Let's go way back to 1967, when America was shining like a new dime and the future held possibilities. A hep cat DJ in San Francisco named Sylvester Stewart fused flower power rock with sweet soul music. One funky plunk of a bass string later Sly and the Family Stone were born - and for this every current hip-hopper owes a debt of immense gratitude.
Yes, the Family Stone were not alone in funk - George Clinton's outfits Parliament and Funkadelic and the Godfather Of Soul James Brown were right there as well. But they did not capture the mood of a nation the way Sly did, penning the soundtrack to race riots, protest marches, Presidential assassinations and moon walks.
Sly's music combined the radical with optimism, each tune wrapped up in thick rainbow ribbons. Definitive cuts like 'Everyday People' and 'Dance to the Music' summarise the mood swings of a nation losing it's innocence and growing up fast. Unfortunately Sly started to summarise the mood swings of an artist excelling at drug addiction and the group went off the rails.
Which brings us to 1983 and the release of his last proper album - available for the first time on CD- 'Ain't But the One Way'. The man's second LP for Warners and recorded after his stint as Clinton's sidekick, this is vintage Sly. But somehow it being released in the early 80s, with Sly trying to make a trendy album of its time takes the afro-sheen shine off it. The album operates not as individual compositions, but as a body of work with each piece tongue and grooving into place. All the funk ingredients are here - hunky Hammond organ, chocolate smooth vocals and enough wah wah pedal to get the most uptight whiteys shaking their thangs. It even has a superfly cover of Ray Davies's 'You Really Got Me.'
And while this funks along fine, it is the sound of a man with the best of his career well and truly behind him and is really only recommended for the die hard fan. The rest of us are best off with Sly and Family Stone's Greatest Hits, truly the cornerstone of any decent record collection. It's just plain daft not to own it and let it take you back to time when music was explosive and love was free.
