord. He can absorb the music, he can sense the groove, but it’s hard to translate that cathartic feeling for the audience, so Sly settles for an arsenal of grunts, screams, and howls that squash any intelligible lyrics. Ditto for “Keep Dancin’” which rips off a few lines from Sly’s early mega-hit “Dance To The Music.” But if you sit through this without bopping your head, you’re dead. You just have to be able to translate dead languages to figure out what Sly’s getting at. “Babies Makin’ Babies” has the quotable line, “Babies makin’ babies from the womb, to the tomb,” but it also suffers Sly letting the groove run the asylum.

One listen to “Frisky” confirms where Prince culled his pinched vocal delivery. The bass and drums roll together like choreographed WWF wrestlers as the horn section tops off the arrangement. Robinson, Rizzo and Martini may sound like a law firm, but they’re all business in when it comes to managing a groove.

“Thankful and Thoughtful” is a full step slower than the album’s other tunes, gospel funk with Sly unashamed he’s still alive after all his misdeeds. The horn section is the reason “Skin I’m In” exists. Instead of their usual short sweet, sharp blips, the horns rip with authority. The bass rolls and pops as the lead instrument, but when the law firm of Robison, Rizzo and Martini blows, Sly’s funk wagon rolls.

“Que Sera Sera” is Sly’s take on Doris Day’s signature tune. Sly and Day met when he showed up at her house to buy one of her son’s classic cars. (Her son was record producer Terry Melcher.) The pair chatted amicably and Sly wound up playing the song on piano while Day sang it for him. Rumors circulated that Day and Sly were Hollywood’s newest couple, which Sly never denied. (Day had already been rumored to have had an affair with Maury Wills, the Dodger’s shortstop in the mid-sixties, which would be no big deal now, but back then could have been a career-wrecker. When rumors of her and Sly surfaced, Doris’ management made sure she didn’t see the light of day for a while.) Sly’s version of “Que Sera Sera” removes the original’s sing-a-long joy with old time gospel as Rose plays the role of a ghetto Doris Day. While Day’s plucky vocal offered hope and posies, Rose’s doomed rendering is steeped in hopelessness and the stink of week old trash. When Sly growls in on the chorus singing, “Que sera, sera, whatever will be will be, the future’s not ours to see. Que sera, sera,” you know there’s no future for the song’s narrators. Depressing, yes. But it’s a welcome change from songs that lock into a similar groove and don’t let go.

“If It Were Left Up To Me” is one of the albums few blatant stabs at pop, with Little Sister at the mike while Sly tosses vocal jabs in the background. Graham’s bass bounces, shakes and pops lifting the album’s malaise for its 2:00 duration. It’s so upbeat it even draws a mischievous “cha cha cha” from Sly at the conclusion.

“Fresh” is an enjoyable listen if you don’t get too hung up on what Sly may actually be saying. It does suffer a bit from the Al Green syndrome. Green’s drummer, the very late Al Jackson (who was also the drummer for Booker T & The M.G.s) had a purposeful, built in classic R & B beat that he used on virtually every Green song. If you’re going to lock into a groove, make it a good one, and Jackson certainly did. With the exception of “Que Sera Sera,” “If You Want Me to Stay,” and “If It Were Left Up To Me,’ the rest of the songs on “Fresh” sound a great deal alike. But they do have a great groove, especially when the horns contribute.

Unlike the songs on “Riot,” few of the tunes on “Fresh” exceed four minutes and the entire original recording clocked in at less than forty minutes. “Fresh” isn’t as philosophical as “There’s A Riot Goin’ On,” but it is historic – it’s Sly’s last notable album after a prolific six-year run.

Five Fresh Bonuses
The remastered, enhanced version of “Fresh” adds four unreleased mixes from Sly’s original stab at the album. Sly’s vocal on “Let Me Have It All” is more vital and direct, and there are no back ups – Little Sister hadn’t been called into the studio yet. The other tracks, early mixes of “Frisky,” “Skin I’m In,” “Keep On Dancin’” and “Babies Makin’ Babies” differ from their finished versions in that Sly had yet to layer his vocals with overdubs. Without the extra wah-wahs, echos or back ups, the songs sound clean, but lack the finished products more overt anger.

Dance to the Music…The Rest of the Family’s Reissues

Sony/Legacy Recordings will take you higher with the remastered Sly and the Family Stone catalogue. All the CDs are blessed with copious bonus tracks and previously unseen photos. The reissues include the group’s first album, “A Whole New Thing,” recorded in 1967; “Dance to the Music,” with liner notes by Al Gee and Sly Stone; and 1968’s “Life” with the popular FM tunes “Fun” and “M’Lady.” The four star “Stand” contains many of Sly’s best known tunes: the R & B anthem “I Want To Take You Higher,” the original version of “Somebody’s Watching You,” “Sing A Simple Song,” with frenzied cheerleading from Cynthia Robinson, the syncopated “You Can Make It If You Try,” and the 13-minute talking-guitar instrumental, “Sex Machine.” The series of reissues also includes 1974’s laid-back “Small Town Talk” with “Time For Livin,’” one of Sly most overlooked late career hits.

Outside of occasional drug busts, the reclusive Sly made his most public appearance at the 2006 Grammy Awards. Sporting a bizarre blonde Mohawk and looking more like George Clinton than himself, Sly managed to get through a few verses of “I Want To Take You Higher” before bumming out. …

But how’s this for timing? With his 7 best known albums refurbished and headed into stores, Sly accepted a gig. Renowned throughout his career as a no-show, Sly played a well-publicized concert at the Flamingo in Las Vegas on March 31. George Wallace (no, not that George Wallace, the comedian) organized it, staking his reputation on his new client showing up. Bookies were giving 45-1 odds that the funkmeister would succumb to his paranoia and stay home. Sly showed and managed to play for 30 minutes before shutting it down. Could it be the beginning of “a whole new thing?” Maybe. If not, I’m sure Sly will say “Thank you for letting me be myself again.”

Posted April 21, 2007 Permalink