Epic 30986
Producer: Sylvester Stewart
Track listing: Luv N’ Haight / Just Like a Baby / Poet / Family Affair / Africa Talks to You “The Asphalt Jungle” / There’s a Riot Goin’ On / Brave & Strong / (You Caught Me) Smilin’ / Time / Spaced Cowboy / Runnin’ Away / Thank You for Talkin’ to Me Africa
December 18, 1971
2 weeks
Initially, the future didn’t hold much promise for the psychedelic soul group Sly and the Family Stone. Dance to the Music, the group’s 1968 debut album stalled at number 142, even though the title track became a top 10 hit. The group’s follow-up album, Life, fared even worse, stalling at number 195 in late 1968. However, the group’s fortunes changed dramatically with the single “Everyday People.” The single, which topped the Hot 100 in February 1969, helped propel 1970’s Stand! to number 13. The band scored its second Number One single a year later with “Thank You (Falettin Me Be Mice Elf Again).” By the time Epic released Sly & the Family Stone’s Greatest Hits, the group’s popularity was sufficient enough to drive the album all the way up to number two in November 1970.
Yet the pressure of newfound stardom was catching up with the group’s leader, Sylvester Stewart, who went by the name of Sly Stone. The former San Francisco-area radio personality drew from his own bloodline to form a band. He had recruited his brother Freddie to play guitar, his sister Rosemary to sing and play piano, and his cousin Larry Graham to handle the bass duties. Trumpet player Cynthia Robinson had been with Stone in an earlier group called the Stoners. The lineup of Sly & the Family Stone was rounded out by drummer Greg Errico.
“We really were a family,” says Graham. “The other members who were added to the group felt like family, too.” The ties in the band were such that when one member got into something new, the others would follow. “When someone got into dogs, everyone got into dogs,” says Graham. “When we got into motorcycles and T-Birds, we all had motorcycles and T-Birds. We did things together.”
However, that family feeling didn’t carry on through the recording of There’s a Riot Goin’ On. “[Sly] recorded a good portion of the album by himself,” says Graham. “There was more overdubbing of our parts. Before, on the earlier albums, we would play live in the studio.”
Since Stone was working on the album in his home studio in Bel Air, California, and the band members still lived in the San Francisco area, there was little interaction between the members of the band during the sessions. “It wasn’t often that we were all in the studio together at the same time; we would just basically come in and do our part.”
And often, rather than waiting for the other members to come into studio, Stone would lay down those tracks himself. Graham, for instance, did not play bass on a few of the tracks that made the album.
At the time, Stone’s reputation had begun to sour. He frequently showed up late or not at all for concert dates and continued to work on There’s a Riot Goin’ On long after the proposed deadline. Eventually he was thrown out of his home for defaulting on mortgage payments. As a result, Stone took up residence in a camper outside the studio so he could finish the album.
When There’s a Riot Goin’ On was finally released, more than two years after the band’s last studio effort, the Family and the fans were not disappointed. “There were a lot of new ideas being exposed on that album,” says Graham. “It was a big progression from the last album.”
On December 4, 1971, “Family Affair,” became Sly & the Family Stone’s third Number One single. Two weeks later, the group scored its first Number One album, as There’s a Riot Goin’ On hit the summit on the chart.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of December 18, 1971
1. There’s a Riot Goin’ On, Sly & the Family Stone
2. Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin
3. Santana III, Santana
4. Teaser & the Firecat, Cat Stevens
5. Chicago at Carnegie Hall, Chicago