Life (Sly & the Family Stone album)

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Professional reviews
Life

Studio album by Sly & the Family Stone
Released	September 1968
Recorded	San Francisco Bay Area, California; summer 1968
Genre	Psychedelic soul/funk
Length	34:16
Label	Epic BN 26397
Producer(s)	Sly Stone
All Music Guide link Rolling Stone (1995 re-issue) link
Sly & the Family Stone chronology
Dance to the Music (1968)	Life (1968)	Stand! (1969)

For other uses, see Life (album).

Life was the third album by Sly & the Family Stone, released by Epic/CBS Records in 1968.

1 Overview
2 Track listing
3 Personnel
4 Sample

[edit] Overview

Unlike its predecessor, Dance to the Music, Life was not a commercial success, although it has received mostly positive reviews from music critics over the years. Many of its songs, including "M'Lady", "Fun", "Love City", and the title track became popular staples of the Sly & the Family Stone live show.

A middle ground between the A Whole New Thing and the more commercial Dance to the Music, Life features very little use of studio effects, and is instead more driven by frontman Sly Stone's compositions. Topics for the album's songs include the dating scene ("Dynamite!", "Chicken", "M'Lady"), groupies ("Jane is a Groupee"), and "plastic" (or "fake") people ("Plastic Jim"). Of partiular note is that the Family Stone's main themes of unity and integration are explored here in several songs ("Fun", "Harmony", "Life", and "Love City"). The next Family Stone LP, Stand!, would focus almost exclusively on these topics.

Much of Life has been heavily sampled for hip hop and electronica recordings, particularly Gregg Errico's drum solo on "Love City". The opening riff on "Into My Own Thing" was sampled for Fatboy Slim's 2001 hit "Weapon of Choice".

[edit] Track listing

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

[edit] Side one

"Dynamite!" – 2:46
"Chicken" – 2:14
"Plastic Jim" – 3:31
"Fun" – 2:23
"Into My Own Thing" – 2:15
"Harmony" – 2:52

[edit] Side two

"Life" – 3:02
"Love City" – 2:44
"I'm An Animal" – 3:20
"M'Lady" – 2:46
"Jane is a Groupee" – 2:50

[edit] CD bonus tracks

1995 limited edition CD reissue
- "Only One Way Out Of This Mess" (3:51, added for 1995 compact disc rerelease)
2007 limited edition CD reissue
- "Dynamite" (mono single version)
- "Seven More Days" (previously unreleased)
- "Pressure" (previously unreleased)
- "Sorrow" (previously unreleased)