The idea for this week's series of posts, was to highlight not just a deep cut that most don't give a shit about, but songs, that for me, are personal faves. These are songs I go to on a regular basis. If I am listening to the Rolling Stones or Yes or The Kinks or Prince, you can be damn sure, I am spinning "Luxury," ""Beyond & Before," "Scattered" and "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad."
As for Sly & The Family Stone, well who doesn't love the hits? It'd be tough to find a record collection without Sly & The Family Stone's Greatest Hits somewhere among the S's. But Sly's catalogue, though not very deep, is a lot more impressive than it gets credit for. The album "Stand" contains eight songs and five of them are on the "Greatest Hits" record. Yet, their 1967 debut was almost tossed back at them. The label wasn't impressed. All Music says it wasn't "as funky or psychedelic" as subsequent efforts. I say, "SHUT UP!"
But I am not here to sing the praises of the band's debut, "A Whole New Thing," although all of you should own it! I am here to talk about "If This Room Could Talk," the second track from the debut, with the absolutely funky Greg Errico drum pattern, the now-patented horn lines of the Family, and the brilliant turn from funk to a beautiful, almost Motown-inspired bridge and back again, only to close out with Sly's vocal tricks made legendary on "Dance To The Music." I could listen to this one on repeat. (I just did, four times.) This track is as good as, if not better than, some of the classics that make up their "Greatest."
6 comments:
This is the one “Sly” Epic Records album I’m not that familiar with.
This track is the find of the week for me! This will send me back to re-evaluate the entire album.
Expect me to feature it on my show and give you a shout out for turning me on to it.
Good week on the blog!
Captain Al
It has a Chambers Bros vibe for me (a good thing), tho I see from the wiki that Sly's album predated A New Time A New Day. But the Chambers Brothers played the west coast often from 1965 on, so...
A different artist but one of my favorite Springsteen songs that I don't think gets much love is Spare Parts. I probably listen to that song once a month.
good description of the song particularly the bridge, very motown with sly going a little JB vocally at the end. Nice choice.
Looking forward to the eventual Weekend Mix of all of these. The Prince tune, which I knew, is great as is this Sly track, which I did not--only have "Anthology" (basically GH plus later tracks) and "Riot." Fun Weeks of posts, Sal.
Great song, I especially like the horns.
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