Red Mosquito

It's the perfect mix of aggressive social rights and inclusive funky music. The Electric Lady is another but isn't quite so rough around the edges.

By the time You Can Make It If You Try is over, I find myself really believing that I can make it if I try.

Totally.

It's so amazing how they experimented with ambient sounds and atonality, even in 1968. The sections of the song "Dynamite!" for example don't go together in a predictable / logical way; that's got to have influenced hiphop's use of chords, basslines and samples that don't "fit". It just makes for an overall messier sound than I'm used to associating with the era. The later Temptations stuff does the same thing, manages to add a roughness to the somewhat clean pop sound that Motown began in.

The Rockefeller guitar on "Harmony" is so cool. I love the way this band mashes styles together. And then the circus trombone on "Life." Wow.

the Woodstock version of "I Wanna Take You Higher" and this version of James Browns "There Was A Time"
are easily my 2 favorite live funk/RnB tracks ever... just such great riffs, horns, grooves...

I could listen to them over and over (and have on a few occasions like today)

MadTIGERmaN wrote:this version of James Browns "There Was A Time"

It says it's from Live at the Apollo, but which volume is it on? I only have the first, and don't see it listed on the other ones.

harmless wrote:It's so amazing how they experimented with ambient sounds and atonality, even in 1968. The sections of the song "Dynamite!" for example don't go together in a predictable / logical way; that's got to have influenced hiphop's use of chords, basslines and samples that don't "fit". It just makes for an overall messier sound than I'm used to associating with the era. The later Temptations stuff does the same thing, manages to add a roughness to the somewhat clean pop sound that Motown began in.

They get virtually no respect from the mainstream music fan, but their influence is EVERYWHERE over the last 45 years of music. It's like that quote on their wikipedia page from that book about them says, "there are two types of black music: black music before Sly Stone, and black music after Sly Stone."

When you compare the stuff with what else was going on at the time, they were so far ahead of everybody else. You could argue they were the biggest reason Motown's sound developed and morphed into what it became despite not even being on the label, because artists like the Temptations, Stevie Wonder, and Marvin Gaye all of the sudden had to scramble to catch up with Sly. Dude was a fucking musical genius of the highest level (in terms of popular music).

harmless wrote:The Rockefeller guitar on "Harmony" is so cool. I love the way this band mashes styles together. And then the circus trombone on "Life." Wow.

If they were white and British, people would be still be creaming themselves over them to this day.

Lament wrote:

MadTIGERmaN wrote:this version of James Browns "There Was A Time"

It says it's from Live at the Apollo, but which volume is it on? I only have the first, and don't see it listed on the other ones.

harmless wrote:It's so amazing how they experimented with ambient sounds and atonality, even in 1968. The sections of the song "Dynamite!" for example don't go together in a predictable / logical way; that's got to have influenced hiphop's use of chords, basslines and samples that don't "fit". It just makes for an overall messier sound than I'm used to associating with the era. The later Temptations stuff does the same thing, manages to add a roughness to the somewhat clean pop sound that Motown began in.

They get virtually no respect from the mainstream music fan, but their influence is EVERYWHERE over the last 45 years of music. It's like that quote on their wikipedia page from that book about them says, "there are two types of black music: black music before Sly Stone, and black music after Sly Stone."

When you compare the stuff with what else was going on at the time, they were so far ahead of everybody else. You could argue they were the biggest reason Motown's sound developed and morphed into what it became despite not even being on the label, because artists like the Temptations, Stevie Wonder, and Marvin Gaye all of the sudden had to scramble to catch up with Sly. Dude was a fucking musical genius of the highest level (in terms of popular music).

http://www.amazon.com/Live-At-Apollo-II ... the+apollo

its on that one, the deluxe version is one of the best live concerts...

Let Yourself Go / There Was A Time / I Feel Alright / Cold Sweat HAS NO BREAKS, its about 24 mins of non stop JB

Damn. I'm gonna have to check that out.

There's A Riot Goin' On is such a trippy, weird, dark set of slow jams. Gotta wonder whether PJ had it in mind when they made the "non-songs" on Vitalogy.

OH MY GOD WHY DO I LOVE SPACED COWBOY SO MUCH

I wonder if Sly fans were disappointed that the word "Riot" was in the title and it wasn't an aggressive, fast, rock album.

harmless wrote:OH MY GOD WHY DO I LOVE SPACED COWBOY SO MUCH

CAUSE IT'S SO AWESOME.

Lament wrote:I wonder if Sly fans were disappointed that the word "Riot" was in the title and it wasn't an aggressive, fast, rock album.

This is SO EXACTLY what I was thinking.