It was neat that you brought this together with To Pimp A Butterfly and the album being a response to 'What's Goin On? ' and I agree that it's a difficult but rewarding listen. And Thank You For Talking To Me Africa is probably the funkiest damn thing I have ever heard.
Running’ Away, Family affair, You caught me smiling’. Stand is my best from the band. particularly it’s ending. And Hot Fun in the Summertime is bubblegum supreme.
It's a mighty shame that these guys didn't last that long. I always saw Sly as the "Joy Division of soul & funk" Also, those pants looked sick as hell! Your fashion sense is, for a lack of a better word, brilliant!
If I was a girl I'd buy a motorbike just to ride around town in that wicked pants/boots combo with the tails of my Almost Famous coat flapping behind me
A crazy story is from 1981, when Rick James visited Sly Stone. Sly was doing so much Coke that Rick James was shocked by it and swore never to freebase, but a week later he started the habit himself. Insanity.
Funny that you mentioned the Lift Yourself debacle given that Larry Graham is the uncle of a certain Aubrey Graham, better known to us by his middle name "Drake"
‘Hot fun in the summertime’ was the last song I heard in the house I grew up in. Next day I went on holiday with pals. Returning the house was sold. It holds a special place for me.
If I could turn back the clock and see just one live show of all the Woodstock era bands Sly & Family Stone is the one show I would see and I am a diehard Who fan
One of my favorite headphone albums. Comedians Richard Pryor and Redd Foxx were hanging out with Sly when this album was being made. Rumor has it that Miles Davis also played on the album too. Prince's fantastic song "The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker" sounds like it was inspired from "Riot". Good video!
Abby, you're a beautiful storyteller and deserve a million subscribers, so maybe they're waiting for more genres of music. After this funk and Coltrane`s free jazz what about some jazz-rock? I like Bitches Brew in september! 😉
An exquisite analysis of one of the most emotionally complicated LPs of all time. You NAILED it Abigail! YOU NAILED THE UN-NAILABLE!! "Her only weapon is her record review/ She's a POET" !!!!
I was one when this LP was released....I`ve bought five copies(only sold one)....I guess it ought to be my favourite album, but I think another LP released in that same year ,Tago Mago by CAN takes that honour ......1971 was a good year
Excellent choice Abi. I've just ordered the vinyl Woodstock set. In my opinion the greatest gig ever. My fave song by them is Stand or Family affair. RIP Brotha Wayne K!
If you go and read Slash(guns n roses) autobiography titled Slash. Theres a part where slash said he would go over to duffs before practice and said Sly from sly and the family stone would just show up and ask Duff if he could use his bathroom(said sly never remembered duffs name) and of course duff say sure man, and said Sly would be in there for maybe 5 min to 3 hours or so smokin crack , pcp, and whatever.....
I was at kent during the shootings.....my mom n dad and I were driving from Michigan to Ohio..we were going thru Kent and the state police turned us around...routed us around Kent....when my dad was talking to the police....you could hear the gunshots.....by the time we were coming into Alliance.....the killings at Kent came across the radio.
Both Chrissie Hynde & Mark Mothersbaugh are graduates from there & were friends. Two legends. It was my second choice college ..I visited the memorial to the victims. Sad Day it was.
Pete Townshend is still annoyed that the Who had to follow the Family Stone's set at Woodstock. I feel him. How do you follow on perfection -- at 5 o'clock in the morning?
Townshend might be consoled if he ever spent a night in a rock festival audience... I'll never forget falling asleep in an Iowa field during a Guess Who set, waking up to the sound of Johnny Winter and being completely awake when Little Richard followed around 4am! Festival staging never seemed to make any sense but it was all good!
Sly is an absolute legend, it is heartbreaking how his last 40 years have gone. Some people say this is his last great album, but Fresh and Small Talk are brilliant too. I came to Sly because I fell in love with the Red Hot Chili Pepper cover of 'If You Want Me To Stay' which has my favorite bass line.
betty davis RULES. looking at my collection, it’s staggeringly male (that’s what i guess for picking up the collections of dudes i guess!) the ladies of music history need more love
@abigaildevoe A big YES to exploring the ladies of rock. They have offered so much. Especially in the 90s. There are so many underplayed gems from that decade with female vocalists. From the 1970s though, you've just got to do Dreamboat Annie by Heart. Just a great album from start to finish.
@@abigaildevoeWould love to see a review of Betty’s “They Say I’m Different”, complete with total lyric analysis and the debut of Abby’s natural hair. Now that’s entertainment.
