Sly & The Family Stone - 1968 - Dance To The Music

Sly & The Family Stone

1968

Dance To The Music

01. Dance To The Music 2:59

02. Higher 2:47

03. I Ain't Got Nobody (For Real) 4:25

04. Dance To The Medley 12:11

05. Ride The Rhythm 2:47

06. Color Me True 3:08

07. Are You Ready 2:49

08. Don't Burn Baby 3:13

09. I'll Never Fall In Love Again 3:24

Bonus Tracks

10. Dance To The Music (Single Version In Mono) 2:57

11. Higher (Unissued Single Version In Mono) 2:53

12. Soul Clappin' 2:38

13. We Love All 4:30

14. I Can't Turn You Loose 3:33

15. Never Do Your Woman Wrong (Instrumental) 3:33

Bass, Vocals – Larry Graham

Drums – Gregg Errico

uitar, Vocals – Freddy Stone

Keyboards, Vocals – Rose Stone

Vocals, Keyboards, Guitar – Sly Stone

Trumpet – Cynthia Robinson

Vocals, Saxophone – Jerry Martini

Originally released in 1968.

Track 10 originally released as single A-side in 1967.

Track 12 from Dance To The Music 1995 CD reissue.

Tracks 11 and 13 to 15 previously unreleased.

In my humble opinion,the title track that starts off this album is one of the most perfect pop and soul songs ever recorded!!!It blasts right into existance,spotlights each musician and who can't sing it?It's a MUSICAL DIRECTIVE that's been going on for generation after generation.Obviously one doesn't expect the rest of this album to be able to keep up.But BY GOLLY IT DOES and with plenty more to burn;as an album,but purely a single 'Dance To The Music' is leaps ahead of A Whole New Thing in terms of songwriting and even energym,plenty of which is present on that debut.So what exactly does Sly do here?He just makes sure people who loved the classic single and bought this album hoping to hear more got JUST THAT!"Higher" is also enormous fun-so fresh,bouncy and carnavalesqe that Sly elected to UTTERLY transform it for another big hit on Stand! (you know the one).Then there's "Dance To The Medley"-the title track fleshed out and extended into a KILLER twelve minutes jam where the musicians don't just get spotlighted but DISTINCT SOLOS (Larry Graham's crackling fuzz bass being the highlite of course)and what comes next?Yet MORE catchy,hook filled funky tunes to make you DANCE "Ride The Rhythm",Color Me True","Are You Ready",the more creeping psychedelia of "Don't Burn Baby" and "I'll Never Fall In Love Again".And the bonus cuts?Well aside from th single edit of the title song and "Higher" you get "Soul Clappin","We Love All", the amazing "I Can't Turn You Loose" (don't know why it didn't make the final cut) and 'Never Do Your Woman Wrong",so it's all more more MORE!!!!So 'Dance To The Music' is not only Sly's greatest early album but actually not a bad place to get an introduction to his music.And try to listen to this album,stay still and NOT BE ABLE to avoid breaking out in a sweat!If Amazon let me give this twenty stars,that wouldn't be enough!!!Amazing!!

Sly & the Family Stone came into their own with their second album, Dance to the Music. This is exuberant music, bursting with joy and invention. If there's a shortage of classic material, with only the title track being a genuine classic, that winds up being nearly incidental, since it's so easy to get sucked into the freewheeling spirit and cavalier virtuosity of the group. Consider this -- prior to this record no one, not even the Family Stone, treated soul as a psychedelic sun splash, filled with bright melodies, kaleidoscopic arrangements, inextricably intertwined interplay, and deft, fast rhythms. Yes, they wound up turning "Higher" into the better "I Want to Take You Higher" and they recycle the title track in the long jam "Dance to the Medley," but there's such imagination to this jam that the similarities fade as they play. And, if these are just vamps, well, so are James Brown's records, and those didn't have the vitality or friendliness of this. Not a perfect record, but a fine one all the same.

Desspite the strength of their overlooked debut _A Whole New Thing_, it wasn't until their second LP _Dance to the Music_ that everything came together for this multi-gender, multi-racial aggregation. This is just one of those albums where everything comes together perfectly and everything works. There are no weak songs to be found: even the extended length "Dance to the Medley", and the mid-tempo "Never Will I Fall in Love Again" never let the energy and excitement flag even for a moment. This is about as good a funk album as has ever been created, and although it verges on blasphemy, I'd rank this right up there with the best of James Brown's funk output. It's just that good. What sets Sly and Co. apart is that they were able to effortlessly span genres while creating danceable, funky music that just makes you feel good. They're a little bit rock, a little bit soul, a little bit psychedelic, and a whole lotta funky. The quality of the musicianship is uniformly high, but the fact that Sly is also a brilliant, idiosyncratic lyricist is often overlooked. This is just highly enjoyable, upbeat, feel great music, the likes of which no longer seems to exist.