The Woodstock Experience couples that stunning performance with 1969's Stand! — arguably Sly's best album. Once again, Legacy has done a very nice, if no-frills job with this.
There are no extras or bonus tracks. Just a nicely-done repackage of the original album, including a miniature reproduction of the original jacket, and the old yellow Epic Records label on the CD (I love the way Legacy's been doing that with the labels in this series).
Stand! is still just a great, great record, even all these years later. Listening to songs like "I Want To Take You Higher," "You Can Make It If You Try," and "Everyday People" today is like getting a quick history lesson in just where a great deal of the funk of the seventies and eighties really began — not to mention where a great majority of hip hop acts got their samples from (James Brown notwithstanding).
Before Michael Jackson and Prince kicked down the door on the color barriers in music altogether with their MTV videos, Sly And The Family Stone fused rock, funk, R&B, and just about everything else together to make some of the most groundbreaking music of the sixties. Sly And The Family Stone were also both bi-racial and equally gendered in make-up twenty years before Prince had his Revolution. In other words, the girls got to play too in this particular "Family Affair."
In addition to the better known hits, Stand! also includes the thirteen-minute instrumental jam "Sex Machine," where the Family Stone are able to show off their considerable chops as well as just how tight of a band they really were. Stand! was also the record where Sly began to incorporate social concerns into his songs.
In that regard, this album's "Don't Call Me Nigger Whitey" was a precursor to the sort of themes Sly would further explore on the nearly-as-great followup album There's A Riot Goin' On. But it is Stand! that remains Sly's masterpiece — at least in this writer's humble estimation.
Article comments
1 - RFWoodstock
RADIO WOODSTOCK 69 which features only music from the original Woodstock era and RADIO WOODSTOCK with music from the original Woodstock era to today's artists who reflect the spirit of Woodstock are both available at Woodstock Universe.
Peace, love, music,
RFWoodstock
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