50th Anniversary Album Spotlight
There's a Riot Goin' On
Sly & The Family Stone
Released November 1, 1971
Chart debut: November 13, 1971
Chart peak: #1 (December 18 and 25, 1971)
#99 on
Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2003)
Wiki said:
There's a Riot Goin' On (sometimes referred to as Riot) is the fifth studio album by American funk and soul band Sly and the Family Stone. It was recorded from 1970 to 1971 at Record Plant Studios in Sausalito, California and released later that year on November 1 by Epic Records. The recording was dominated by band frontman Sly Stone during a period of elevated drug use and intra-group tension.
For the album, Sly and the Family Stone departed from the optimistic psychedelic soul of their previous music and explored a darker, more challenging sound, employing edgy funk rhythms, primitive drum machines, extensive overdubbing, and a dense mix. Conceptually and lyrically, There's a Riot Goin' On embraced apathy, pessimism, and disillusionment with both Stone's fame and 1960s counterculture amid a turbulent political climate in the United States at the turn of the 1970s, influenced by the decline of the civil rights movement and the rise of the Black Power movement. The album's title was originally planned to be Africa Talks to You, but it changed in response to Marvin Gaye's album What's Going On (1971), released six months before Riot.
This turned out to be one of those albums that I struggled to find the goodness in, but just couldn't get into. It opens with the mellow funk of "Luv N' Haight," which features simple, repeating lyrics about staying in bed--where Sly partly recorded the album--and getting high:
Wiki said:
"Luv n' Haight" is satirically titled as a reference to the Haight-Ashbury scene, while the music and lyrics express disillusionment with the 1960s counterculture.
Songs such as "Luv 'n Haight", "Thank You for Talking to Me Africa", and "Spaced Cowboy" are characterized by edgier, unrelenting grooves with rhythmic sounds resembling murmuring noises.
While thematically appropriate in expressing where the artist was at,
"Just Like a Baby" makes less of an impression.
"Poet" features simple lyrics, but expresses a good sentiment: "My only weapon is my pen".
The album's leading single, "Family Affair" (charted Nov. 6, 1971; #1 US the weeks of Dec. 4 through 18, 1971; #1 R&B; #15 UK; #138 on
Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time [2004]; #57 on the 2021 list), was the first new material released by Sly & the Family in nearly two years, since the "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)"/ "Everybody Is a Star" single. It was also the group's final chart-topper, and features Billy Preston on electronic piano.
Side one climaxes with the album's longest track,
"Africa Talks to You ('The Asphalt Jungle')," which Wiki describes as "a nine-minute funk jam written in response to the backlash Sly Stone received from estranged fans and friends, record industry associates, and the media."
The album label listed the running time of title track and side one closer
"There's a Riot Goin' On," as 0:00...though digital media tell us that it's actually four seconds of silence. Regarding its content, Sly is quoted as having said, “I felt there should be no riots.”
Side two opens with the relatively upbeat
"Brave & Strong," which contains echoes of Sly's earlier work despite its murky mix.
As songs on this album go, "(You Caught Me) Smilin'" has a pleasant, catchy '70s sound that no doubt helped it to be selected as a single (charts Apr. 22, 1972; #42 US; #21 R&B):
By comparison to the immediately preceding tracks,
"Time" seems rather lethargic.
A more obviously titled drug song on an album full of drug-fueled songs,
"Spaced Cowboy" is characterized by Sly's country-style yodeling.
"Runnin' Away" was another obvious single choice by this album's standards (charted Feb. 5, 1972; #23 US; #26 AC; #15 R&B; #17 UK):
The album closes with its second-longest track, "Thank You for Talkin' to Me Africa," which is a slower version of the band's previous chart-topper, "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)":
A commercial success, There's a Riot Goin' On topped the Billboard Pop Album and Soul Album charts, while its lead single "Family Affair" reached number-one on the Pop Singles chart. The album was eventually certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of at least one million copies in the US.
There's a Riot Goin' On was met with a divided reaction from fans and music critics, who were not used to the album's production and lyrical content.
The album has since been praised as one of the greatest and most influential recordings of all time, having impacted the funk, jazz-funk, and hip hop genres in particular. It ranks frequently and highly in many publications' best-album lists, including Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", on which it placed 99th in 2003 and 82nd in 2020.
Although the album was coming from a dark place, I didn't find it nearly as overtly dark as some critics have reportedly described it; but I didn't find much to enjoy about it either.
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I have a good friend who was born and raised in China. She immigrated to the US in the ‘80’s and became a citizen. Politically, she is quite progressive and regularly criticizes the Chinese regime. But she still speaks warmly of Nixon. She is well aware of his crimes and how he left office, but she still has a soft spot for him.
She told me that many Chinese who were of age back then feel the same way she does about Nixon. He is credited by many Chinese as being the guy who opened China to the world.
I always look at her like she’s crazy when she starts this talk, but she understands. I had to tell her to stop sending me pics of the Nixon Libtary when she visited there this past December. .
Considering that her favorite American historical figures are MLK and Lincoln, you’d think she’d have kicked Nixon to the curb years ago, but nope.
That's a welcomely different perspective.
I was intrigued to read about how Nixon, after decades of being political Kryptonite to fellow Republicans, offered foreign policy advice to a readily receptive Bill Clinton.
Oh, I give him credit for that, along with other stuff like the EPA. I also give him credit for resigning. When it came down to it, he put the country first, which is a quaint notion in the 21st century.
Indeed...as much as he tarnished the presidency, he went down presidentially.
