Sly & The Family Stone - 1968 - Life

Sly & The Family Stone

1968

Life

01. Dynamite! 2:43
02. Chicken 2:13
03. Plastic Jim 3:29
04. Fun 2:21
05. Into My Own Thing 2:13
06. Harmony 2:50
07. Life 3:00
08. Love City 2:42
09. I'm An Animal 3:20
10. M'Lady 2:44
11. Jane Is A Groupee 2:49

Bonus Tracks
12. Dynamite! (Single Version Mono) 2:07
13. Seven More Days 3:24
14. Pressure 3:44
15. Sorrow (Instrumental) 3:19

Bass, Vocals – Larry Graham
Electric Piano, Vocals – Sister Rosie Stone
Guitar, Vocals – Brother Freddy Stone
Organ, Vocals, Producer – Sly Stone
Percussion – Greg Errico
Saxophone – Gerry Martini
Trumpet – Cynthia Robinson

Just a matter of months after Dance to the Music, Sly & the Family Stone turned around and delivered Life, a record that leapfrogged over its predecessor in terms of accomplishment and achievement. The most noteworthy difference is the heavier reliance on psychedelics and fuzz guitars, plus a sharpening of songcraft that extends to even throwaways like "Chicken." As it turned out, Life didn't have any hits -- the double A-sided single "Life"/"M'Lady" barely cracked the Top 100 -- yet this feels considerably more song-oriented than its predecessor, as each track is a concise slice of tightly wound dance-funk. All the more impressive is that the group is able to strut their stuff within this context, trading off vocals and blending into an unstoppable force where it's impossible to separate the instruments, even as they solo. The songwriting might still be perfunctory or derivative in spots -- listen to how they appropriate "Eleanor Rigby" on "Plastic Jim" -- but what's impressive is how even the borrowed or recycled moments sound fresh in context. And then there are the cuts that work on their own, whether it's the aforementioned double-sided single, "Fun," "Dynamite!," or several other cuts here -- these are brilliant, intoxicating slices of funk-pop that get by as much on sound as song, and they're hard to resist.

After the record-label driven "Dance to the Music", Sly & the Family Stone, no doubt given significant leverage with the help of a hit single, produced a stream of fantastic albums beginning with 1968's "Life". In some ways like "Dance to the Music", "Life" streamlines the band's sound a bit, but unlike "Dance to the Music", it accomplishes this by taking everything into a mid-tempo, guitar-driven funk stew.

This creates a significant diversity of sound-- fierce distorted guitars ("Dynamite!"), "Eleanor Rigby" ("Plastic Jim"), fuzz guitars and rotated vocals ("Into My Own Thing"), bizarre psychedelid funk ("I'm An Animal") and even "Dance to the Music" pop/funk ("Love City", "M'Lady") all find their way in. Most of it ends up as mid-tempo funk, but it's all really, really good, the only exception being the goofy closer "Jane is a Groupee".

This reissue remasters the record,a ppends a handful of bonus tracks, and includes a detailed liner note essay discussing the album. Like the other remasters, "Life" benefits immensely from the improved sound and really gets new life breathed into it.

My assessment of "Life" is somewhat tempered by knowledge of what the band would be doing in the future-- while it's a superb record, it pales in comparison to its successors. Both "Stand!" and "There's a Riot Goin' On" are among the finest albums of their era. Nonetheless, there's more than enough great material on "Life" to make it worth the investment. Recommended.

Be warned when you put on "Life" you are inviting yourself into a world of rhythmic overload!As the transitional album between Dance to the Music and Stand! this album is filled with a lot of sestained musical dymanics and heavy group activity.The tempo is pretty continually sustained from "Dynamite" through "Into My Own Thing".The hits (the title track and "M'Lady") have the same festive carnaval funk style of "Dance To The Music",although the focus on this recording is much more on the groove,not songcraft so much."Jane Is A Groupee" lives more on the psychedelic shore.The bonus cuts here don't reveal much more then the album does.The major players here?Jerry Martini and Cynthia Robinson are miked up especially high and really punch through."Life" is right about where soul met funk at the crossroads of music and really laid down the groundwork for the upcoming funk onslaught that was Stand! .As the liner notes state 'Life' is often neglected not only because of it's place in Sly's catalog but because it has no big standout hit songs,the exact same problem that befell A Whole New Thing ,the band's debut.But you can sing along to everything here,dance to it and even if it's not very carefully constructed it has a lot of wonderful things to say lyrically as well.So as is true with any definition of the word 'Life' is worth all the time you put into it.