Love Sly & The Family Stone. Songs like "Dance To The Music", "Everyday People", "Hot Fun In The Summertime" and "Stand" puts me in the good mood. And also, I've never seen a multiracial and multi-gender band like them before...besides Prince and his bands (The Revolution, New Power Generation, 3rdEyeGirl, etc)...that can combined R&B, Rock, Jazz and Gospel together around the time they came to the seen. This is the type of band I want to do and start with Fulmore, one of many bands that I'm working on along with an all black rock band, a synth pop band and many others. And I want to check out Sly Stone's book that recently came out too. RIP Wayne Kramer
Skipped this video the first time because I didn't know the band or the record, then a few days ago I found it at a used record store and gave it a listen, and now I'm back to watch. Thanks for turning me on to this album!
Riot has been called Downer music and the audio equivalent of watching a junkie nodding off. Those aspects are present and accounted for, because Sly wasn't about sugarcoating anything. But there's also euphoric uplifting elements. Sly and the Family Stone was truth music. There's a Riot Going On is a trip to Church. If church was a place to find brutal honesty, that is.
Yeah, they knew the subjects they were talking about and were appropriately truthful about them, similar to how they were truthful about the more positive stuff they were singing about in the late 60’s.
The music business is a really dark cesspool Of despair and broken dreams. With all the Corruption and theft going on, it's amazing That guy's like Larry Graham, Stanly Clarke And Jaco Pasterious could produce those Timeless albums.
Such a strange, beautiful, intense, shadowy, wild record. I was only familiar with the hits (which i adored) when I first heard it and I could not believe how monumentally out-there/far-out it was. A literal mind blower that is basically avant-garde, real 'high' art...but somehow also totally accessible to all the groovy children of the world. It will never not sound futuristic.
Larry played some mean bass lines on "You caught me smilin', Runnin' Away, and Thank you for talkin' to me Africa. No wonder he is referred to as the Godfather of the funk bass.
Great job with one of my favorite albums of all time. Massive influence on literally every Funk band that came after it - some directions you could go next are Miles Davis electric albums, Parliament - Funkadelic, and Prince. The next Sly album, "Fresh" is also killer
Yes, I am "that guy" with the stories. 21 minutes into the show and I remember 1990 A.A. meetings at the West Hollywood Drug and Alcohol Center. I met Ringo and his lovely wife Barrbara there. At that time a rotund dude in a red rhinestone one-piece and a huge Afro started hanging out at the Center. He was one of those folk who will always be the center of attention no matter who is in the room, even a Beatle. Yes, Sly Stone. I didn't do my usual "thanks for everything" to Sly because I didn't like him. I was being overly judgemental. The gift of music doesn't need judgement. I might meet Robert Plant or Pagey and I have certainly benefited from their work and I don't have to like them to thank them. Sylvester Stone is about 5'6" and he wore super-high platform shoes.
Sly was such a loss to music, just like Brian Wilson breakdown was. For me growing up, it felt like the optimism in the US died in the 1980's. The '90's were downer (had great music but a lot of it was depressing) and things just keep getting dumber after 9/11. Just when you thought things couldn't get any dumber, Trump becomes President!
The point you made about 'pick your vice or demon' is duly noted. For me this album could, and continues to, evoke the peace and love and togetherness of the decade in which I was born, and the fears and mistrust of the life I was living later on. Sometime last year I went back and listened to "Life", "Stand" and Riot, and besides being reminded how great an album "Life" is, it really is startling how they went from "A Whole New Thing" to Riot; of course, not the first such transformation, but this is an essential album for me. Thanks for the upload.
Great episode, Abby! Sly is one of the most truly unique and influential characters in the history of rock and roll; on a par with Hendrix, Iggy and Roky Erickson (and those last two... girl... you NEED to cover the Stooges and 13th Floor Elevators). So looking forward to Coltrane next week. Not sure if you're aware, but the intro to The Byrds' Eight Miles High is basically a guitar nod to A Love Supreme. Coltrane is to the sax what Hendrix is to guitar; there is a before and an after. Permanent tectonic shift.
I love sly and the family stone , a black funk band with rock fusion, a shame sly couldn't keep it together, I recently watched the summer of soul by quest love from the roots, he won a directors Oscar, the highlight for me was sly and the family stone, summer of soul didn't get as much recognition as Woodstock , the stone was at both , very cool , im also banned from Twitter, they didn't like my insult of trump and his family, hooray Kathy griffin, I won't stop insulting them until trumpligula is in prison, my favorite stone song is dance to the music followed by stand, family affair was so so to me , great review abbey, new york
Far and away Sly and the Family Stone's best album! I feel like people these days tend to underestimate just how huge the group was in their heyday (my parents still quote lines from their songs in everyday conversation, "different strokes for different folks" etc.) Excellent work as always, Abby! 😃
I feel like There's a Riot Goin' On is a record where its flaws are also its strengths. you barely get over the massive funk energy of great songs like "Family Affair" when you're thrown into a dark morass of drum machine powered vocal freak outs. this used to be my favorite Sly record until I was lured away by the charms of Stand!
