Sly and the Family Stone - Stand!

Stand! Said Sly and the Family Stone. In the end, you’ll still be you.

Sly Stone: vocals, guitar, keys, harmonica

Freddie Stone: guitar, vocals

Rose Stone: keys, vocals

Cynthia Robinson: trumpet, vocals

Jerry Martini: saxophone

Gregg Errico: drums

Produced by Sly Stone

design by Richard Mantel, photography by Fred Lombardi

From the jump, Sly Stone broke the rules.

When a young Sylvester Stewart arrived at KSOL, it was strictly a soul station. This was the mid-1960s, themusic industry was still largely pretty segregated. Only rarely did “Black music” cross over to the pop charts; still largely geared to white audiences. On his late night show, Sly sang his commercials, had friends rap his bumpers, Billy Preston even did the jingles! The weather was always 69 degrees, and he played the Beatles and the Stones alongside soul music. To him, “It’s all music, and it should all be together somewhere.”

Pictured: a young Sylvester Stewart in front of the mic at KSOL

But his focus was always split. In 1967, he summoned the best of his and his brother’s respective groups, and the Family Stone was born. According to the Family Stone’s saxophonist Jerry Martini, “He told me about it before we even started the band...There was a shit pot full of black drummers that could kick Gregg’s ass and there was a lot of black saxophone players that could kick mine. He knew exactly what he was doing. Boys, girls, black, white.”

Author Rickey Vincent observed:

“If it seems ridiculous to mention the race of the members of the Family Stone, it should, because if there was ever a group of people capable of sounding as one unit, it was this band. Sly’s band didn’t just cross racial boundaries, they obliterated them.”

quoted from: Rickey Vincent, Funk: The Music, The People, and the Rhythm of One (1996)

This was the America where career segregationist George Wallace ran as an independent candidate in the 1968 Presidential election. That same year, James Brown released “Say It Loud (I’m Black And I’m Proud”) – and was effectively blacklisted from pop radio for it. Sly’s mixed-race, mixed-gender group was absolutely radical, and absolutely intentional. He also built the Family Stone group this way in part to have as many varied influences as possible. White players listened to white groups and hung out on Haight-Ashbury. Black players listened to Black rock-and-rollers, bought soul records, and grew up in the gospel church. The seeds wereplanted for these guys to be huge. “Dance To The Music” was a minor hit, the Life LP boasted its title track and “M’Lady.” They played the Fillmore East with the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

The seeds were also planted for a change in what the Family Stone sang about. Being a mixed-gender, integrated group of young people, they were especially sensitive to what was going on in America at the time. 1968 was a pressure cooker year. An unpopular war. Political violence. Anti-establishment and anti-war protests squashed with police brutality. The Civil Rights Movement was at a crossroads: the Black Panther Party formed at the same time as the nation experienced a pendulum swing back to the hard conservative. Black power versus white backlash; Nixon’s “silent majority.” Though it hadn’t quite reached the counterculture yet, second-wave feminism was on the rise as well. Can you imagine how hard it was for the boomers’ moms having to go back to making casseroles after building fucking war planes? Sly said,

“There was no shortage of circumstance. The trick was not to become a victim of it. Being an artist meant more than just traveling through events. It meant channeling them.”

quoted from: Sly Stone with Ben Greenman and Arlene Hirschkowitz, Thank You (Falletinme Be Mice Elf Agin): A Memoir (2023)

That circumstance was channeled at Pacific High Recording Studios through early 1969; and the product was Stand!

“Stand,

In the end, you’ll still be you,

One that’s done all the things you set out to do.”

The title track of Stand! acts as its thesis statement: our collective dreams for a better world are possible. It won’t be an easy road: “They will try to make you crawl/And they know what you’re saying makes sense at all.”But at the end of the day, self-sufficiency and self-efficacy will keep it going. “All the things you want are real/You have you to complete, and there is no deal.” That message can apply to anyone, but upon release Sly intended it for the Afrocentrism of the late ’60s. For the first time, Black people in America were proud to be Black. They set their own beauty standards and fashion trends. “Stand!” is all the achievements made in the fight for civil rights, and acknowledging the long road still ahead. “Stand, there’s a midget standing tall/And a giant beside him about to fall.”

Each verse modulates up, making you think it’ll hit the resolution, but it drops back down to where it began. The constant up-and-down builds anticipation; it’s a very gospel thing to do. It finally resolves at the coda, but not inthe way you’d expect. “Stand!”’s endlessly sample-able drum break is something of a rock-and-roll mystery. Jeff Kaliss’s biography and A&R guy Stephen Paley say Sly had session musicians complete the track, but Questlove’s Sly Lives documentary says it was Gregg Errico – and so does Gregg himself. Whoever did it, it’s a damn good drum break. Hitting all those sixteenth notes on the cymbal is no walk in the park. Be prepared for the overuse of the word groove in this review, because it sets a blazing one. It doesn’t last nearly long enough! It seems that’s exactly what Sly wanted to do. As described by Gregg, “He would always go into this thing – it was fifteen seconds of it, then it fades out. He would open the door to this wonderful thing and then he would just take it away…”

Following “Stand!”’s everybody-appeal is the exact opposite.

