Hear Sly and the Family Stone Rock a Small Club in 1967 With Funky ‘I Gotta Go Now'
The funky farewell number from a rare concert recording of Sly and the Family Stone, from 1967, shows how playful the group was in their early days. The medley, 'I Gotta Go Now (Up on the Floor)/Funky Broadway,' opens with climbing organ and horn lines and a funky drumbeat as the group sings, 'I gotta go now,' and it just gets funkier from there. It ends with a riotous 'baahye,' and the audience laughing and clapping. The song features on the album, The First Family: Live at Winchester Cathedral 1967, which previously came out for Record Store Day but is now getting a wide release on July 18.
The album features the earliest known live recording of the band, captured at Redwood City, California's Winchester Cathedral, where they played about an hour's worth of Joe Tex, Ben E. King, and Otis Redding covers. It will be available digitally, as well as on vinyl and CD; the CD edition includes a bonus track, a cover of Otis Redding's 'Try a Little Tenderness.' The liner notes to the physical editions contain exclusive interviews with Sly Stone and all of the other original members of the Family Stone, along with never-before-published photos.
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'The Winchester Cathedral recordings showcase a one-of-kind outfit that was already at the peak of its powers, long before it became internationally famous,' the set's producer, Alec Palao, said in a statement. 'Sly is fully in command, while the unique arrangements and tighter-than-tight ensemble playing point clearly to the road ahead, and the enduring influence of Sly & The Family Stone's music.'
The concert on the album took place on March 26, 1967, toward the end of the group's Winchester Cathedral residency, when they served as house band from December 1966 through the end of April 1967. The group's manager, Rich Romanello, recorded the gig. Romanello shelved the tapes after the band signed to Epic; Dutch twins and Family Stone enthusiasts Edwin and Arno Konings rediscovered them in 2002.
The band's debut album, A Whole New Thing, came out in October 1967. None of the songs from the concert recording, which include many covers, featured on the record. The only original composition, 'I Ain't Got Nobody (For Real),' would later appear on 1968's Dance to the Music.
track list:
1. I Ain't Got Nobody (For Real)2. Skate Now3. Show Me4. What Is Soul?5. I Can't Turn You Loose6. Try A Little Tenderness *7. Baby I Need Your Loving8. Pucker Up Buttercup9. Saint James Infirmary10. I Gotta Go Now (Up on the Floor)/Funky Broadway
*CD Only Bonus Track
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"We interviewed Sly for [the Oscar-winning documentary] Summer of Soul in 2020. And he had just gotten clean, and he just — he doesn't have the motor function. He can't speak in full sentences. His eyes reveal a precociousness and a lucidity that's there, but his motor function doesn't exist." While the documentary doesn't skip over Stone's decades-long struggle with substance abuse, Questlove said the "most important part" was to present Stone as a person rather than a personality, because "it's rare that Black people get seen as humans." Sly is survived by his children. Read the original article on People
