Sly and The Family Stone Greatest Hits

SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE GREATEST HITS

Produced by Sly Stone for Stone Flower Productions
Album design by Teresa Alfieri
Photos by Stephen Paley

1. I WANT TO TAKE YOU HIGHER - 5:22

2. EVERYBODY IS A STAR - 3:00

3. STAND! - 3:05

4. LIFE - 2:58

5. FUN - 2:21

6. YOU CAN MAKE IT IF YOU TRY - 3:38

7. DANCE TO THE MUSIC - 2:58

8. EVERYDAY PEOPLE - 2:20

9. HOT FUN IN THE SUMMERTIME - 2:37

10. M'LADY - 2:45

11. SING A SIMPLE SONG - 3:55

12. THANK YOU (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) - 4:46

Tuesday was a restless night. My television is set up for remote control and I punched the channel-selector button mercilessly, jumping from commercial to commercial, with an occasional thirty-second segment of a show. Everything was particularly dumb that night. Johnny Carson was picking his practiced way through the arid and rock-strewn mind of a young starlet. The late show movie was an Italian version of "The Cisco Kid" with delayed-effect dubbing supplied by Mother Murky's Home for the Halting. Ralph Williams smiled himself into the ground with bull about the greatest automotive bargain of Your Whole Life. Other commercials were all of the dirty laundry and stained sink variety, featuring Madge, the non-liberated space brain of old-line advertising fame. Tuesday was a restless night.

Suddenly I hit a talk show and there was Sly Stone. He was being outrageous. I would expect no less from him - though I expected far less from Tuesday. Sly has always been outrageous. And he has always known how to get the music that's inside his head Out Here, where we can enjoy it. Thank you, Sly, for saving Tuesday. He didn't do much, sitting there in some flamboyant set of clothes, strands of suede and streaks of flamingo orange. I have the feeling he was preoccupied with some new idea for a song. "What?" he'd say when the host tried to include him in the vapid discussion. "Oh yeah, I sure do agree with that, like you say." Sly was as bored as I was. I had to love him. He's as infectious, self-styled, and direct as his music is.

His music. Your music, too. By the way, did you leave your record collection with your brother in Duluth when you hit the road? Was it stolen by someone who was supposed to be your friend? Did you loan out the good ones and then lose track of them? Or are your favorites just worn out?

Check one or more of the above with firm black lines(do no fold or mutilate). If yes, to any of the above, then here's a way to put some Sly & The Family Stone back into your life. Because this Greatest Hits collection is particularly well rounded. It has I Want To Take You Higher; Everyday People; Everybody Is A Star; and several other best of his best tunes. It even has Hot Fun In The Summertime, which got a lot of us through the summer of 1969.

Musically, there is one thing that Sly doesn't know how to do: stand still. He moves, he grows, he changes, expands, dances, preaches, pleads, laughs, and invites us all to be there. In other words, Sly & The Family Stone just keep on truckin'. The purely fine thing is that they have so much to truck about. This collection will lighten your day and tonight you'll have something to do besides watch the Dumb Parade on tv.

~~Morgan Ames, Pop Music Editor