There's a Riot Goin' On

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There's a Riot Goin' On
There's a Riot Goin' On cover
Studio album by Sly & the Family Stone
Released November 20, 1971
Recorded Bay Area, California; spring 1971 - fall 1971
Genre Funk/Soul
Length 47:33
Label Epic
KE 30986
Producer(s) Sly Stone
Professional reviews
Sly & the Family Stone chronology
Greatest Hits
(1970)		 There's a Riot Goin' On
(1971)		 Fresh
(1973)


Alternate cover
Reissue cover
Reissue cover

There's a Riot Goin' On is the influential 1971 album by the soul/rock/funk band Sly & the Family Stone. Unlike the earlier psychedelic-styled albums by the Family Stone, There's a Riot Goin' On embraced a darker, more foreboding sound, stylistically reflecting the general feeling of lost hope and crushed dreams that prevailed for many people during the 1970s. The title of the album is an answer to the title of Marvin Gaye's 1971 album What's Going On (the original title was Africa Talks To You).

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Overview

Sly & the Family Stone were due to have submitted an album to Epic at least a year before Riot was released, but Sly Stone missed several recording deadlines, worrying CBS executive Clive Davis. Sly worked on Riot mostly alone in a studio that he had especially built for him at The Plant Studios in Sausalito, California, or at home in a studio located in the loft of his Bel Air mansion. The Record Plant studio included a bed and a wireless microphone system, and Sly would often simply lay down in the bed and record his vocals while in repose. According to the other Family Stone members, most of the album's instrumentation was performed by Sly alone in the studio via overdubbing. When the other band members contributed instrumentation to Riot tracks, they also did so by overdubbing alone with Sly instead of playing in unison as was usual for them. For "Family Affair" and some of the other selections on the LP, Sly enlisted several of his industry friends, including Billy Preston, Ike Turner, and Bobby Womack, to provide instrumentation on the album instead of his bandmates.

In the fall of 1971, Sly Stone personally drove the Riot masters to the CBS Records offices, relieving the worried Clive Davis. CBS issued "Family Affair" as the first single; it was the first Family Stone recording to be released in nearly two years. "Family Affair" became the fourth and final number-one pop hit for the band, but it was still a notable departure from the sound of their earlier hits. A somber, electric piano-based record, Sly and sister Rose Stone sing about the good and bad aspects of family, with Sly delivering his part in a low, depressed tone. The song's rhythm is provided by a drum machine (or rhythm box), making it one of the earliest hit recordings to feature use of such a device (the first was another Sly Stone production, (Little Sister's "Somebody's Watching You"). Sly felt that the rhythm box, if used the way it was designed, made unrealistic sounds, and resorted to holding down five buttons, running the tape, then rewinding, holding down a different set of five buttons, and overdubbing.

Most of Riot features Sly alone on lead vocals – Rose is the only other member of the band who sings solo lead parts on the album. The entire record featured a dampened, wearied sound as the result of Sly's extensive re-recording and overdubbing, which matches the burnt-out, frustrated, drugged tone of Sly's lyrics and vocals. Riot finds Sly reveling in drug-induced euphoria ("Luv n' Haight"), praising himself ("Poet") and declaring that the good times and high hopes of 1960s are over, and the bad times (the 1970s) are here ("Africa Talks To You 'The Asphalt Jungle'"). This was also of the few songs to feature co-lead vocals by The Family Stone. The angry and forceful "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" (included on Greatest Hits) is reincarnated as the slow, ghastly "Thank You For Talking to Me Africa."

"Runnin' Away" and "(You Caught Me) Smilin'" were Riot's other singles. The former features Rose Stone singing the lead vocals in unison with her brother Sly, and the latter was the first Family Stone recording for Gerry Gibson, who replaced Gregg Errico as the Family Stone's drummer. Errico had gradually withdrawn from the band early in 1971, as a result of Sly Stone's increased drug use and now unpredictable demeanor.

[edit] Release and reaction

There's a Riot Goin' On debuted at #1 on the Billboard album charts upon its release. Many critics and fans did not know how to react to Riot upon its release, but the album is today recognized as one of the best and most honest albums of the rock era. It is also considered the one of the first instances of the type of funk music later popularized by George Clinton and Funkadelic, the Ohio Players, and similar acts. Pitchfork Media ranked it number four on their Top 100 Albums of The 1970s.

From the 1970s on, Riot's songs have been extensively covered and sampled. Among the artists who have covered or reworked Riot song include Iggy Pop, Lalah Hathaway, Ultramagnetic MC's, De La Soul, The Beastie Boys, Gwen Guthrie, and many others.

[edit] Cover art

The original cover art for Riot featured a red, white, and black American flag with suns in place of the stars. No other text or titles appear on the cover, although Epic added a "Featuring the Hit Single 'Family Affair'" sticker to the LP for commercial viability and identification purposes. Family Stone A&R director Steve Paley took the photograph. Three of the custom flags were created: one for Sly, one for Epic Records, and one for Paley. The album was later reissued with a more commercial cover featuring Sly in concert, and the traditional album titles and text.

According to Sly, the album cover is meant to represent "people of all colors", as black is the absence of all color, white is the combination of all color, and red represents blood, which all humans have in common. Suns are used instead of stars because, according to Sly, "stars to me imply searching ...like you search for your star...Betsy Ross did the best she could with what she had. I thought I could do better." [1]

[edit] Other notes

  • 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. [2]. 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." [3]
  • 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).

[edit] Track listing

All songs written by Sylvester Stewart, and produced and arranged by Sly Stone for Stone Flower Productions.

[edit] Side one

  1. "Luv n' Haight" - 4:01
  2. "Just Like a Baby" - 5:11
  3. "Poet" - 3:01
  4. "Family Affair" - 3:04
  5. "Africa Talks to You 'The Asphalt Jungle'" - 8:45
(no number) "There's a Riot Goin' On" - 0:00

[edit] Side two

  1. "Brave & Strong" - 3:29
  2. "(You Caught Me) Smilin'" - 2:54
  3. "Time" - 3:01
  4. "Spaced Cow Boy" - 3:59
  5. "Runnin' Away" - 2:56
  6. "Thank You For Talkin' to Me Africa" - 7:12

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Chart and singles history

Title Information
"Family Affair"
  • Epic single 10805, 1971
  • B-side: "Luv 'n' Haight"
"Runnin' Away"
  • Epic single 10829 , 1972
  • B-side: "Brave & Strong"
"(You Caught Me) Smilin'"
  • Epic single 10850, 1972
  • B-side: "Luv 'n' Haight"
Name Chart (1971 - 1972) Peak
position
There's a Riot Goin' On U.S. Billboard Pop Albums 1
There's a Riot Goin' On U.S. Top R&B Albums 1
"Family Affair" U.S. Billlboard Pop Singles 1
"Family Affair" U.S. Billboard R&B Singles 3
"Family Affair" UK Singles Chart 14
"Runnin' Away" U.S. Billlboard Pop Singles 23
"Runnin' Away" U.S. Billboard R&B Singles 15
"Runnin' Away" UK Singles Chart 17
"(You Caught Me) Smilin'" U.S. Billlboard Pop Singles 42

[edit] Samples

[edit] Notes

  1. ↑  Dakss, Jonathan (1997). "My Weekend with Sly Stone". Sly-and-the-family-stone.com.
  2. ↑  Selvin, Joel (1998). For the Record: Sly and the Family Stone: An Oral History. New York: Quill Publishing.
  3. ↑  Dakss, Jonathan (1997). "My Weekend with Sly Stone". Sly-and-the-family-stone.com.

[edit] References

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