Getting High With Sly Posted by Junior

Sly Stone: Crossword Puzzle and Who Do You Love From: High On You [Epic, 1975] Sometimes it's difficult blogging about the music you love. There are some artists that I rate incredibly highly whose output is so well known that it seems pointless to feature them. Near the top of that list would be Sly & The Family Stone. While I did blog about one of their better known efforts back in my Evigan days I've been itching to post more about one of the artists I feel changed the musical landscape for ever. It's taken me a while to get round to it but fortunately, considering the hectic pace of life right now, it occurred to me that I could always focus on their lesser known/widely trashed later efforts. Although it's undoubtedly true that the quality of the output slowly deteriorated as the seventies rolled on it'd be a foolish music aficionado indeed who blanket ignored the albums that followed Fresh. The example I have for you is Sly's High On You which seems like a rather ironic title considering the state of the man's mind at the time. However, there's lots of goodness stashed away behind that ingeniously trashy cover photo. The album also has the distinction of being the only release to be credited to Sly singularly (possibly down to his claims that he played "everything").This raises the big question: how does Sly working alone affect the sound? The Answer? Not a jot. While the album is very much from the party period in Sly Stone's career, when enjoyed for what it is it's nigh impossible not to appreciate the quality music he was still producing. Crossword Puzzle is a stomping piece of party funk, bubbling with energy from it's highly recognisable horns to it's popping bass line. What took me by surprise on first listen is Sly's vocal delivery on this album. Gone is the mumbling drawl of Fresh replaced instead by a crystal clear and emotionally connected Sly, reminding me why I rate him so highly in my list of soul singers. Who Do You Love? is another quality piece of Stone music. From the rise and drop of the chords to the treatment of the whole track as one elongated chorus it's a great uplifting piece of funk that, while breaking no new ground, speaks volumes about the talent Sly could bring to any project.