SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE — There's a Riot Goin' On (review)

SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE — There's a Riot Goin' On album cover Album · 1971 · Funk Buy this album from MMA partners
5/5 ·
Warthur
Rock fans acquainted with the history of Pink Floyd will know how after their debut album Syd Barrett soon ran into some severe issues, and under the influence of heavy drug use transformed into a troubled introvert whose musical output revealed a rapidly crumbling psyche. Well, imagine the album which Pink Floyd might have produced if they had stuck around with Syd and provided a full band backing to his ideas rather than retiring him from the band to make his sparse solo albums; There's a Riot Goin' On is the funk equivalent of that.

Sly's drug-affected behaviour from this era is legendary, as is the dark tone of the album; the sunny optimism of Stand! is gone, the Sixties are well and truly over and the Seventies are here to stay, and whilst the opening Luv n' Haight's refrain of "feel so good, feel so good, wanna move, wanna move" ought to be uplifting, it feels more compulsive and involuntary, the product of a nervous energy which infuses the album. Drowning in a swamp of fuzz, There's a Riot Goin' On is the sound of a funk pioneer caught in the quicksand of drug abuse and yet still possessing the insight to produce this devastating look at how the dream of the Woodstock Nation, the civil rights era, and all the movements that had informed Stand! had met with setbacks, failure, and deep, deep trouble in the intervening years.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Jazz Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

JMA TOP 5 Jazz ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
A Love Supreme Post Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
Kind of Blue Cool Jazz
MILES DAVIS
Buy this album from our partners
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Progressive Big Band
CHARLES MINGUS
Buy this album from our partners
Blue Train Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
My Favorite Things Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners

New Jazz Artists

New Jazz Releases

Sonic Creed Volume II : Life Signs World Fusion
STEFON HARRIS
Buy this album from MMA partners
My Ship Hard Bop
WILLIE JONES III
Buy this album from MMA partners
Ice Breaking Post-Fusion Contemporary
DAG ARNESEN
Buy this album from MMA partners
Lee Ritenour & Dave Grusin : Brasil Latin Jazz
LEE RITENOUR
Buy this album from MMA partners
From The North - Gogo Penguin Live In Manchester Nu Jazz
GOGO PENGUIN
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Jazz Online Videos

GoGo Penguin - From the North - GoGo Penguin Live in Manchester
GOGO PENGUIN
js· 104 minutes ago
03 Willie Jones III My Ship #NightIsAlive
WILLIE JONES III
snobb· 21 hours ago
Fall
SUNNY KIM
js· 1 day ago
Twilight
RANDY SCOTT
js· 2 days ago
Trifecta - Beck and Call - official video (taken from The New Normal)
TRIFECTA
js· 3 days ago
More videos

New JMA Jazz Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Jazz News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed