Sly and the Family Stone, “There’s a Riot Goin’ On”

Tom Heerman:

Some have said that There’s a Riot Goin’ On was the answer to Marvin Gaye’s question What’s Goin’ On? which came out the same year. I like that story. It makes me feel like I am part of the in crowd that knows stuff about the sixties. For sure, when most people think of the groovy 60s, they are actually referring to this period from 1967 to 72. This is when big Afro hair, and platform shoes, and colorful macrame came to be. When the women stopped wearing bras, and the men grew sideburns and they protested and occasionally bombed place like UW Madison. This record was recorded in that era, and it’s a dark twisted funky nightmare created by a versatile musician with brains and a pocket full of PCP. This is the Exile On Main St. of funk, concurrent with the Rolling Stones classic. There were hours of tapes edited down to this, which is a similar story to Exile. And the sound is not tight, not clean, it’s cracked and splintered, and probably the best funk record ever.

By 1971, civil rights hopes were largely crushed, or at least dashed by a series of setbacks. Starting in 1968, the black community saw the murder of MLK, and the violence that came with it, some racist political campaigners like George Wallace, and of course the fighting in Vietnam. And lots of Blacks were coming back dead from ‘Nam. The Black Panthers were rumored to be pressuring Sly to be more political lyrically and to get rid of his white band members.

You feel all that. Mix in a innovative funk bassist, in Larry Graham, and a history of making hit pop music in the previous two years, and you get this joyfully-depressing, sloppy-tight, abrasively-smooth, funk invention. It’s one of the records that when you really “get” it, you remember that experience your whole life. I remember playing it at my bachelor pad in about 1984, and realizing that I was forever going to have a confused funky black friend with a large mouth and a significant drug problem.

Buy this record. Rating: 32.

Christ McJaggerly:

I hadn’t heard the “answer to Marvin Gaye” thing, but that’s cool. And I appreciate the “Exile on Main St. of funk” point and the image of tape on the cutting room floor. But I think Sly should have cut more.

I’ve got no complaint about the first few tracks. Sly and his family slip into some nice mid-tempo, toe-tapping, head bobbing grooves. Larry Graham’s bass playing is tasty. But somewhere around track 5 (the 8-minute-long “Africa Talks to You”), my interest starts to wane, and I can’t get engaged again. The rest of the record just drifts past me. I’m not in any hurry to turn it off, but I hardly even notice it’s on. I think the record suffers from too much mid-tempo. Too much effortless groove. Too many muffled vocals. Sly doesn’t sound like he’s inciting a riot. He sounds like he hardly cares.

I give There’s a Riot Goin’ On 28 2/3.

Tom Heerman:

I think you are “back on the right track” (which was another Sly album), in that he was careless at times, and went on too long. I notice that, too. But I dig it, and forgive my confused funky black friend with a large mouth for getting indulgent. Stephen Thomas Erlewine from the great website www.allmusic.com said, “This is idealism soured, as hope is slowly replaced by cynicism, joy by skepticism, enthusiasm by weariness, sex by pornography, thrills by narcotics.” (Now that is how you write a review, me boy.) It’s that weariness that you are referring to, and its like listening to a cloud of bong smoke.

His next record was called Fresh, which may indicate he knew he had to lighten it up a bit, or at least claim he was. That is also a great record, for those of you readers inspired by this insightful discourse.

Connor:

I will elaborate later.  31.