207. Sly & The Family Stone - There's A Riot Goin' On (1971)


















Track Listing

1. Luv 'n' Haight
2. Just Like A Baby
3. Poet
4. Family Affair
5. Africa Talks To You 'The Asphalt Jungle'
6. There's A Riot Goin' On
7. Brave And Strong
8. You Caught Me Smilin'
9. Time
10. Spaced Cowboy
11. Running Away
12. Thank You For Talkin' To Me Africa

Review

Sly's back with a harder hitting album than Stand! but, unfortunately not such a good album. Stand! was a much livelier album even if it wasn't such a political one. There's A Riot Goin' On is a much more politically aware album, but it is also a much sadder album, and the funk is slightly lost in it.

This does not mean that it is in any way a bad album, actually it is pretty good, the beat is there, there are some really great tracks like family affair, which really stand out and there is a pervasive coolness throughout the album. This will definitely not be an album that will stand out to you that much, but talent oozes out of it.

Some of the longer tracks here are too long for their own good, still the last track is one of the longest and also one of the best. Lastly this is an album which really demands repeated listenings and then you can really tell why it is such a major album, you can really see the seeds of later music here, like the good stuff by Stevie Wonder. So really worth listening to. Get it at Amazon UK or UK.

Track Highlights

1. Family Affair
2. Thank You For Talkin' to Me Africa
3. Africa Talks To You 'The Asphalt Jungle'
4. You Caught Me Smilin'

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

* Side one technically concludes with the album's title track, which is listed as being zero minutes and zero seconds long (and thus is of course not heard on the album). For many years, it was speculated that this cryptic tracklisting and the title of the album were in reference to a July 27, 1970 riot in Chicago, Illinois for which Sly & the Family Stone had been blamed. The band was to have played a free show, but the crowd became restless before they made it onstage and began rioting. Over a hundred persons were injured, including several police officers, and the reason given to the press was that the band was late and/or refused to perform. However, when Sly Stone was visited by a fan, Johnathan Dakss, in 1997, Stone disproved this rumor. He instead told Dakks that the "There's a Riot Goin' On" has no running time because "I felt there should be no riots."


* In November 2003, Rolling Stone magazine listed There's a Riot Goin' On as number 99 on their list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". It is the second-highest of the band's four albums to make the list: Greatest Hits is listed at number 60, Stand! at number 118, and Fresh at number 186. The 2003 Q magazine "Readers' 100 Greatest Albums Ever" issue ranked the album 91 (as voted for in 2002 and published in Q Magazine, Issue 198, January 2003).


Sly Slyghtly fucked: