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Sly & The Family Stone
I was certainly aware of Sylvester Stone / Sly & The Family Stone before “Woodstock”, but that was probably the first time I actually got to see what they looked like!
CD ANTHOLOGY EPIC US EGK 37071
1981 20 TRKS 60’s & 70’s recordings
CD DANCE TO THE MUSIC EPIC US EK 66427
1967 10 TRKS (’95 issue)(1 x bonus track)
7″ DANCE TO THE MUSIC (EP) (PS) promo EPIC UK EPC 3048
1972 4 TRK EP; with pic sleeve, promo
7″ FAMILY AFFAIR / LUV N’ HAIGHT (PS) EPIC US 5-10805
1971? 2 TRKS with pic sleeve
MD GREATEST HITS EPIC US EM 30325
197? 12 TRK Collection
7″ I WANT TO TAKE YOU HIGHER / STAND (PS) EPIC US 5-10450
1969 2 TRKS with pic sleeve, promo
7″ RUNNIN’ AWAY / BRAVE & STRONG EPIC US 5-10829
1971? 2 TRKS no pic sleeve
LP STAND! EPIC US BN 25456
1969? 8 TRKS re-issue
CD STAND! re EPIC US 75912.2
1969 13 TRKS (5 x bonus tracks) (’07 issue) R&B
7″ THANK YOU / EVERYBODY IS A STAR EPIC US 15-2303
1969 2 TRKS no pic sleeve, re-issue
CDx2 WOODSTOCK EXPERIENCE, THE EPIC US 48241.2
1969 17 TRKS Live + “Stand” CD (’09 issue)
Recently I obtained:
LPx3 FIRST GREAT ROCK FESTIVALS OF THE SEVENTIES CBS UK 66311
1971? 21 TRKS Atlanta Pop Festival / Isle of Wight
…and it got me thinking “This is one tight live band!” – but a quick scan of my mental rolodex failed to yield a proper live album from Sly & Co. That got taken care of when “The Woodstock Experience” was issued in 2009 – but I wonder why they didn’t get a live album while the original band was active?
Sly & The Family Stone certainly opened some doors, crossed some borders etc. with their brand of hippie-friendly R&B / Rock. I knew plenty of psychedelic music people who were very OK with Sly & The Family Stone, but with little other R&B of the day.
If you only want to own one disc, the Epic Records “Anthology” is a good one – all the hits are there: “I Want To Take You Higher”, “Family Affair”, “Everyday People”, “Running Away” and more.
And nobody was more amused than I at Howard Devoto’s Magazine covering “Thank You For Letting Me Be Mice Elf Again”.
Who said San Francisco only ever produced ‘acid rock’?
Long live Sly Stone! Hey, Music Lover!
Respect to Sly for building a gender and racially mixed band, that was a hot one for sure. We can all thank Larry Graham for popularizing his “slap” technique that a whole school of bass playing was built upon. I’m not a fan of most SF music [to put it mildly] but SLy + The Family Stone [along with CCR] are safely ensconced in my Record Cell. When Sly resurfaced briefly a few years ago, my wife was following the saga on the net but it looks like that was a blip on the Sly radar. Has he made any public appearances lately? His brush with sobriety seemed to have ended badly.
Until the real ‘Sly book’ gets written, we may never know exactly everything that has transpired. I, too, read all about him trying to play live in England, and not much coming of it – on stage for 20 minutes only etc. There was an interview I read, too – and it seemed like not much was going on, and I prepared to read his obit. The “Woodstock” live album is OK, too.
His appearance on the Dick Cavett Rock Icon DVDs is pretty snowblind.