About Don’t Call Me…, Sly said: “That song was a simple message: Don’t do anything that pisses me off and I won’t do anything that pisses you off. It was the Golden Rule...Come at bad blood from either side and blood was what you’d get.” In other words, “Socketh unto others as you would have them socketh to you.” The few lyrics (including a hook that blocked the song from radio play) speak to Black Power and white backlash, the “silent majority.” Rose sings the hell out of the only other lines in the song: “Well, I went across to the country, and I heard the voices ring/People talkin’ softly to each other, and not a word could change a thing.” The musicis appropriately intense. It feels like a long, hot summer about to boil over; like the summer of ’68. Freddy hits a menacing wah-wah pedal, and Larry’s bass is so fuzzed out it could pass for hard-edged psych rock. Sly’s obsession with the vocoder is slowly taking hold; the two-minute vocoder layering breaks are dizzying over a stereo system. I don’t know who does this (probably Sly,) but someone ad-libs some of Larry’s vocal line from the next track.

This album has about 100% more harmonica than I expected!

I Want To Take You Higher had history in the Sly canon. It started as a cover of Billy Preston’s “Advice,” then became “Higher” off Dance To The Music. “I Want To Take You Higher” would often morph into its predecessor live; becoming their walk-off song. Or dance-off song. Sly described it as “new clothes on a stronger body,” and I’m inclined to agree. What does “boom-laka-laka-laka” mean? Who the hell knows? Who cares?? With a groove this strong, the words don’t matter. “Take You Higher” is all the best parts of the Family Stone’s previous output. It has the everyone-on-the-floor feel of “Dance To The Music.” It has the energy of “Higher,” but with a beefed-up, sure-footed rhythm section stomp. We’re past psychedelic soul, and fully into funk. It boasts the personality of singles like “M’Lady.” Sly and crew’s performance is so packed with personality, they might as well jump out of the grooves. In keeping with that hippie spirit, everyone gets a line to sing. All together now: “HIIIIIGHER!” Sly gets so into it, his voice cracks. You can’t fake that kind of bodily exertion. “Take You Higher” has to be one of the liveliest, most animated recordings in rock-and-roll history. What takes it to the next level is the brass section. Their buzzing flashes, possessing something almost bebop about them, actually take us higher.

The surface meaning of Somebody’s Watching You is pretty explicitly laid out: feeling watched. This treatment isn’t reserved for the famous, or for the revolutionaries of the late ’60s with COINTELPRO tapping their phone lines. Big Brother is always watching. I get so annoyed when conspiracist folks go on about the possibility of a “surveillance state.” News flash, assholes, we already live in one! We all have GPS on our cell phones! The theme of paranoia metastasized into the centerpiece of Stand!’s follow-up, There’s A Riot Goin’ On.

But being a woman listening to Stand!, I hear a second meaning in “Somebody’s Watching You.” It’s no secret Rose and Cynthia – the two women in the Family Stone – are featured so prominently on this song’s verses. Not enough people talk about the rise of second-wave feminism as it pertains to Stand! Because so much of music criticism – especially rock-and-roll criticism – is old men, the vast majority of said critique has missed the second meaning.

“Pretty, pretty, pretty as a picture,

Witty, witty, witty as you can be

Blind cause your eyes only see glitter,

Closed to the things that make you feel free.”

“Somebody’s Watching” is about “tall poppy syndrome:” women making themselves smaller as not to be singled out, either by backwards-thinking men or other women. The tallest poppy gets cut down. Later, “Shady as a lady in a mustache/Feelings camouflaged by groans and grins/Secrets have a special way about them, moving to and fro among your friends.” Girls are raised to compete for attention from men, and women are constantly pitted against each other. Someone’s always looking better than you, doing better than you, with more brand deals and a more curated social media feed. Jealousy, gossip, being friends to faces but stabbing each other in the back – it’s all par for the course. Not enough retrospective reviews talk about the rise of second-wave feminism as it pertains to Stand! The late 1960s into the ’70s was the first time women were getting hip to all this. Everyone has someone praying on their downfall. It’s especially insidious when it’s one of your own.

Sing A Simple Song was one of Sly’s favorites on the record, and one of my favorites live. It’s infectious at Woodstock, the Harlem Cultural Festival performance is on the Summer Of Soul soundtrack as well. But I raise you the snippet on the Ed Sullivan Show, six months before Stand!’s release:

Any one of “Sing A Simple Song”’s building blocks would make a killer song. Top to bottom, it was engineered to make you move. The audacious guitar lick in the beginning, and vocals scooping up like a roller coaster. A bossy riff, Sly’s organ, and another endlessly sample-able drum break. Are we sure Gregg didn’t have a time machine? This is another groove so strong, the words take a back seat; but it won’t stop another everyone-sings moment. If you’re not singing along with “Yaaaa, ya ya ya yaaaa,” something’s wrong with you. How many hooks can Sly cram into one song? He takes that as a challenge!

“Sing A Simple Song” is the most joyous moment on all of Stand. “Time is passing, I grow older, things are happening fast/All I have to hold onto is a simple song at last – lemme hear you say!” Cynthia’s voice was like her trumpet, it cuts right through. She cranks out that “Sing! A simple! Song! Try a little do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do!” Then the guys actually sing that scale. It’s a fun little musical joke on their part, simple enough for anyone to understand. But there’s layers to the jokes: Larry quips, “I’m livin, lovin, overdubbin’,” followed by an overdubbed laugh.

“Stand” was supposed to be the album’s lead single single, but after taking the acetate to a club and gauging the crowd’s reaction Sly knew it needed...something. He instead released Everyday People in November of 1968. It reached the top spot on the Billboard singles chart in February of ’69, where it would stay for a month.

Pictured: Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, week ending February 15th, 1969. "Everyday People" had just peaked at number one

“Everyday People” is the message the ’60s needed. I don’t necessarily know if different strokes for different folks applies anymore, though it really should. “I am no better, and neither are you/We are the same whatever we do/You love me, you hate me, you know me and then/You can’t figure out the bag I’m in.”

Sly toed the line. Black Panthers didn’t like him because he wouldn’t endorse Black power. Sly caught heat from white people for being “too Black.” “Everyday People” reaches a hand to both sides of the splintered Civil Rights Movement. It energized Black power, while asserting peace and love for your fellow man, no matter their creed or skin color. Sly recognizing how deeply divided the nation had become in the past couple years, reached to Black and white, and tried to build a bridge. It’s brave to put yourself on the line like that, and to admit, “Sometimes I’m right, and I can be wrong/My own beliefs are in my song.” We are all everyday people. “We got to live together!” It’s a humble, very hippie ideal; echoing the band’s hometown of San Fransisco.

Musically, “Everyday People” is delightfully simple. Some moments on this album, “Don’t Cal Me” and the next track specifically, are dizzyingly maximalist. Don’t get me wrong, I love that! “Everyday People” takes it back. The piano was pulled right from gospel, and Cynthia and Rose sing-song like kids on the playground. Sly communicated his message in musical language anyone can understand so it would have maximum staying power. If I’m lucky enough to have children one day, I want to raise them on “Everyday People.”

Sex Machine was not an effortless jam, it took a long time to put together. It doesn’t feel effortless. There’s a lot of points that fly off the rails: Freddy overthought his guitar solo, Gregg’s drum solo is underwhelming, and thevocoder is a little much for me. The consistent highlight is Larry’s bass playing. He’d come into his own on the non-album singles, “Hot Fun In The Summertime” and “Thank You (Falletinme Be Mice Elf Agin,)” and flourish on the There’s A Riot Goin’ On tracks he actually appears on. If this jam had only been the last fourminutes, I would have loved it. Those four minutes have all the dynamics the song needs. My favorite part of “Sex Machine” is the laughing at the end. Everyone snuck into the studio behind Gregg and poked fun at him while he played until he cracked up and dropped the beat. It feels like making faces at your kid brother from the audience while he’s up on stage in his school band recital. The Family Stone all lived together. Theirmanagement was family, and their family were their managers. When things were good, they really were all one big family.

Back in September of 1968, the Family Stone made landfall in England for the first time...almost. Bassist LarryGraham got busted at Heathrow with Jerry Martini’s weed. It was a tiny joint, Jerry was gonna flush it. Larry took it, shoved it in his pocket, and forgot about it. “Innocent until proven guilty,” though! The Family Stone turned around and went right back home; recording what would become the closing track of Stand!: You Can Make It If You Try.

This is where the album should have ended. Stand!’s biggest issue is its sequencing. Thematically, I understand why it’s at the end. The lyrics carry some of the same messages as the title track. Change only comes from rolling up your sleeves: “Push a little harder, think a little deeper, don’t let the plastic bring you down.” This is an underwhelming closer, but I know it would shine as the side two opener.

