Happy 50th Anniversary to Sly and The Family Stone’s sixth studio album Fresh, originally released June 30, 1973.
Fresh, Sly and The Family Stone’s sixth album, demonstrates how it’s possible to pull greatness out of chaos and drug-induced discontent. Released 50 years ago, it’s one of the best albums of the era, and a monumental achievement in funk and soul. With everything going so wrong in the world around the band, it’s amazing that with this album, everything went so right.
Sly and The Family Stone is of course the brainchild of Sly Stone, a former San Francisco-based DJ turned musical genius. Together with brother and sister Freddie and Rose Stone, and a large lineup of talented musicians, Sly led The Family Stone as the musical vanguard of the “Peace and Love” movement that helped define the late 1960s. With albums like Dance to the Music (1968), Life (1968), and Stand! (1969) the group embodied everything great about the time period.
However, as the 1960s turned to the 1970s, Sly and The Family Stone also came to embody the dark side of the “Peace and Love” movement. There’s a Riot Goin’ On (1971), their brilliantly funky follow-up to Stand!, encapsulated all that was going wrong with Stone in his personal and professional life. Though most associate funk with care-free joy, Stone’s music was becoming coated with withering malaise.
Things were careening out of control for Stone and the rest of the group throughout the early 1970s. The frontman had moved to Los Angeles and was in the throes of a serious drug problem. He frequently indulged in cocaine and PCP, and notoriously started carrying around a violin-case (or a guitar-case, depending on who you ask) full of narcotics. Stone, wracked with drug-fueled paranoia, assembled a crew of questionable characters to act as his bodyguards/security to protect him from threats real or perceived.
Things within the group were tumultuous as well, marked by repeated lineup shifts. The relationship between Stone and bassist extraordinaire Larry Graham began to disintegrate in one of the ugliest ways possible. The source of the tension has never began fully explained, but there were rumors that it involved a woman of mutual interest, and that Stone believed Graham had hired a hitman to kill him. Things came to a cataclysmic head when a hellacious brawl between each of their entourages erupted in the lobby of a Los Angeles hotel. Graham quit the group soon after.
Furthermore, it didn’t appear any music was forthcoming. This was not for lack of time in the studio. The group was apparently recording material for the forthcoming album, but Sly’s perfectionist tendencies held things up. He would obsessively re-record and re-mix the tracks, fixating on the smallest details. It’s believed that he recorded an entire version of Fresh, mixed it down, then scrapped it entirely. Epic Records, desperate for an album to sell, re-issued the band’s previous material in hopes of keeping their name out there.
Whatever chaos existed outside the studio and whatever demons Stone was struggling with did not adversely affect the final product. Fresh sits comfortably in the top tier of the group’s discography. And for all of Sly’s obsessiveness when it came to the album’s mix-down, it’s undeniable that the album sounds great. Sly’s choices on how to engineer the song so that the basslines and drums were centrally featured was groundbreaking for its time. Thematically, while Fresh is not a particularly optimistic album, it also doesn’t wade in apathy and disillusionment like There’s a Riot Goin’ On.
Listen to the Album:
Fresh begins with the suitably epic “In Time,” the album’s first single and lengthy funk masterpiece. The nearly six-minute opus serves as Sly Stone’s way of saying, “It’s been a long time… I shouldn’t have left you,” as he muses about his creative process, explaining that he’s learned from mistakes, and each failure has made him stronger. It’s a grand musical endeavor, as many of the band members get their time shine, as substantial solos pop up throughout the song. There’s also a moment nearly halfway through the song where it sounds like the song is fading out, only to charge back with even more energy. I confess that even after decades of listening to “In Time,” the false fade out fools me every time.
