Sly & The Family Stone - 1973 - Fresh

Sly & The Family Stone

1973

Fresh

01. In Time 5:45

02. If You Want Me To Stay 2:39

03. Let Me Have It All 2:13

04. Frisky 3:26

05. Thankful N' Thoughtful 4:49

06. Skin I'm In 2:45

07. I Don't Know (Satisfaction) 3:33

08. Keep On Dancin' 2:42

09. Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be) 5:12

10. If It Were Left Up To Me 1:55

11. Babies Makin' Babies 4:19

Bonus Tracks:

12. Let Me Have It All (Alternate Mix) 2:19

13. Frisky (Alternate Mix) 3:27

14. Skin I'm In (Alternate Mix) 2:48

15. Keep On Dancin' (Alternate Mix) 2:44

16. Babies Makin' Babies (Alternate Version) 4:20

Sly Stone – vocals, organ, guitar, bass guitar, piano, harmonica, and more

Freddie Stone – vocals, guitar

Rose Stone – vocals, piano, keyboard

Cynthia Robinson – trumpet

Jerry Martini – saxophone

Pat Rizzo – saxophone

Rusty Allen – bass on "If You Want Me", "In Time", "Let Me Have it All", and "Keep on Dancin'"

Larry Graham – bass on "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)" and "If It Were Left Up to Me"

Andy Newmark – drums

Little Sister (Vet Stone, Mary McCreary, Elva Mouton) – vocals

Fresh is a great album. Just Sly on the front cover actually not in midair, but posing on a sheet of glass with a photographer underneath it. The band is featured in the sleeve this time, in contrast to Riot this feels more like a group project. This doesn't necessarily mean that the performances are better, but perhaps it does account for the more smooth sounding production this time. Gone is that LOUD tape hiss ever present on the previous album, which may indicate less overdubbing and more organic performances... or maybe technology had just progressed?

I will take Riot any day of the week... I would actually rank it as the only 5 and half star record of all times. [btw: there's no way to denote that on this website, that I have figured out]. So eventhough Fresh sounds better and seems to say more lyrically, Riot scores so high with me because it sounds so innovative and perpetually exciting. It is a dark cavernous hole that is also somehow funky

I just wanted to point that out so that I can also say that Fresh is very, very good, even in comparison to all of that. It starts off right proper with the robotic drum/drum machine intro and angular guitar hook that begins In Time. Love that tune as it breaks in with fuzzy bass and quick shots of keys, horns and female lady singers. Best line: SWITCHED FROM COKE TO PEP 'CUZ I'M A connoisseur.

If You Want Me to Stay is next, probably the famous song on the album. On this track, Sly seems to be laying out a manifesto in romantic language. He sets the mood with his funky ass and big beat, and proceeds to lay it down ~ try to tell his people, or anybody who is listening, how they can act right. He's trying to say if you want him to stay you got to be around and you can't be unforgiving if, for example, he just happens to be three hours late for a gig or something. Its a brilliant statement really, concealing everything in the type of language lovers use but indicating that number one is gonna be number one. The uncanny thing about the single, as it also seems to disintegrate as simply as it starts, is that it seems to forecast the rest of the album. Nondescript, militant sounding chants over huge beats and big bass: Sly wants to have it all, but offers so little. It just happens that it all will have to do, right down to the sloppy, stoned out cover of Doris Day

But yea, after that second track, Fresh becomes less about the songs IMHO and more about creating a certain atmosphere, epitomized by Skin I'm In, the most explicit track on the record. It is mirrored by Brave and Strong on Riot which also opens a second side with a bold statement of purpose. Sly shows his pride on these tracks, saying he wouldn't change a thing: he'd still be in the same skin he's in. Considering the decade that would follow Fresh, with his numerous run-ins with the law and problems with drugs, it would seem to magnify the tragedy that is Sly Stone's fall. I guess my point is that no matter how zonked the man was by the drugs by 1973, he still recognized his self-worth and importance. There is a confidence to Fresh that makes it seem less true than Riot for some reason, as if this was just another Sly Stone pattern-holding album. But its not that at all, we see in retrospect. In effect, it would've been impossible for him to keep it all up, but then I might suggest as in the case of this album, lightning will sometimes flash twice

Savour the freshness!