The likes of Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Ray Charles had the occasional crossover hit. The Experience was the first successful integrated band in rock-and-roll. The Chambers Brothers were around too, but they were considered a soul group. The Mamas and The Papas were a mixed-gender group, but they were all white. Sly and the Family Stone’s Stand! peaked at number 13 on the Billboard albums chart. Not the soul albums chart, the albums chart. And stayed there, for over 100 weeks. Sly and The Family Stone were the first integrated, mixed-gender group to hit the mainstream this way. They were the reason the 1969 Newport Jazz Festival was shut down!

But Sly isn’t mentioned in the same breath as other pioneers of his caliber or Woodstock alum. From Alan Schultz at KSOL:

“During conversation, rather than come on like someone from the ghetto, (Sly) really came on as very sophisticated. He could sit and converse with you, on whatever terms you wanted to talk with him on...He had a good appearance, very sharp dresser.”

quoted from: Joe Selvin and Dave Marsh, For The Record – Sly and The Family Stone: An Oral History (1998)

Stuff like this came up over and over again in biographies of Sly I read. People saying stuff to the tune of: “Oh, he wasn’t ghetto,” or “Oh, he wasn’t one of those Black people.” He had to reach to both sides to have a career in mainstream music.

From Gregg Errico, in Sly Lives!: “I was in awe...I was a white man trying to be Black, and he was a Black man being everything.”

When R&B giant D’Angelo was asked why he thinks Sly had to wear so many hats to get recognition, he said, “We as Black folk, we always gotta be three, four, five steps ahead of everybody else in order just to break even. It’s just always been that way.”

Pat Boone’s version of “Tutti Fruitti” sucks. We can all agree on that! But it still sold. Even within the genres they pioneer, like rock-and-roll, Black artists end up the underdog. “You’re the underdog, and you gotta be twice as good.” Funk deserves to be held in equal regard to rock-and-roll in the eyes of the very white realm of rock criticism, of which I am part.

From the foreword of Joe Selvin’s oral history:

“Had Sly Stone been white, would he be lionized today as rock musicians with whom his name was once spoken in a single breath – John Lennon, Jim Morrison, Bob Dylan? Despite his oh-so-public dissipation and fall from grace, he does not even offer up a convenient corpse over which to lay hosannas.”

quoted from: Joe Selvin and Dave Marsh, For The Record – Sly and The Family Stone: An Oral History (1998)

That last part of Joe Selvin’s quote has changed context in the past few weeks. It’s tough eulogizing Sly. It is noteasy as say the other geniuses of his caliber do. You can’t Cameron Crowe-ify the life of Sly Stone. He leaves a complicated legacy with a lot of unanswered questions. His greatest hit was a self-fulfilling prophecy: “Thank you for the party, but I could never stay.” Looking back, Sly’s retreat from the public eye makes sense. He wrote a musical language which subsequent geniuses, and whole genres of music, spoke in. How much more can you ask of one musician, one man? Why didn’t we give him the same grace for retreating as we do to Bob Dylan – or we did to Brian Wilson?

In the foreword of Sly’s memoir, Questlove described the phenomenon of Stand!: “a counterculture moment, almost too huge to get close to.” This came from one of the most untenable times in American history, when the nation was being torn apart. Sly and the Family Stone was founded on bringing people together. Reaching and for your fellow man because, in Sly’s mind, we all bleed the same. This album is an artifact of when there was hope. We can’t say the same for its follow-up. Stand! was Sly and the Family Stone’s last creative statement before the dark cloud moved in. Inconsistent in quality, but consistent in holding the line of fun, and the revolutionary power of joy. Race, gender, love, hate, tolerance. Delivering those messages is a heavy burden to bear. Heavy is the head that wears the crown, and heavy are the wings upon the winged’s back. If there’s any message we can take from Stand!, it’s that there’s joy in the revolutionary spirit, and power in being impossible to quantify.

Personal favorites: “Stand,” “I Want To Take You Higher,” “Somebody’s Watching You,” “Sing A Simple Song,” “Everyday People”

– AD ☆

Watch the full episode above!

DeRiso, Nick. “How Sly and The Family Stone Defined An Era With ‘Stand.’” Ultimate Classic Rock, 5/3/2019. https://ultimateclassicrock.com/sly-and-the-family-stone-stand/

Kaliss, Jeff. I Want To Take You Higher: The Life and Times of Sly and the Family Stone. Milwaukee: Backbeat Books, 2008.

Questlove, dir. Sly Lives! (AKA The Burden of Black Genius.) Hulu: Onyx Collective, 2025.

Selvin, Joe, and Dave Marsh. For The Record - Sly and The Family Stone: An Oral History. New York: Avon Books, 1998. https://archive.org/details/slyfamilystoneor00selv

Stone, Sly, with Ben Greenman and Arlene Hirschkowitz. Thank You (Falletinme Be Mice Elf Agin): A Memoir. New York: Auwa, 2023.

Vincent, Ricky. Funk: The Music, The People, and the Rhythm of One. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1996.