“If You Want Me to Stay” is similarly singular from anything produced before by the group. Sly apparently put together much of the track on his own, without input from other band members, playing organ, piano, guitar, and bass, and contributing the vocals. The intro is unique, starting with a pulsing bass solo and delicate keys, accompanied by Sly’s slinky falsetto. Like much of the lyrical content on Fresh, Stone’s verses concern the importance of maintaining his individuality, this time focusing on a disagreement with a lover. The song was the group’s last Top 20 hit, and it’s still one of the group’s more memorable singles.
Fresh practically drowns in innovation, as Sly Stone imbues the compositions with a distinctive musical voice. The dense “Frisky” is awash in funk, loaded with soulful vocals and complex organ playing. Stone’s opening bass solo on “Skin I’m In” is marvelously potent, and eventually gives way to towering horns. On the mic, Stone manages to convey a lot while saying very little, belting out brief phrases to establish that, ultimately, he regrets none of his choices.
“Thankful and Thoughtful” is a Blues-influenced creation, in which Freddie Stone’s virtuoso guitar playing takes the center stage. Sly Stone uses the song to tell the story of his musical redemption, finding his voice after realizing he had more to accomplish. “Middle of stream, I had to change my stroke,” he sings. “I say I put it on the good foot, and it ain’t no joke / They said I was dying, I didn’t want to go / And I kept on feeling I had to live some more.”
Occasionally Stone mines older material in both the literal and figurative sense. “Keep on Dancing” is a reimagining of “Dance for Me,” one of the group’s first and biggest hits, with the crew focusing on heavy funk grooves. It’s still music for the dancefloor, but it’s meant to be played during the small hours of the morning, rather than prime time in the clubs. “If It Were Left Up to Me” is apparently an outtake from the group’s Life (1968) sessions, which was then given to Family Stone offshoot Little Sister. After the group’s album was shelved, “…Left Up to Me” found a home again with Stone. The song harkens back to their late 1960s sound, filled with an optimism that was far less prominent in the group’s music.
The legend goes that Stone drew the ire of the Black Panthers in the late 1960s and early 1970s because they thought the group’s music wasn’t dedicated enough to combating the political realities of the time. Members of the organization apparently confronted Stone, demanding that he record more music about confronting the racist power structure operating in the United States and insisting that he remove the white members in the group.
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Stone balked at the latter, but it’s worth recognizing the revolutionary message that’s hiding in plain sight in “Don’t Know (Satisfaction).” Taking the rhythm and modifying the refrain from the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” Stone takes one of the greatest rock songs of all time and transforms it into an inspiring call for social change. As the back-up singers repeatedly chant the song’s recognizable hook, Stone makes declarations like “Time at last, laws to pass / Can't be a few got to be a mass” and “I see abuse, what's the use? / Time must let my people loose."
Fresh also features one of the oddest inclusions for a commercially released funk album, as the group covers “Que Sera,” the Academy Award winning song from The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) by Doris Day. I can think of few musical recordings less intrinsically funky than what became the theme of The Doris Day Show. But the crew’s transformation of the whimsical song into a slow-rolling, gospel-inspired recording is just as weird as any high concept track spawned from the mind of other funk merchants throughout the 1970s. The song features what is apparently the last recorded appearance of Larry Graham on bass for the band. He quietly works his wizardry, complementing Rose Stone’s vocals and Sly’s wistful organ playing.
Fresh ends with “Babies Making Babies,” one of the group’s best recordings and funkiest connections. Stone’s musical talents and production abilities are on full display here, infusing the song with every bit of his character. He gives a masterful performance on the bass and organ, and channels his pain and frustrations through his vocal tones. His mix-down of the song also showcases his brilliance, as the horns start out as faint whispers in the back, fading in to provide a graceful backdrop when required.
In my tribute to Stand!, I wrote extensively about Sly Stone’s ugly fall from grace. During this point in time, Stone was still able to overcome whatever plagued him in order to make timeless and powerfully funky music. He wouldn’t be as lucky as the years continued to pass, but despite where things would eventually head, Fresh is a creative and musical triumph. Despite how it appeared from the outside, Stone was aware of his issues, and was able to learn from them and forge ahead.
Listen: