The Album Review Club - Week #196 (page 1316) - Aja - Steely Dan

For completeness the clues were:
  • Swiper the sneaky kleptomaniac fox from Dora the Explorer.
  • A still from the video for Stand by REM.
  • Despite their different colours the gemstones are all part of the same family, they are all Sapphires.
So Haaland level of finishing by Eamo from a De Bruyneesque assist by Foggy.

As a new boy on this thread, I realise I am a bit over enthusiastic so I’m supplying my write up in three separate posts, so you can ignore them as and when they become too detailed!
 
Last edited:
threespires said:
For completeness the clues were:
  • Swiper the sneaky kleptomaniac fox from Dora the Explorer.
  • A still from the video for Stand by REM.
  • Despite their different colours the gemstones are all part of the same family, they are all Sapphires.
So Haaland level of finishing by Eamo from a De Bruyneesque assist by Foggy.

As a new boy on this thread, I realise I am a bit over enthusiastic so I’m supplying my write up in three separate posts, so you can ignore them as and when my they become too detailed!
Click to expand...
Will be the only time I am ever compared to Our Ginger Magician!!!
 
The TLDR write-up:

I realise this might be an atypical pick for the thread and so it might not score well but it really doesn’t matter, I just want to share the unbridled joy I get from this album.

Sampled and covered by many but rarely bettered, the album is ‘Stand’ by Sly and the Family Stone. To me they were one of the most influential, enjoyable, and anarchically cool bands in the history of popular music.

The band were a mix of talents driven along by Sly Stone arguably one of the most underappreciated musicians of the last 50 years; their music was a fusion of all sorts of styles as they refused to be pigeonholed and constrained by the conventions of the time. To me this album, released in 1969, is the one where they nailed it and it all came together. The wheels came off big time in the end, but at that moment in time they were glorious.

P.S. You need to play this album loudly.
 
Last edited:
It’s a band name I know, and I’m sure I will recognise some of the songs, but once again, a band I’ve never knowingly listened to. I think I’ve heard “Everyday People”.

You are correct in that it’s an atypical choice, but that’s a good thing. Having said that, we have had some really unusual choices in this thread, which is one of the things that makes it great.
 
RobMCFC said:
Lots of 5's and 6's for The Dogs D'Amour. A Graveyard of Empty Bottles scored an average of 5.38 across 13 votes. I daresay if it was jut down to Spotify, the scores would have been lower than a snake's belly. Thanks to @southamptonblue for the nomination, I enjoyed it anyway.

Only two albums to go in round 5, and next up is @GoatersLeftShin
Click to expand...
Sorry @RobMCFC I was typing it up tonight for tomorrow :)
 
Now for a longer rambling version of why I've nominated this, feel free to ignore!.

I was 4 years old when this album came out, I’m not American and at the time my dad was listening to Mario Lanza and Beniamino Gigli and my big sister to the likes of The Herd and Amen Corner; my Mum and my brother weren’t too fussed either way. My own journey into music started with dodgy glam rock and then in my youth I turned into a trench coat wearing miserabilist having sort of missed out a bit on punk. So how did I end up making this my first pick on this thread?

About 20 years on from this album’s release, I started taking an interest not only in a broader array of music but also where different types of music had originated and evolved. So, as I worked backwards through the influences on some of the people I’d started listening to, one of the places I ended up at was this album and I’m so glad I did.

Sly and the Family Stone made several interesting albums during their time together. Arguably the album after this ‘A Riot’s Going On’ would be more fertile ground for discussion in an album review club but I’ve chosen Stand for multiple reasons.
  • The way it influenced so many people to come, in so many different ways.
  • The fact that it was the last album before the coke took hold of Sly Stone who, though he still hit the heights at times, was never quite the same again.
  • It just precedes the point at which they became disillusioned with what was going on in the world, but more of that later.
  • The mixture of excess and less being more all in the same place.
  • The fact that one of its tracks is on my shortlist for when the curtains close on me at the crem.
  • And most simply but most importantly, how it makes me feel. This thread is supposed to be about music we care about. I really like “A riots’ going on” but I love “Stand”
Before we go any further, I would suggest this album really needs to be listened to pretty loud. Playing it as background music just doesn’t work. I find a good approach is going for a walk with headphones on because you can have a bit of a dance or grove if you feel the need to. You can’t run to it though, because it's eclectic nature will completely mess with your rhythm.

Their influence is huge in so many different ways. To name but a few things, without them…
  • Maybe Prince doesn’t decide to dedicate his life to creating music
  • Maybe bass slapping and popping doesn’t develop and Mark King remains a milkman on the Isle of Wight
  • Maybe hip-hop and rap evolves in completely different directions, Public Enemy almost certainly sound different
  • Maybe somewhat less artistically important, but without the song Everyday People, Gary Coleman never gets to say “what you talkin’ bout Willis”.
Now you may say that some or all of the above not happening would have been a good thing, but it is hard to deny their influence which I personally think has been hugely beneficial to popular music. So much of what you hear on this album has been picked up and run with so much in the intervening years that it might not sound that radical now, but placed in the context of much of the music of the time they deserve their place as one of great innovators and fusers of different genres. More to the point, the album still stands up completely today.

They broke the mould in so many ways, a multi-racial band at a time when that was almost unheard of. A strident social message without sounding remotely po faced about it. A female brass player in the shape of the wonderful Cynthia Robinson. They just refused to be pigeonholed into a particular style, Sly Stone had been a DJ who had made a point of playing whatever appealed to him irrespective of genre or race for that matter and that spirit of we are just going to play what feels good to us, runs throughout this album.

To me they did everything you would want from a band. They experimented and found new ideas and things. They honed their early ideas until they produced something glorious which I think is this album. They handed down those ideas to others to build on and create great music too. They sounded like they didn’t give a toss whilst simultaneously trying to change the world a bit.

They showed that though they could do clever stuff, great music can be simple too. For example, with the exception of a couple of tracks, the rhythm section of Greg Errico and Larry Graham are not called upon to do anything hugely complex on Stand, but Lord can they groove. In a separate post I will probably wax lyrical about the songs (lucky you) but as an example, the incessant way they drive I Want To Take You Higher forward is a masterclass in it ain’t what you do it’s the way that you do it.

At the centre of the creative mayhem was Sly Stone an ultimately wayward genius who made the aforementioned Prince look like a bit of a lightweight when it came to having his fingers in all the musical pies. In a way he was too good and ended up with so many vested interests wanting a piece of him that I’m sure that would have accelerated it all going to ratshit.

Sadly, they even did the classic creative implosion/band disintegration pretty well, with drummer Errico escaping the band literally through a window. They are a band, and this is an album that to me has resonated through the decades. We live in increasingly dark times, but this album never fails to lift my spirits. It is full of defiance and hope in the face of what was then a difficult world and continues to be today.

In summary I think that what great music does is transport you somewhere else and that’s what this does for me. When I listen or even dance to songs on this album, on the outside I look exactly like what I am, an overweight middle-aged white man with a dubious sense of rhythm. But on the inside and in my head, I am 20 years old again, I am one of the Family Stone and I am grooving like an absolute maniac.
 
threespires said:
Sorry @RobMCFC I was typing it up tonight for tomorrow :)
Click to expand...
No problem.

It’s partially my fault - setting the date but then inviting clues the day before. When I saw you hadn’t posted for over a week, I thought the chances of you posting in the next 24 hours was slim.

No matter, you are on for next week - I hope so because it’s the last of the round!
 
Sorry everyone, I've been really busy with work and not had much time to listen to albums over the last week or so, so I apologise for not listening :( Anyway, the slogs over for a while now!

As for this album, I absolutely love Sly and the Family Stone and I've heard this album a good few times over the years and I share your view @threespires - it's joyous, optimistic and just an absolute blast!

You're absolutely correct in terms of their influence, it's absolutely huge. Listening to them is like listening to a "sampling library"! :) not only that, being a multi-racial band in that era must've been very difficult. I've also spent loads of time on YouTube watching Larry Graham videos! What a bassist he is, definitely one of the best 'groove makers' for me!

I love all the tracks on this album, but my favourite is "I want to take you higher". I think it's got everything you need in a song - pounding drums, amazing bass and loads of top class breaks. It's just a "groove" that makes you tap your feet and just want to move. It's like "Sing a Simple Song", there's something I find very hard to put my finger on but it makes you just want to move and have a good time!

I can never make my mind up whether they are soul, funk, RnB or whatever! I just know that it's music for the soul!

It's an easy 10/10 for me!
 
Final postI! I've done a bit a review of each of the songs but given much of the fun of this thread is people forming their own conclusions, I've put them behind a spoiler if people want to listen without prejudice.



Side 1 starts with the title track. Stand! Has a hopeful lyric matched by a similarly upbeat melody. Lyrically it nicely plants the album’s flag in terms of subject matter, I think the lyric “It’s the truth that the truth makes them so uptight” is as applicable now as it was then. Musically the first couple of minutes tick along nicely with something of a pop feel but the final minute signposts that the album is going to move into funkier territory.

The second track “Don’t Call Me…..” has a minimalist and very blunt lyric about the circular futility of othering each other but within this repetition bursts out a verse with an absolutely searing vocal delivered by Cynthia Robinson who was also the bands trumpet player. After that, the song builds with the layering of wailing guitar, distorted gibbering vocals and brass, all topped off with some heavy breathing which is hard to pull off without sounding daft, but works really well on here I feel.

As good as I think the song is, it turns out that Don’t Call Me…is just the Hors d'oeuvre for the next track. I Want to Take You Higher is my second favourite song on the album and is a standout piece of pioneering funk. It’s just a huge tune, it’s pounding beat is simple but is pretty much a masterclass on how a rhythm section drives a song along. Even if I am listening to it in a public setting, I literally cannot stop myself dancing in some way shape or form, if I’m sat in a chair it just looks like I’m having some sort of seizure, this used to be a problem but the older I get the less I care. If, at some point in the future, whatever bits of me that are still working, be it just an arthritic hand or an eyelid, no longer wants to move along to this song then I’ll know it's time for me to take my leave and slip away.

On the subject of rhythm, Larry Graham and Greg Errico might not be as well-known as some other rhythm sections like Sly and Robbie or Tony Thompson and Bernard Edwards but they were super tight and we have a lot to thank them for, not least in Larry Graham’s case with one of the earliest, if not the first, uses of a slap technique on this album.

After the driving force of this track the next one, Somebody’s Watching You seems to be a much mellower groove that settles things down. Except when you listen to it, it’s quite dark. It starts like some sort of demented sinister advert selling something to 60’s American Stepford wives and quickly the lyric establishes that this is not really a mellow song at all. I’ve heard lots of different views on exactly what Sly is saying on this but once again much of it seems prescient for things today.

Side 1 finishes with Sing a Simple Song which was a hit single, and we are back in a funkier mode with stabbing brass and guitar. Listening to this it’s easy to see why Nile Rodgers loves Sly and The Family Stone. You’ll hear the sample that Arrested Development used for their hit Mr Wendell which is just one of an insane number of times this song has been sampled, they run literally into the hundreds and the number of samples and covers that have been made from this album overall are legion.

Side 2 only has three tracks but even if you don’t care for the near 14 minutes of Sex Machine that takes up most of it this side, the opener is, imo, one of the great pop songs of all time.

Everyday People is on my shortlist for what’s going to play when the curtains close at the end of my time here. This track proves that a song doesn’t have to be technically sophisticated for it to be absolutely brilliant. It’s been described as part nursery rhyme and you can also dismiss the lyrics as platitude and in the case of the Scooby Scooby Doo part maybe just a bit mad, but that misses the point that both the nature of the melody and lyric is entirely deliberate to reenforce the point of the song. The whole piece just hums with soulfulness that has a completely different sense and vocal style to the “righteous” approach of say the Stax Volt singers of the day, that mostly typified soul at the time.

I don’t know how many thousands of times I have heard the song but when Sly opens up the single line chorus I still get shivers down my spine every single time. You’ll have to forgive the hyperbole but to me the short vocal run on the word ‘I’ followed by the rest of the band joining in to complete the line is up there alongside things like the four-note motif from Beethoven’s 5th as an iconic moment in music!

The song is also an object lesson in economy too. For example, people who’ve picked up a bass will know that often the simpler the line the more it exposes if you’ve got ‘it’. Everyday People is a great example of this. It’s mid-tempo and your left hand has next to nothing to do because the baseline here is basically just G. But go on then, you try and make it pulse quite like Larry Graham does.

So straight from two and a bit minutes of genius, to a track that’s nearly 14 minutes long and what I imagine will be something of a divisive track…Sex Machine. There’s no discernible lyrics other than Sly muttering through some sort of wah wahesque vocal filter which personally I like and just showcases their slightly mad inventiveness. Basically, the track is a band totally together having a great time jamming and inventing, everyone gets a solo and it builds and builds to its climax, as you would expect of a song with this title. If you think it’s filler then I would beg to differ, I’m not sure if it actually marks the invention of shagging music but it took it in a certain direction and influenced numerous artists on this front. The drum solo in the final part of the song is almost comedic in its unsubtlety which might be why they’re all laughing at the end of the track.

The album finishes up with another well-known song, You Can Make It if you try. In some ways this song makes me sad; the line “push a little harder, think a little deeper” to me sums up what Sly was trying to do and though that continued beyond this album it became increasingly less of an upbeat message as the defiant optimism gave way to a creeping cynicism in later outputs. But Stand doesn’t succumb to that frustration and bitterness, it remains positive through to its closing moments.

So, there you go, 8 songs and a running time of 41 minutes; an album both utterly of its time and yet still hugely relevant today. In my opinion, as Galliano would put it, it’s a joyful noise unto the creator.
 
GoatersLeftShin said:
Sorry everyone, I've been really busy with work and not had much time to listen to albums over the last week or so, so I apologise for not listening :( Anyway, the slogs over for a while now!

As for this album, I absolutely love Sly and the Family Stone and I've heard this album a good few times over the years and I share your view @threespires - it's joyous, optimistic and just an absolute blast!

You're absolutely correct in terms of their influence, it's absolutely huge. Listening to them is like listening to a "sampling library"! :) not only that, being a multi-racial band in that era must've been very difficult. I've also spent loads of time on YouTube watching Larry Graham videos! What a bassist he is, definitely one of the best 'groove makers' for me!

I love all the tracks on this album, but my favourite is "I want to take you higher". I think it's got everything you need in a song - pounding drums, amazing bass and loads of top class breaks. It's just a "groove" that makes you tap your feet and just want to move. It's like "Sing a Simple Song", there's something I find very hard to put my finger on but it makes you just want to move and have a good time!

I can never make my mind up whether they are soul, funk, RnB or whatever! I just know that it's music for the soul!

It's an easy 10/10 for me!
Click to expand...

Lol. I've just added a review of the songs that is basically 100% aligned to what you've said, other than I want to take you higher is my second favourite song! But it is indeed an absolutely epic song, i've had some funny looks over the years when i've been walking down the road listening to it, it' is just so so infectious. Probably the only time i've had odder looks was once in the queue at Tesco when it became apparent that I was singing "Don't call me n..." out loud rather than in my head as I thought I was.
 
Obviously, for Americans, this is absolutely stone cold classic band and “Everyday People” is as well known as any song from the time — or at least the one I remember. I vaguely recall my parents owning Sly when I was VERY small but not sure if it was this record. A great change of pace and I’m looking forward to it. Up the San Fran!
 
Last edited:
Stuck it on for a sneak peak last night while making my sandwich for lunch today.
Everything you’ve written so far about it is true.
I dare anyone to put it on and not dance. It’s almost impossible not to move you feet.
I’ll have the place to myself this evening. This is going to be fun.
 
threespires said:
Now for a longer rambling version of why I've nominated this, feel free to ignore!.

I was 4 years old when this album came out, I’m not American and at the time my dad was listening to Mario Lanza and Beniamino Gigli and my big sister to the likes of The Herd and Amen Corner; my Mum and my brother weren’t too fussed either way. My own journey into music started with dodgy glam rock and then in my youth I turned into a trench coat wearing miserabilist having sort of missed out a bit on punk. So how did I end up making this my first pick on this thread?

About 20 years on from this album’s release, I started taking an interest not only in a broader array of music but also where different types of music had originated and evolved. So, as I worked backwards through the influences on some of the people I’d started listening to, one of the places I ended up at was this album and I’m so glad I did.

Sly and the Family Stone made several interesting albums during their time together. Arguably the album after this ‘A Riot’s Going On’ would be more fertile ground for discussion in an album review club but I’ve chosen Stand for multiple reasons.
  • The way it influenced so many people to come, in so many different ways.
  • The fact that it was the last album before the coke took hold of Sly Stone who, though he still hit the heights at times, was never quite the same again.
  • It just precedes the point at which they became disillusioned with what was going on in the world, but more of that later.
  • The mixture of excess and less being more all in the same place.
  • The fact that one of its tracks is on my shortlist for when the curtains close on me at the crem.
  • And most simply but most importantly, how it makes me feel. This thread is supposed to be about music we care about. I really like “A riots’ going on” but I love “Stand”
Before we go any further, I would suggest this album really needs to be listened to pretty loud. Playing it as background music just doesn’t work. I find a good approach is going for a walk with headphones on because you can have a bit of a dance or grove if you feel the need to. You can’t run to it though, because it's eclectic nature will completely mess with your rhythm.

Their influence is huge in so many different ways. To name but a few things, without them…
  • Maybe Prince doesn’t decide to dedicate his life to creating music
  • Maybe bass slapping and popping doesn’t develop and Mark King remains a milkman on the Isle of Wight
  • Maybe hip-hop and rap evolves in completely different directions, Public Enemy almost certainly sound different
  • Maybe somewhat less artistically important, but without the song Everyday People, Gary Coleman never gets to say “what you talkin’ bout Willis”.
Now you may say that some or all of the above not happening would have been a good thing, but it is hard to deny their influence which I personally think has been hugely beneficial to popular music. So much of what you hear on this album has been picked up and run with so much in the intervening years that it might not sound that radical now, but placed in the context of much of the music of the time they deserve their place as one of great innovators and fusers of different genres. More to the point, the album still stands up completely today.

They broke the mould in so many ways, a multi-racial band at a time when that was almost unheard of. A strident social message without sounding remotely po faced about it. A female brass player in the shape of the wonderful Cynthia Robinson. They just refused to be pigeonholed into a particular style, Sly Stone had been a DJ who had made a point of playing whatever appealed to him irrespective of genre or race for that matter and that spirit of we are just going to play what feels good to us, runs throughout this album.

To me they did everything you would want from a band. They experimented and found new ideas and things. They honed their early ideas until they produced something glorious which I think is this album. They handed down those ideas to others to build on and create great music too. They sounded like they didn’t give a toss whilst simultaneously trying to change the world a bit.

They showed that though they could do clever stuff, great music can be simple too. For example, with the exception of a couple of tracks, the rhythm section of Greg Errico and Larry Graham are not called upon to do anything hugely complex on Stand, but Lord can they groove. In a separate post I will probably wax lyrical about the songs (lucky you) but as an example, the incessant way they drive I Want To Take You Higher forward is a masterclass in it ain’t what you do it’s the way that you do it.

At the centre of the creative mayhem was Sly Stone an ultimately wayward genius who made the aforementioned Prince look like a bit of a lightweight when it came to having his fingers in all the musical pies. In a way he was too good and ended up with so many vested interests wanting a piece of him that I’m sure that would have accelerated it all going to ratshit.

Sadly, they even did the classic creative implosion/band disintegration pretty well, with drummer Errico escaping the band literally through a window. They are a band, and this is an album that to me has resonated through the decades. We live in increasingly dark times, but this album never fails to lift my spirits. It is full of defiance and hope in the face of what was then a difficult world and continues to be today.

In summary I think that what great music does is transport you somewhere else and that’s what this does for me. When I listen or even dance to songs on this album, on the outside I look exactly like what I am, an overweight middle-aged white man with a dubious sense of rhythm. But on the inside and in my head, I am 20 years old again, I am one of the Family Stone and I am grooving like an absolute maniac.
Click to expand...
That's a great write-up, threespires. I've said it many times before (and will hopefully keep saying it), but what you said is exactly in the spirit of this thread. You've told us why you love it and how you discovered it.

I had a quick scan on Wikipedia last night and noticed the comment about "different strokes for different folks". You learn something everyday. I quite often use the "what you talkin' 'bout, Willis?" line when I don't understand what somebody's on about! So in an indirect way, they've even influenced me!
 
GoatersLeftShin said:
Sorry everyone, I've been really busy with work and not had much time to listen to albums over the last week or so, so I apologise for not listening :( Anyway, the slogs over for a while now!

As for this album, I absolutely love Sly and the Family Stone and I've heard this album a good few times over the years and I share your view @threespires - it's joyous, optimistic and just an absolute blast!

You're absolutely correct in terms of their influence, it's absolutely huge. Listening to them is like listening to a "sampling library"! :) not only that, being a multi-racial band in that era must've been very difficult. I've also spent loads of time on YouTube watching Larry Graham videos! What a bassist he is, definitely one of the best 'groove makers' for me!

I love all the tracks on this album, but my favourite is "I want to take you higher". I think it's got everything you need in a song - pounding drums, amazing bass and loads of top class breaks. It's just a "groove" that makes you tap your feet and just want to move. It's like "Sing a Simple Song", there's something I find very hard to put my finger on but it makes you just want to move and have a good time!

I can never make my mind up whether they are soul, funk, RnB or whatever! I just know that it's music for the soul!

It's an easy 10/10 for me!
Click to expand...
Off topic: Just seen in another thread that you also work in IT, so that's at least two software engineers in this thread.
I've never been contracting "scum" * though :)

* A phrase a contractor at work uses, not me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top