"Uncles with ties on their foreheads"... I laugh out loud. Sly unfortunately was interviewed a few years ago living in beat up motorhome and completlely burned out. As I watched this interview I wanted Sly to wake up to what these drugs had done to him, but you could tell after a while this was never going to happen. So unfortunate.
Sly and the Family Stone perfectly encapsulated the transition of the hippie optimism of the 60s to the cynicism of the 70s with this record. I find it to be a great companion to Funkadelic's Maggot Brain in that regard. Also, mentioning red vs blue states is very weird to me as an european because the political colours are switched over here. Blue is mostly associated with conservatives and the far right (in some cases) and red is the colour of the far left (particullary communists). Great album all around.
For me the album really kicks into gear with "Just Like a Baby." I imagine coming home from the record store in late '71, you know, putting the album on for the first time. "Luv N' Haight" maybe sounds a "little" bit weird, but not entirely removed from their Stand! sound. Then you get to "Just Like a Baby," it's like you've entered some dark, dingy, smoke-filled den with creepy guys in the corner whispering and a tempo that feels like it's going about five miles an hour and what the hell is this? "Mommy, what's wrong with Sly?" It's like the sound of Sly, having been flung off a merry-go-round at a tremendous speed, landing face-first into a brick wall, and slowly sliding down that wall in a cartoon-like fashion, leaving a trail of slimy residue as he did so, until he finally came to rest on the floor. Maybe it's depressing, but there's something about that feeling of "Man, I just don't have it in me anymore" that I think everybody can relate to.
I love Sly and the Family Stone, Sly was so talented, you can hear where Prince got a lot of his stuff from. It’s a shame what happened to him, but not the first or last time a talented artist went down the rabbit hole of hard drugs and never came back out.
First things first my dearest Abigail. Your hair, blouse and earrings look wonderful. Those pants and stacks (what we called those shoes bk. in the '70s) at 1:28 are pretty far-out! Love "Family Affair." New book out about Slys life and music (very good). Saw Sly & the Family Stone in the mid '70s, Nashville. The Ohio Players (Love Rollercoaster, oh yeah) and Rufus opened. Be safe girl. ❤n' ☮
This is such a perfect snapshot of a brilliant musical mind such as sly stone and who was once the optimistic visionary of the late 60s with the family stone and here in 1971 it's a stunning diary of a tired and burnt out soul who's baring it all and holds nothing back in this fantastic album
The double CD best of got it right. The first disc is the original, celebratory full band, and the 2nd disc starts with Riot and the focus almost totally on Sly’s much moodier musings, until he finally kind of faded out. Both discs are great. I think I’m partial to the 2nd. But glad to have both.
The funniest part about certain Americans getting bent out of shape about the flag being altered is that the American flag is, itself, an altered version of the East India Company's flag. Change out the stars on a field of blue for a Union Jack and you have the original. Apparently that was because the Founding Fathers originally wanted something more like EIC's administration of India (autonomous, but still under the British crown), rather than full separation from Britain. Obviously they later rejected this, and the revolution happened.
There’s a lot of things I don’t like about modern music, but one of the biggest is nobody’s speaking out like artists of the sixties, seventies and eighties did. With the dark cloud of Trump and project 2025 looming over us, you mean to tell me nobody has anything to complain about these days?
8:20 ….and also kinda like the Doobie Brothers… (oughta do a vinyl Monday on them😄) And… wait a minute, Billy Preston was involved in this..oh great🙄 another Beatles connection…
Epic didn't reject Sly's choice of having "luv & Haight" as the initial single from Riot. What happened was Stephen Paley, who took photographs of Sly &the Family Stone and who was I believe a personal assistant of Sly's was so enamored of the song "Family Affair" he sent acetate copies of the song to radio stations. When Sly found out what Stephen did and when the song rose to number one on the billboard and soul charts. He allowed Paley to choose the singles from his albums.
After Years of playing Riot I am convinced that Ike Turner is playing that spiky lead guitar on The Asphalt Jungle. Try and find the Edsel records reissue of Riot from 1986 by far the best sounding version of this Lp I have ever heard. And cut by George Porky Peckham!
Sly was supposed to record an album called "The incredible and unpredictable Sly & The Family Stone". The songs Hot fun in the summertime, Thank you falettime be mice elf again, and Everybody is a star were supposed to be on the album. However, the album was never made. So the beforementioned songs were included on a greatest hits lp.
Africa talks to you was supposed to be the original title of There's a riot goin' on. However, the title was changed as an anwser to the title of Marvin Gaye's album What's goin' on.
For someone far too young to have any first hand knowledge of the era you're talking about your observations are remarkably astute. The sound of this record is pretty claustrophobic in places (too much coke), but it's worn well over the decades.
More funk/soul would be cool. I was gonna say maggot brain, but that album has been talked about a lot (same with what's going on), so 'the world is ghetto' by war (also pretty dark) or 'wild and peaceful' by kool and the gang
Wow, yes, Sly redid overdubs hopelessly on this one. He went Brian Wilson crazy. Rewind, redo, redo, redo. Was relentless. Was too stoned yesterday, do it again. Repeat.
Thanks, Abby! You've made me realize that for whatever reason, though I knew the album existed & had heard "Family Affair," I never listened to this entire album. I have now remedied that longstanding error! As for the year 1969, as Iggy Pop observed at the time: "another year for me & you, another year with nuthin' to do."
My introduction to Sly and the Family is limited to their Woodstock appearance in the movie. Epic performance. But little else. No vinyl or CDs. Nothing. I think I will start with this album.
I really need to give Sly and the Family Stone some more love, love that era of funk and soul (Isaac Hayes, Funkadelic, Curtis Mayfield), but Sly hasn't clicked for me yet. Great video as always.
Good choice! I hope this opens the door to other greats in the R&B field, like Otis, Marvin, Curtis and The Impressions, the Spinners and of course Stevie. I know you’d do an ace job, Abby. Can’t wait!
there was literally a bit in the original script (after the goodwill bins joke) about my shopping habit!! did you know there’s a goodwill auction site now? life changing
The whole issue of actual release date is one I hadn't thought of. Everybody says November 1, but I'm checking out newspaper archives and I'm seeing ads from the Friday before (Oct 29 '71) showing the album for sale. ("Only 3.99 at the Record Bar!")
![NOSFERATU - Official Trailer [HD] - Only In Theaters December 25](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/nulvWqYUM8k/mqdefault.jpg)
what does there’s a riot goin on mean to you? comment below
The Kids are united & the adults are divided.
It was neat that you brought this together with To Pimp A Butterfly and the album being a response to 'What's Goin On? ' and I agree that it's a difficult but rewarding listen. And Thank You For Talking To Me Africa is probably the funkiest damn thing I have ever heard.
Running’ Away, Family affair, You caught me smiling’. Stand is my best from the band. particularly it’s ending. And Hot Fun in the Summertime is bubblegum supreme.
If you don’t think this has an adequate follow up, listen to Fresh. The first half of it is almost better than Riot
@@DonaldGibson-bg1pq are you a human being.
All wars are poor men dying in rich mans wars.
Sadly, you are right. Rich men and low life cowardly politicians.
People don’t have wars,governments do, they use us to fight thier battles😢
Coltrane, a love supreme, can't wait till next Monday!! ❤️ 🌞 🎵 🎶 🎵 🎶 🎶 🎷
really appreciate the segment about how exhausting it is to just exist as a member of gen z, especially coming from someone with an older audience
Don’t hate the black, don’t hate the white, if you get bit just hate the bite, make sure your heart is beating right. ❤
Counting this as one step closer to getting a P-Funk Vinyl Monday.
hoping along with you.
She's just working of a list of greatest albums of all time. She'll never show anything unusual or relevant.
Maggot Brain is right in her wheelhouse.
That would be awesome, Eddie Hazel forever
maggot brain, PLEASE
It's a mighty shame that these guys didn't last that long. I always saw Sly as the "Joy Division of soul & funk" Also, those pants looked sick as hell! Your fashion sense is, for a lack of a better word, brilliant!
If I was a girl I'd buy a motorbike just to ride around town in that wicked pants/boots combo with the tails of my Almost Famous coat flapping behind me
A crazy story is from 1981, when Rick James visited Sly Stone. Sly was doing so much Coke that Rick James was shocked by it and swore never to freebase, but a week later he started the habit himself. Insanity.
Funny that you mentioned the Lift Yourself debacle given that Larry Graham is the uncle of a certain Aubrey Graham, better known to us by his middle name "Drake"
‘Hot fun in the summertime’ was the last song I heard in the house I grew up in. Next day I went on holiday with pals. Returning the house was sold. It holds a special place for me.
We went to see Sly and the Family Stone in Central Park NYC back in the summer of 1968. Slim Harpo opened for them. We had front row seats!
Slim Harpo...hell yes!!! Shake Your Hips...
If I could turn back the clock and see just one live show of all the Woodstock era bands Sly & Family Stone is the one show I would see and I am a diehard Who fan
@@kenjohnston1257 They were incredible. Their concert that day in 1968 has stayed with me after all these years!
Seems to be a bit of backlash on the political takes from this VM
Abby i say keep on truckin'
Great pants!
Also i just ordered Layla on Vinyl !🎉
'Poet' is an epic tune. "My only weapon is my pen - and the state of mind I'm in - I'm a songwriter, a poet."
One of my favorite headphone albums. Comedians Richard Pryor and Redd Foxx were hanging out with Sly when this album was being made. Rumor has it that Miles Davis also played on the album too. Prince's fantastic song "The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker" sounds like it was inspired from "Riot". Good video!
Abby, you're a beautiful storyteller and deserve a million subscribers, so maybe they're waiting for more genres of music. After this funk and Coltrane`s free jazz what about some jazz-rock? I like Bitches Brew in september! 😉
An exquisite analysis of one of the most emotionally complicated LPs of all time. You NAILED it Abigail! YOU NAILED THE UN-NAILABLE!! "Her only weapon is her record review/ She's a POET" !!!!
I was one when this LP was released....I`ve bought five copies(only sold one)....I guess it ought to be my favourite album, but I think another LP released in that same year ,Tago Mago by CAN takes that honour ......1971 was a good year
"Family Affair" was the first number one song to use a drum machine..
It was great to hear your honesty in expressing the feelings of despair within your generation.
What makes this channel great is Abby's rare gift for articulating such things. Well, one of a bunch of things that make this channel great
Sly influenced Stevie Wonder, Prince, The Ohio Players, Earth, Wind, and Fire, Parliament Funkadelic, and many others.
Excellent choice Abi. I've just ordered the vinyl Woodstock set. In my opinion the greatest gig ever. My fave song by them is Stand or Family affair. RIP Brotha Wayne K!
If you go and read Slash(guns n roses) autobiography titled Slash. Theres a part where slash said he would go over to duffs before practice and said Sly from sly and the family stone would just show up and ask Duff if he could use his bathroom(said sly never remembered duffs name) and of course duff say sure man, and said Sly would be in there for maybe 5 min to 3 hours or so smokin crack , pcp, and whatever.....
I was at kent during the shootings.....my mom n dad and I were driving from Michigan to Ohio..we were going thru Kent and the state police turned us around...routed us around Kent....when my dad was talking to the police....you could hear the gunshots.....by the time we were coming into Alliance.....the killings at Kent came across the radio.
Both Chrissie Hynde & Mark Mothersbaugh are graduates from there & were friends. Two legends. It was my second choice college ..I visited the memorial to the victims. Sad Day it was.
At least the second Hieronymus Bosch reference ever on Vinyl Monday. I know - I keep count of all Hieronymus Bosch references in vinyl-based videos.
Pete Townshend is still annoyed that the Who had to follow the Family Stone's set at Woodstock. I feel him. How do you follow on perfection -- at 5 o'clock in the morning?
Townshend might be consoled if he ever spent a night in a rock festival audience... I'll never forget falling asleep in an Iowa field during a Guess Who set, waking up to the sound of Johnny Winter and being completely awake when Little Richard followed around 4am! Festival staging never seemed to make any sense but it was all good!
I'm feeling like asking you if you're familiar with Gil Scott Heron?
Sly is an absolute legend, it is heartbreaking how his last 40 years have gone. Some people say this is his last great album, but Fresh and Small Talk are brilliant too. I came to Sly because I fell in love with the Red Hot Chili Pepper cover of 'If You Want Me To Stay' which has my favorite bass line.
His solo album, High on You, from '75, is great as well.
Can’t express my happiness to see you cover such an iconic funk album, I’d love to see you cover a Betty Davis album ‘The Godmother of Funk’ someday
betty davis RULES. looking at my collection, it’s staggeringly male (that’s what i guess for picking up the collections of dudes i guess!) the ladies of music history need more love
@abigaildevoe A big YES to exploring the ladies of rock. They have offered so much. Especially in the 90s. There are so many underplayed gems from that decade with female vocalists. From the 1970s though, you've just got to do Dreamboat Annie by Heart. Just a great album from start to finish.
@@abigaildevoeWould love to see a review of Betty’s “They Say I’m Different”, complete with total lyric analysis and the debut of Abby’s natural hair. Now that’s entertainment.
Love Sly & The Family Stone. Songs like "Dance To The Music", "Everyday People", "Hot Fun In The Summertime" and "Stand" puts me in the good mood. And also, I've never seen a multiracial and multi-gender band like them before...besides Prince and his bands (The Revolution, New Power Generation, 3rdEyeGirl, etc)...that can combined R&B, Rock, Jazz and Gospel together around the time they came to the seen. This is the type of band I want to do and start with Fulmore, one of many bands that I'm working on along with an all black rock band, a synth pop band and many others. And I want to check out Sly Stone's book that recently came out too. RIP Wayne Kramer
You've introduced me into some hidden gems.
You're our psychedelic princess 😇
🎶 Different Strokes For Different Folks 😎 🎶
Different album
@@michaelnoonang9207 🙅♂️ ! That is not the point. Post a comment , don't lurk in the replies. Bye 😊
Time for Mothership Connection
One of your best Vinyl Mondays…it really hit home
Skipped this video the first time because I didn't know the band or the record, then a few days ago I found it at a used record store and gave it a listen, and now I'm back to watch. Thanks for turning me on to this album!
Riot has been called Downer music and the audio equivalent of watching a junkie nodding off. Those aspects are present and accounted for, because Sly wasn't about sugarcoating anything. But there's also euphoric uplifting elements.
Sly and the Family Stone was truth music. There's a Riot Going On is a trip to Church. If church was a place to find brutal honesty, that is.
Yeah, they knew the subjects they were talking about and were appropriately truthful about them, similar to how they were truthful about the more positive stuff they were singing about in the late 60’s.
The music business is a really dark cesspool
Of despair and broken dreams. With all the
Corruption and theft going on, it's amazing
That guy's like Larry Graham, Stanly Clarke
And Jaco Pasterious could produce those
Timeless albums.
Born To Run , Rumours & Hotel California were all recorded at The Record Plant. Cocaine memories abound.
jesus what was going ON at that studio?? were the engineers dealers on the side?
Such a strange, beautiful, intense, shadowy, wild record. I was only familiar with the hits (which i adored) when I first heard it and I could not believe how monumentally out-there/far-out it was. A literal mind blower that is basically avant-garde, real 'high' art...but somehow also totally accessible to all the groovy children of the world. It will never not sound futuristic.
Recall '70s Sly tix being a gamble .. will he show up? If so, when and in what condition? Doesn't diminish his staggering impact overall.
There's a bit in Thank You For Lettin' Me Be Myself Again that was sampled in Janet Jackson's Rythem Nation. You might recognize it in the song.
To me , the music of this album has a tactile quality. It sounds sticky and oily.
Sly was ahead of his time in many ways. Like Jimi Hendrix he was pushing music to somewhere else. It’s a tragedy that drugs took that away.
According to Larry Graham. The song "Poet" is an unfinished song.
Larry played some mean bass lines on "You caught me smilin', Runnin' Away, and Thank you for talkin' to me Africa. No wonder he is referred to as the Godfather of the funk bass.
Great job with one of my favorite albums of all time. Massive influence on literally every Funk band that came after it - some directions you could go next are Miles Davis electric albums, Parliament - Funkadelic, and Prince. The next Sly album, "Fresh" is also killer
Yes, I am "that guy" with the stories. 21 minutes into the show and I remember 1990 A.A. meetings at the West Hollywood Drug and Alcohol Center. I met Ringo and his lovely wife Barrbara there. At that time a rotund dude in a red rhinestone one-piece and a huge Afro started hanging out at the Center. He was one of those folk who will always be the center of attention no matter who is in the room, even a Beatle. Yes, Sly Stone. I didn't do my usual "thanks for everything" to Sly because I didn't like him. I was being overly judgemental. The gift of music doesn't need judgement. I might meet Robert Plant or Pagey and I have certainly benefited from their work and I don't have to like them to thank them. Sylvester Stone is about 5'6" and he wore super-high platform shoes.
Sly was such a loss to music, just like Brian Wilson breakdown was.
For me growing up, it felt like the optimism in the US died in the 1980's. The '90's were downer (had great music but a lot of it was depressing) and things just keep getting dumber after 9/11. Just when you thought things couldn't get any dumber, Trump becomes President!
TPAB vinyl monday NEEEEEEEDS to happen, I'd love to see what you think about it!
its 10th anniversary is next year...
@@abigaildevoe id want to see some hip hop month or something because i saw that tyler the creator album in there and you have never done any hip hop
The point you made about 'pick your vice or demon' is duly noted. For me this album could, and continues to, evoke the peace and love and togetherness of the decade in which I was born, and the fears and mistrust of the life I was living later on. Sometime last year I went back and listened to "Life", "Stand" and Riot, and besides being reminded how great an album "Life" is, it really is startling how they went from "A Whole New Thing" to Riot; of course, not the first such transformation, but this is an essential album for me. Thanks for the upload.
Great episode, Abby! Sly is one of the most truly unique and influential characters in the history of rock and roll; on a par with Hendrix, Iggy and Roky Erickson (and those last two... girl... you NEED to cover the Stooges and 13th Floor Elevators). So looking forward to Coltrane next week. Not sure if you're aware, but the intro to The Byrds' Eight Miles High is basically a guitar nod to A Love Supreme. Coltrane is to the sax what Hendrix is to guitar; there is a before and an after. Permanent tectonic shift.
I love sly and the family stone , a black funk band with rock fusion, a shame sly couldn't keep it together, I recently watched the summer of soul by quest love from the roots, he won a directors Oscar, the highlight for me was sly and the family stone, summer of soul didn't get as much recognition as Woodstock , the stone was at both , very cool , im also banned from Twitter, they didn't like my insult of trump and his family, hooray Kathy griffin, I won't stop insulting them until trumpligula is in prison, my favorite stone song is dance to the music followed by stand, family affair was so so to me , great review abbey, new york
You keep reviewing my favorite records! I was super happy to see this ‘Riot’ video this morning! I’m reading Sky’s new book at the moment
Love the title track, the flute solo is amazing
Far and away Sly and the Family Stone's best album! I feel like people these days tend to underestimate just how huge the group was in their heyday (my parents still quote lines from their songs in everyday conversation, "different strokes for different folks" etc.) Excellent work as always, Abby! 😃
I feel like There's a Riot Goin' On is a record where its flaws are also its strengths. you barely get over the massive funk energy of great songs like "Family Affair" when you're thrown into a dark morass of drum machine powered vocal freak outs. this used to be my favorite Sly record until I was lured away by the charms of Stand!
"Uncles with ties on their foreheads"... I laugh out loud. Sly unfortunately was interviewed a few years ago living in beat up motorhome and completlely burned out. As I watched this interview I wanted Sly to wake up to what these drugs had done to him, but you could tell after a while this was never going to happen. So unfortunate.
Fantastic! Thanks again for another great review now let me borrow those pants 🤣🤣✌️🫶🎶
Take care!!!!
Sly and the Family Stone perfectly encapsulated the transition of the hippie optimism of the 60s to the cynicism of the 70s with this record. I find it to be a great companion to Funkadelic's Maggot Brain in that regard. Also, mentioning red vs blue states is very weird to me as an european because the political colours are switched over here. Blue is mostly associated with conservatives and the far right (in some cases) and red is the colour of the far left (particullary communists). Great album all around.
For me the album really kicks into gear with "Just Like a Baby." I imagine coming home from the record store in late '71, you know, putting the album on for the first time. "Luv N' Haight" maybe sounds a "little" bit weird, but not entirely removed from their Stand! sound. Then you get to "Just Like a Baby," it's like you've entered some dark, dingy, smoke-filled den with creepy guys in the corner whispering and a tempo that feels like it's going about five miles an hour and what the hell is this? "Mommy, what's wrong with Sly?" It's like the sound of Sly, having been flung off a merry-go-round at a tremendous speed, landing face-first into a brick wall, and slowly sliding down that wall in a cartoon-like fashion, leaving a trail of slimy residue as he did so, until he finally came to rest on the floor. Maybe it's depressing, but there's something about that feeling of "Man, I just don't have it in me anymore" that I think everybody can relate to.
My favorite view on RUclips is PeeWee Herman doing a Sly and the Family Stone medley. Ooohhh Laaawww.
Before To Pimp A Butterfly and Awaken My Love!, first came D’Angelo’s Black Messiah-the first born grandson of Riot.
I love Sly and the Family Stone, Sly was so talented, you can hear where Prince got a lot of his stuff from. It’s a shame what happened to him, but not the first or last time a talented artist went down the rabbit hole of hard drugs and never came back out.
First things first my dearest Abigail. Your hair, blouse and earrings look wonderful. Those pants and stacks (what we called those shoes bk. in the '70s) at 1:28 are pretty far-out! Love "Family Affair." New book out about Slys life and music (very good). Saw Sly & the Family Stone in the mid '70s, Nashville. The Ohio Players (Love Rollercoaster, oh yeah) and Rufus opened. Be safe girl. ❤n' ☮
Lol that was my first impression, the hair never looked better
This is such a perfect snapshot of a brilliant musical mind such as sly stone and who was once the optimistic visionary of the late 60s with the family stone and here in 1971 it's a stunning diary of a tired and burnt out soul who's baring it all and holds nothing back in this fantastic album
The double CD best of got it right. The first disc is the original, celebratory full band, and the 2nd disc starts with Riot and the focus almost totally on Sly’s much moodier musings, until he finally kind of faded out. Both discs are great. I think I’m partial to the 2nd. But glad to have both.
Gang of Four - Entertainment vinyl monday plsss
Love ❤️ will get you like a case of Anthrax & that's one thing you don't wanna catch ! 🔊
but its not made for gratemen@@davidellis5141
I think you would like MYSTERY TRAIN by Greil Marcus, especially the chapter, "Sly Stone And The Myth Of Stagolee".
Sly and The Family Stone at Woodstock is one of the best bits.
The funniest part about certain Americans getting bent out of shape about the flag being altered is that the American flag is, itself, an altered version of the East India Company's flag. Change out the stars on a field of blue for a Union Jack and you have the original.
Apparently that was because the Founding Fathers originally wanted something more like EIC's administration of India (autonomous, but still under the British crown), rather than full separation from Britain. Obviously they later rejected this, and the revolution happened.
There’s a lot of things I don’t like about modern music, but one of the biggest is nobody’s speaking out like artists of the sixties, seventies and eighties did. With the dark cloud of Trump and project 2025 looming over us, you mean to tell me nobody has anything to complain about these days?
Abbey.... There is a series called Classic Album... I'll be getting 5 of Sly's album for $22.00 including Riot...
8:20 ….and also kinda like the Doobie Brothers… (oughta do a vinyl Monday on them😄)
And… wait a minute, Billy Preston was involved in this..oh great🙄 another Beatles connection…
John Lennon covered the title track on his “Mind Games” album but called his version “Nutopian International Anthem”.
The first 60 seconds of this album is the greatest opening of any album.
My first concert was Sly and the Family Stone at Madison Square Garden in 1970. I was 15.
You're exactly the kind of person I want to see do a video on The Millenium Begin
Epic didn't reject Sly's choice of having "luv & Haight" as the initial single from Riot. What happened was Stephen Paley, who took photographs of Sly &the Family Stone and who was I believe a personal assistant of Sly's was so enamored of the song "Family Affair" he sent acetate copies of the song to radio stations. When Sly found out what Stephen did and when the song rose to number one on the billboard and soul charts. He allowed Paley to choose the singles from his albums.
Beautiful stuff, mothership connection next please
i’d have to go through maggot brain first - now THAT would push my non-musician abilities
After Years of playing Riot I am convinced that Ike Turner is playing that spiky lead guitar on The Asphalt Jungle. Try and find the Edsel records reissue of Riot from 1986 by far the best sounding version of this Lp I have ever heard. And cut by George Porky Peckham!
Sly was supposed to record an album called "The incredible and unpredictable Sly & The Family Stone". The songs Hot fun in the summertime, Thank you falettime be mice elf again, and Everybody is a star were supposed to be on the album. However, the album was never made. So the beforementioned songs were included on a greatest hits lp.
Absolutely BRILLANT review! I wish CBS would let you release your own "Timber" sing-along!
Africa talks to you was supposed to be the original title of There's a riot goin' on. However, the title was changed as an anwser to the title of Marvin Gaye's album What's goin' on.
This albums is evidence how important Larry Graham was to the Family Stone. Maybe the Godfathers of hip hop are Sly and Gil Scott Heron.
For someone far too young to have any first hand knowledge of the era you're talking about your observations are remarkably astute. The sound of this record is pretty claustrophobic in places (too much coke), but it's worn well over the decades.
More funk/soul would be cool. I was gonna say maggot brain, but that album has been talked about a lot (same with what's going on), so 'the world is ghetto' by war (also pretty dark) or 'wild and peaceful' by kool and the gang
Simply put - I LOVE your videos
Wow, yes, Sly redid overdubs hopelessly on this one. He went Brian Wilson crazy. Rewind, redo, redo, redo. Was relentless. Was too stoned yesterday, do it again. Repeat.
Thanks, Abby! You've made me realize that for whatever reason, though I knew the album existed & had heard "Family Affair," I never listened to this entire album. I have now remedied that longstanding error! As for the year 1969, as Iggy Pop observed at the time: "another year for me & you, another year with nuthin' to do."
Never heard this album, but I will now !
Thank you Ms. Devoe... I got a 5 album set including 'Riot' for $22.00
My introduction to Sly and the Family is limited to their Woodstock appearance in the movie. Epic performance. But little else. No vinyl or CDs. Nothing. I think I will start with this album.
I really need to give Sly and the Family Stone some more love, love that era of funk and soul (Isaac Hayes, Funkadelic, Curtis Mayfield), but Sly hasn't clicked for me yet. Great video as always.
Good choice! I hope this opens the door to other greats in the R&B field, like Otis, Marvin, Curtis and The Impressions, the Spinners and of course Stevie. I know you’d do an ace job, Abby. Can’t wait!
Did you know that Larry Graham’s nephew is Drake, seems apt to tell you because he is in the news at the moment 😉
Great review, Abigale. Please consider The Moody Blues for an upcoming video. Perhaps "Days of Future Passed". Classic album in every way. Thanks
You must go shopping every day. Every day. Shoes are unbelievable.
there was literally a bit in the original script (after the goodwill bins joke) about my shopping habit!!
did you know there’s a goodwill auction site now? life changing
The whole issue of actual release date is one I hadn't thought of. Everybody says November 1, but I'm checking out newspaper archives and I'm seeing ads from the Friday before (Oct 29 '71) showing the album for sale. ("Only 3.99 at the Record Bar!")
The phrase " artist in decline" always has such a sad ring to it. However ,with some artists, less than the top still exceeds other's efforts.
Drummer Rick Marotta has a funny story of his audition for Sly. A bizarre account that ends on an upbeat note. On YT, of course.
OMG I have never heard this record either, I would have to dive into it myself! BTW, Abby, I am dying to see the Coltrane essay!