I am not certain
how I became aware of Sly and the Family Stone. Growing up in the seventies and
eighties (and let's face it - I'm still trying to grow up now) their songs must
have been around - all AM dials on old radios - as the family (my one) listened
to Sly's one as they beamed through the airwaves as we danced to the music.
Danced to his music.
Or there may
have been a showing of the great Woodstock festival - now this could have been on Two or Four. My
memory is shot through with cider and getting to grip of the now - not the
then. But somehow there's an image of Sly taking me higher on celluloid - all sequins and groove that kind of blew my
mind as I watched him create the ultimate funk stew - on a stage full of
glamour to a crowd full of hippies.
And you know I
could never trust a hippy (just saying)
And then there
was a conversation with Andrew Innes - over drinks and mayhem in a Sheffield
club backroom - all Ivy Ivy Ivy and Raw Power - and Andrew was telling us
(that's me, Paul and Ian - of The Williams fame - okay - not fame - but you can
dream can't ya?) that you should get some Sly in the collection - but not to go
too deep too fast - you know lay off There's Riot Goin' On - until you've
experienced the deep funk.
So as any young
impressionable youth would do - you purchase the worn out tapes of heavy heavy
funk that is that wonderful fug of a funk album. That muddied mix of euphoria
and paranoia as screeches and slides collide in a foggy haze and daze of
everything that is ultimately funky in Sly's universe. And it's great it made
to tape - because There's A Riot Goin' On - is possibly one of the rawest funk
excursions you'll ever hear - it's flawed - yet it floors (do you get me?) You
couldn't really re-master it - but I think Sly has - that ever-reclusive mutha
- so hip that Prince looks up to him (and not just literally) I bought a tape
version as well - so when that got heated and mistreated it only added to those
takes from inside the studio Sly had created in his Bel Air mansion or The Plant
studios in Sausalito, CA. Infact it turns out that Sly had had a bed installed
in the studio and simply recorded his takes whilst lying down. It does have to
be said - that by this time Sly was managed by gangsters and heavily addicted
to the chokey and PCP. So to even get to
the stage where you've got a beautiful dark and muddied album was a miracle -
Sly played most of the instruments himself - taping and retaping over and over
again.
There's even the heavy use of a drum machine - used instead of - or
because of Gregg Errico's hasty departure from the paranoia fuelled existence
of life with Sly and his entourage. This was band playing apart to create a
unity -and it wasn't their usual way of working. For 'Family Affair' - the hit from the album - and some of the other
tracks on the album, Stone had his industry peers and musicians, including
contemporary soul acts Billy Preston,
Ike Turner, and Bobby Womack lay down the
sounds on Riot, instead of his bandmates. The album's muddy, gritty
sound was due in part to this excessive use of overdubbing and erasing parts of
the reel-to-reel tapes. In my mind - and I hope Sly's this made the whole thing
better.
I don't play
enough Family Stone in this family house - there was always something of the
late night listen about Sylvester Stewart - but recently I put 'Trip to your
Heart' on a CD in the car - all compilation for the kids. And as you can see
I'm working backwards -I'm in and out of
that collection - ducking and a weaving - pilthering and pillaging - 'cause Sly
started that riot with A Riot (do you get me?)
Which brings me
to the inherent psychedelic substance of that song. It begins like the past incarnation of
Gravediggaz - all screams and yelps -
like the beginning of Diary of a Madman - but committed to tape some twenty-five
years before.
And here comes
the opening - all ayes and yeahs - which LL Cool J would lift as he got his
Mama to knock us out. Add Sly to mix and all hell breaks loose and falls apart
in this trip to your heart. As it shuffles towards that minor key and Sly's
trip to our heart - you can already picture the capes, the jump cuts and mirror
images of a video designed to represent the (sign of the) times.
There's always
been this madcap - playful think about the Family Stone - up for a bit and
ready to take you there. I remember reading somewhere back before the world of
Britpop exploded and the Verve were just - you know The Verve - and Richard
Ashcroft claiming that 'I want to take Higher' was his song of choice before a
night on the town at the weekend.
We should all
have a bit of Sly on a Saturday.
So here's some
Sly for you too.
