Mills Record Company

Reviews:

When Sly & The Family Stone hit Bay Area stages in 1966, people were blownaway. Here was something nobody had ever seen or even dared to imagine, a fullyintegrated—black and white, men and women—gang of hippies from theghetto with shimmering four-foot wide Afros, elephant bells, platform boots,spectacular dance moves and an acid drenched vibe that injected a serious helpingof politics into a big, fat sassy sound that combined pop, R&B, rock, doo-wop,soul and the beat that would soon be called funk. The show was held togetherby Larry Graham's revolutionary bass playing—he was the first to beaton the strings with his thumb to create the percussive effects that became adisco cliché—Greg Errico's powerhouse drumming, and Sly'ssongwriting and arranging genius. They dropped four albums in three years thatincluding the highly influential hits on disc one—"Dance to the Music,""Stand!," "I Want to Take You Higher" and "Thank You(Falletinme Be Mice Elf Agin,)" the possible inspiration for Prince'screative use of language. Disc two gives you most of There's a RiotGoin' On, Sly's masterpiece of black nationalist agit-prop, releasedto mixed reviews at the time (despite going to #1 on the pop charts); now acknowledgedas one of the most important rock ‘n' soul albums ever. Sly'sdrug problems and personnel changes made later albums less essential, and CDtwo peters out with tunes that recycle the band's groundbreaking soundswith less than stellar results.