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Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
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. More from Rolling Stone Sly Stone, Family Stone Architect Who Fused Funk, Rock, and Soul, Dead at 82 'Sly Lives!' Producer Reveals Why Sly Stone Wasn't Interviewed for Documentary Andre 3000 Talks Sly Stone's 'Stankonia' Influence in 'Sly Lives!' Doc Clip '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 Best of Rolling Stone Sly and the Family Stone: 20 Essential Songs The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked
Straits Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Sly Stone, leader of 1960s funk band, dies at age 82
FILE PHOTO: Sly Stone arrives at the BMI Urban Music Awards in New York, September 10, 2009. REUTERS/Chip East/File Photo FILE PHOTO: Funk music pioneer Sly Stone performs during a concert with Sly & The Family Stone at the 41st Montreux Jazz Festival early July 14, 2007. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo Sly Stone, the driving force behind Sly and the Family Stone, a multiracial American band whose boiling mix of rock, soul and psychedelia embodied 1960s idealism and helped popularize funk music, has died at the age of 82, his family said on Monday. Stone died after a battle with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other health issues, a statement from his family said. "While we mourn his absence, we take solace in knowing that his extraordinary musical legacy will continue to resonate and inspire for generations to come," the statement said. Stone was perhaps best known for his performance in 1969 at the historic Woodstock music festival, the hippie culture's coming-out party. His group was a regular on the U.S. music charts in the late 1960s and 1970s, with hits such as "Dance to the Music," "I Want to Take You Higher," "Family Affair," "Everyday People," "If You Want Me to Stay," and "Hot Fun in the Summertime." But he later fell on hard times and became addicted to cocaine, never staging a successful comeback. The confident and mercurial Stone played a leading role in introducing funk, an Afrocentric style of music driven by grooves and syncopated rhythms, to a broader audience. James Brown had forged the elements of funk before Stone founded his band in 1966, but Stone's brand of funk drew new listeners. It was celebratory, eclectic, psychedelic and rooted in the counterculture of the late 1960s. "They had the clarity of Motown but the volume of Jimi Hendrix or The Who," Parliament-Funkadelic frontman George Clinton, a contemporary of Stone and another pioneering figure in funk, once wrote. When Sly and the Family Stone performed, it felt like the band was "speaking to you personally," Clinton said. Stone made his California-based band, which included his brother Freddie and sister Rose, a symbol of integration. It included Black and white musicians, while women, including the late trumpeter Cynthia Robinson, had prominent roles. That was rare in a music industry often segregated along racial and gender lines. Stone, with his orb-like Afro hairstyle and wardrobe of vests, fringes and skin-tight leather, lived the life of a superstar. At the same time, he allowed bandmates to shine by fostering a collaborative, free-flowing approach that epitomized the 1960s hippie ethic. "I wanted to be able for everyone to get a chance to sweat," he told Rolling Stone magazine in 1970. DISC JOCKEY TO SINGER Born Sylvester Stewart in Denton, Texas, he moved as a child with his family to Northern California, where his father ran a janitorial business. He took the show business name Sly Stone and worked for a time as a radio disc jockey and a record producer for a small label before forming the band. The band's breakthrough came in 1968, when the title track to their second album, "Dance to the Music," cracked the Top 10. A year later, Sly and the Family Stone performed at Woodstock before dawn. Stone woke up a crowd of 400,000 people at the music festival, leading them in call-and-response style singing. Stone's music became less joyous after the idealistic 1960s, reflecting the polarization of the country after opposition to the Vietnam War and racial tensions triggered unrest on college campuses and in African American neighborhoods in big U.S. cities. In 1971, Sly and the Family Stone released "There's a Riot Goin' On," which became the band's only No. 1 album. Critics said the album's bleak tone and slurred vocals denoted the increasing hold of cocaine on Stone. But some called the record a masterpiece, a eulogy to the 1960s. In the early 1970s, Stone became erratic and missed shows. Some members left the band. But the singer was still a big enough star in 1974 to attract a crowd of 21,000 for his wedding to actress and model Kathy Silva at Madison Square Garden in New York. Silva filed for divorce less than a year later. Sly and the Family Stone's album releases in the late 1970s and early 1980s flopped, as Stone racked up drug possession arrests. But the music helped shape disco and, years later, hip-hop artists kept the band's legacy alive by frequently sampling its musical hooks. The band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 and Stone was celebrated in an all-star tribute at the Grammy Awards in 2006. He sauntered on stage with a blond Mohawk but bewildered the audience by leaving mid-song. In 2011, after launching what would become a years-long legal battle to claim royalties he said were stolen, Stone was arrested for cocaine possession. That year, media reported Stone was living in a recreational vehicle parked on a street in South Los Angeles. Stone had a son, Sylvester, with Silva. He had two daughters, Novena Carmel, and Sylvette "Phunne" Stone, whose mother was bandmate Cynthia Robinson. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
