Sly and the Family Stone
August 14th 2006 00:02
As promised, I give you Sly and the Family Stone, a late 60's, early 70's funk band, that had the best collection of afros around
Alot of fans of the band dislike the music they made in the 60's, accusing it of being commercialised, poppy and lacking in funk. Whilst the last one may be true compared to some of the stuff they released later, the first two are bs, based on the selection of their music I've listened to.
'Dance to the Music', released in 1968 is certainly a positive song, as much of their earlier stuff was, but it has awesome guitar work, a nice brass section, but it's not generic pop designed to sell records in any way.
A year later came their first number 1 single, 'Everyday People', which was pretty good, but nothing on what came before and after, in my opinion.
The 70's did bring some pretty cool changes, 'Thank You For Letting Me Be Myself Again' has a simple, but incredibly funky baseline, nice vocals, a few people singing the same thing, wokrs really well with the song. The drum beat is fairly simple, but it sounds awesome. Maybe I'll have a go learning it actually. This song heralded a change to a darker lyrical and musical style, which came as a result of the dissilusionment of the 70's, and Sly's (and a few other band members) cocaine addiction that unfortunately torn the band apart in the end.
I knew there was a reason this song sounded so familiar 'If You Want Me To Stay' was later covered by the Chili Peppers on Freaky Styley. More chili willies trivia, the album cover for their album Mother's Milk was based on Sly and the Family Stone's 'best of' cover. I can't decide which version of the song I prefer, Sly has a better voice the Anthony from the Peppers had in the earlier days, but Flea's bass playing is much better then that of the Family Stone.
I forgot to mention, they also do a mean (that means good for those not up with the lingo
) cover of 'Papa was a rolling stone'
Peace
Go the 'fro. The guy with red hair is their director at the time
Alot of fans of the band dislike the music they made in the 60's, accusing it of being commercialised, poppy and lacking in funk. Whilst the last one may be true compared to some of the stuff they released later, the first two are bs, based on the selection of their music I've listened to.
'Dance to the Music', released in 1968 is certainly a positive song, as much of their earlier stuff was, but it has awesome guitar work, a nice brass section, but it's not generic pop designed to sell records in any way.
A year later came their first number 1 single, 'Everyday People', which was pretty good, but nothing on what came before and after, in my opinion.
The 70's did bring some pretty cool changes, 'Thank You For Letting Me Be Myself Again' has a simple, but incredibly funky baseline, nice vocals, a few people singing the same thing, wokrs really well with the song. The drum beat is fairly simple, but it sounds awesome. Maybe I'll have a go learning it actually. This song heralded a change to a darker lyrical and musical style, which came as a result of the dissilusionment of the 70's, and Sly's (and a few other band members) cocaine addiction that unfortunately torn the band apart in the end.
I knew there was a reason this song sounded so familiar 'If You Want Me To Stay' was later covered by the Chili Peppers on Freaky Styley. More chili willies trivia, the album cover for their album Mother's Milk was based on Sly and the Family Stone's 'best of' cover. I can't decide which version of the song I prefer, Sly has a better voice the Anthony from the Peppers had in the earlier days, but Flea's bass playing is much better then that of the Family Stone.
I forgot to mention, they also do a mean (that means good for those not up with the lingo
) cover of 'Papa was a rolling stone'Peace
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