Dance to the Music

by

Sly & The Family Stone

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In my humble opinion,the title track that starts off this album is one of the most perfect pop and soul songs ever recorded!!!It blasts right into existance,spotlights each musician and who can't sing it?It's a MUSICAL DIRECTIVE that's been going on for generation after generation.Obviously one doesn't expect the rest of this album to be able to keep up.But BY GOLLY IT DOES and with plenty more to burn;as an album,but purely a single 'Dance To The Music' is leaps ahead of A Whole New Thing in terms of songwriting and even energym,plenty of which is present on that debut.So what exactly does Sly do here?He just makes sure people who loved the classic single and bought this album hoping to hear more got JUST THAT!"Higher" is also enormous fun-so fresh,bouncy and carnavalesqe that Sly elected to UTTERLY transform it for another big hit on Stand! (you know the one).Then there's "Dance To The Medley"-the title track fleshed out and extended into a KILLER twelve minutes jam where the musicians don't just get spotlighted but DISTINCT SOLOS (Larry Graham's crackling fuzz bass being the highlite of course)and what comes next?Yet MORE catchy,hook filled funky tunes to make you DANCE "Ride The Rhythm",Color Me True","Are You Ready",the more creeping psychedelia of "Don't Burn Baby" and "I'll Never Fall In Love Again".And the bonus cuts?Well aside from th single edit of the title song and "Higher" you get "Soul Clappin","We Love All", the amazing "I Can't Turn You Loose" (don't know why it didn't make the final cut) and 'Never Do Your Woman Wrong",so it's all more more MORE!!!!So 'Dance To The Music' is not only Sly's greatest early album but actually not a bad place to get an introduction to his music.And try to listen to this album,stay still and NOT BE ABLE to avoid breaking out in a sweat!If Amazon let me give this twenty stars,that wouldn't be enough!!!Amazing!!

The title song was a breakthrough, not just for the group (though it was their first hit), but for the world of popular music in general: it was an early example of a funk song, and it has some elements of rap (the percussion-and-voice part in particular). And then there's, um, a lot of recycling: good as it is, the twelve-minute "Dance to the Medley" is pretty much a twelve-minute rewrite of "Dance to the Music"; "Ride the Rhythm" and "Are You Ready" are similar, only lame: unlike "Medley", they don't work as dance tracks, so all their flaws (simplistic lyrics; predictable chord progressions; dull melodies) come to the fore. And "Higher" is notable only for being an ancestor of "I Want to Take You Higher" - it's truly a boring song outside of its minor historical importance. And "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" is a pained soul ballad. That leaves a couple pretty good songs: the soulful "I Ain't Got No One (for Real)", and the group's first pro-integration anthem, "Color Me True".