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Dance to the Music is the second studio album by funk/soul band Sly and the Family Stone, released April 27, 1968 on Epic/CBS Records. It contains the Top Ten hit single of the same name, which was influential in the formation and popularization of the musical subgenre of psychedelic soul and helped lay the groundwork for the development of funk music.
The Family Stone itself never thought very highly of Dance to the Music while they were recording it; its existence was the result of CBS executive Clive Davis' request for Sly Stone to make his sound more pop friendly. To appease his employer, Sly developed a formula for the band's recordings, which would still promote his visions of peace, brotherly love, and anti-racism while appealing to a wider audience. Most of the resulting Family Stone songs feature each lead singer in the band (Sly, Freddie Stone, Larry Graham, and newcomer Rose Stone) sharing the lead vocals by either singing them in unison or taking turns singing bars of each verse. In addition, the songs contained significant amounts of scat singing and prominent solos for each instrumentalist.
The formula not only worked in selling records, but influenced the entire music industry. When "Dance to the Music" became a Top 10 pop hit, R&B/soul producers and labels immediately began appropriating the new "psychedelic soul" sound. By the end of 1968, The Temptations had gone psychedelic, and The Impressions and Four Tops would join them within the space of two years. New acts such as The Jackson 5 and The Undisputed Truth would show heavy influence from Dance to the Music and its follow-ups, Life and Stand!. Many of the songs on this album (particularly the title track, "Are You Ready", "Ride the Rhythm", and the selections that make up the "Dance to the Medley" that closes Side A) adhere closely to the formula, and also share chord progressions. Exceptions include "Color Me True", a more somber selection about how one fits in with society, Sly's solo number "Don't Burn Baby", and "I'll Never Fall in Love Again", a slow ballad sung by Larry Graham. Also included is the band's first Epic single, "Higher" (later reworked as "I Want to Take You Higher"), and a rerecording of their only release for Loadstone Records, "I Ain't Got Nobody".
Sly and the Family Stone Biography:
Sly and the Family Stone were an American rock, funk, and soul band from San Francisco. Active from 1967 to 1983, the band was pivotal in the development of soul, funk, and psychedelic music. Headed by singer, songwriter, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist Sly Stone, and containing several of his family members and friends, the band was the first major American rock band to have an "integrated, multi-gender" lineup.
Brothers Sly Stone and singer/guitarist Freddie Stone combined their bands (Sly & the Stoners and Freddie & the Stone Souls) in 1967. Sly and Freddie Stone, trumpeter Cynthia Robinson, drummer Gregg Errico, saxophonist Jerry Martini, and bassist Larry Graham completed the original lineup; Sly and Freddie's sister, singer/keyboardist Rose Stone, joined within a year. This collective recorded five Billboard Hot 100 hits which reached the top 10, and four ground-breaking albums, which greatly influenced the sound of American pop music, soul, R&B, funk, and hip hop music. In the preface of his 1998 book For the Record: Sly and the Family Stone: An Oral History, Joel Selvin sums up the importance of Sly and the Family Stone's influence on African American music by stating "there are two types of black music: black music before Sly Stone, and black music after Sly Stone". The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.
During the early 1970s, the band switched to a grittier funk sound, which was as influential on the music industry as their earlier work. The band began to fall apart during this period because of drug abuse and ego clashes; consequently, the fortunes and reliability of the band deteriorated, leading to its dissolution in 1975. Sly Stone continued to record albums and tour with a new rotating lineup under the "Sly and the Family Stone" name from 1975 to 1983. In 1987, Sly Stone was arrested and sentenced for cocaine use, after which he went into effective retirement.
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| 1968 Advertise |
Career:
Sly Stone (born Sylvester Stewart, March 15, 1944) was a member of a deeply religious middle-class household from Dallas, Texas. K.C. and Alpha Stewart held the family together under the doctrines of the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) and encouraged musical expression in the household. After the Stewarts moved to Vallejo, California, the youngest four children (Sylvester, Freddie, Rose, and Vaetta) formed "The Stewart Four", who released a local 78 RPM single, "On the Battlefield of the Lord" backed with "Walking in Jesus' Name", in 1952.
While attending high school, Sylvester and Freddie joined student bands. One of Sylvester's high school musical groups was a doo-wop act called The Viscaynes, in which he and a Filipino teenager were the only non-white members. The Viscaynes released a few local singles, and Sylvester recorded several solo singles under the name "Danny Stewart".
By 1964, Sylvester had become Sly Stone, a disc jockey for San Francisco R&B radio station KSOL, where he included white performers such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones into his playlists. During the same period, he worked as a record producer for Autumn Records, producing for San Francisco-area bands such as The Beau Brummels and The Mojo Men. One of the Sylvester Stewart-produced Autumn singles, Bobby Freeman's "C'mon and Swim", was a national hit record. Stewart recorded unsuccessful solo singles while at Autumn.
Early years:
In 1966, Sly Stone formed a band called Sly & the Stoners, which included acquaintance Cynthia Robinson on trumpet. Around the same time, Freddie founded a band called Freddie & the Stone Souls, which included Gregg Errico on drums, and Ronnie Crawford on saxophone. At the suggestion of Stone's friend, saxophonist Jerry Martini, Sly and Freddie combined their bands, creating Sly and the Family Stone in March 1967. Since both Sly and Freddie were guitarists, Sly appointed Freddie the official guitarist for the Family Stone, and taught himself to play the electronic organ. Meanwhile, Sly recruited Larry Graham to play bass guitar.
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| UK Promo Single 1968 |
Vaetta Stewart wanted to join the band as well. She and her friends, Mary McCreary and Elva Mouton, had a gospel music group called The Heavenly Tones. Sly recruited the teenagers directly out of high school to become Little Sister, Sly and the Family Stone's background vocalists.
After a gig at the Winchester Cathedral, a night club in Redwood City, CA, CBS Records executive David Kapralik signed the group to CBS' Epic Records label. The Family Stone's first album, A Whole New Thing, was released in 1967 to critical acclaim, particularly from musicians such as Mose Allison and Tony Bennett. However, the album's low sales restricted their playing venues to small clubs, and caused Clive Davis and the record label to intervene. Some musicologists[who?] believe the Abaco Dream single "Life And Death In G & A", recorded for A&M Records in 1967 and peaking at No. 74 in September 1969, was performed by Sly and the Family Stone.
Davis talked Sly into writing and recording a hit record, and he and the band reluctantly provided the single "Dance to the Music". Upon its February 1968 release, "Dance to the Music" became a widespread ground-breaking hit, and was the band's first charting single, reaching No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100. Just before the release of "Dance to the Music", Rose Stone joined the group as a vocalist and a keyboardist. Rose's brothers had invited her to join the band from the beginning, but she initially had been reluctant to leave her steady job at a local record store.
The Dance to the Music album went on to decent sales, but the follow-up, Life, was not as successful commercially . In September 1968, the band embarked on its first overseas tour, to England. That tour was cut short after Graham was arrested for possession of marijuana, and because of disagreements with concert promoters.
Sound, philosophies, and influence:
Sly Stone had produced for and performed with black and white musicians during his early career, and he integrated music by white artists into black radio station KSOL's playlist as a D.J. Similarly, the Sly and the Family Stone sound was a melting pot, or stew, of many influences and cultures, including James Brown proto-funk, Motown pop, Stax soul, Broadway showtunes, and psychedelic rock music. Wah-wah guitars, distorted fuzz basslines, church-styled organ lines, and horn riffs provided the musical backdrop for the vocals of the band's four lead singers. Sly Stone, Freddie Stone, Larry Graham, and Rose Stone traded off on various bars of each verse, a style of vocal arrangement unusual and revolutionary at that time in popular music. Cynthia Robinson shouted ad-libbed vocal directions to the audience and the band; for example, urging everyone to "get on up and 'Dance to the Music'" and demanding that "all the squares go home!"
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| UK Single 1968 |
The lyrics for the band's songs were often pleas for peace, love, and understanding among people. These calls against racism, discrimination, and self-hate were underscored by the lineup for an on-stage appearance of the band. Caucasians Gregg Errico and Jerry Martini were members of the band at a time when integrated performance bands were virtually unheard of; integration had only recently become enforced by law. Females Cynthia Robinson and Rosie Stone played instruments onstage, rather than just providing vocals or serving as visual accompaniment for the male members. The band's gospel-styled singing endeared them to black audiences; their rock music elements and wild costuming—including Sly's large Afro and tight leather outfits, Rose's blond wig, and the other members' loud psychedelic clothing—caught the attention of mainstream audiences.[unreliable source?]
Although "Dance to the Music" was the band's only hit single until late 1968, the impact of that single and the Dance to the Music and Life albums reverberated across the music industry. The smooth, piano-based "Motown sound" was out; "psychedelic soul" was in. Rock-styled guitar lines similar to the ones Freddie Stone played began appearing in the music of artists such as The Isley Brothers ("It's Your Thing") and Diana Ross & the Supremes ("Love Child"). Larry Graham invented the "slapping technique" of bass guitar playing, which became synonymous with funk music. Some musicians changed their sound completely to co-opt that of Sly and the Family Stone, most notably Motown in-house producer Norman Whitfield, who took his main act The Temptations into "psychedelic soul" territory starting with the Grammy-winning "Cloud Nine" in 1968. The early work of Sly and the Family Stone was also a significant influence on the music of Michael Jackson, soul/hip-hop groups such as George Clinton & Parliament-Funkadelic, Arrested Development, and The Black Eyed Peas, among others.
Stand! (1969):
In late 1968, Sly and the Family Stone released the single "Everyday People", which became the band's first number-one hit. "Everyday People" was a protest against prejudices of all kinds, and popularized the catchphrase "different strokes for different folks." With its b-side "Sing a Simple Song", it served as the lead single for the band's fourth album, Stand!, which was released on May 3, 1969. The Stand! album eventually sold more than three million copies; its title track peaked at number 22 in the U.S. Stand! is considered one of the artistic high points of the band's career; it contained the above three tracks as well as the songs "I Want to Take You Higher", which also appeared on the b-side of the "Stand!" single, "Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey", "Sex Machine", and "You Can Make It If You Try".
The success of Stand! secured Sly and the Family Stone a performance slot at the landmark Woodstock Music and Art Festival. The band performed their set during the early-morning hours of August 17, 1969; their performance was said to be one of the best shows of the festival. A new non-album single, "Hot Fun in the Summertime", was released the same month and went to number two on the U.S. pop charts (peaking in October, after the summer of 1969 had already ended). In 1970, following the release of the Woodstock documentary, the single of "Stand!" and "I Want to Take You Higher" was reissued with the latter song now the a-side; it reached the Top 40.
Internal problems and a change of direction:
With the band's new-found fame and success came numerous problems. Relationships within the band were deteriorating; there was friction in particular between the Stone brothers and Larry Graham. Epic requested more marketable output. The Black Panther Party demanded that Sly replace Gregg Errico and Jerry Martini with black instrumentalists and fire manager David Kapralik.
After moving to the Los Angeles area in fall 1969, Sly Stone and his fellow band members became heavy users of illegal drugs, primarily cocaine and PCP. As the members became increasingly focused on drug use and partying (Sly Stone carried a violin case filled with illegal drugs wherever he went), recording slowed significantly. Between summer 1969 and fall 1971, the band released only one single, "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" / "Everybody Is a Star", released in December 1969. "Thank You" reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1970. [Wikipedia]
Early Discography:
• 1967: A Whole New Thing (3 Stars)
• 1968: Dance to the Music (3 Stars)
• 1968: Life (4,5 Stars)
• 1969: Stand! (5 Stars)
• 1971: There is a Riot Going On (5 Stars)
AMG Rating Stars (AMG: http://www.allmusic.com)
01."Dance To The Music" – 3:00
02."Higher" – 2:49
03."I Ain't Got Nobody (For Real)" – 4:26
04."Dance To The Medley": – 12:12
• "Music Is Alive"
• "Dance In"
• "Music Lover"
05."Ride the Rhythm" – 2:48
06."Color Me True" – 3:10
07."Are You Ready" – 2:50
08."Don't Burn Baby" – 3:14
09."I'll Never Fall in Love Again" – 3:25
Bonus Tracks:
10."Dance to the Music" (mono single version) [2:57]
11."Higher" (mono single version)[2:53]
12."Soul Clappin'" [2:38]
13."We Love All" (previously unreleased) [4:30]
14."I Can't Turn You Loose" (previously unreleased) [3:33]
15."Never Do Your Woman Wrong" (previously unreleased instrumental) [3:33]
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