Sly & the Family Stone
The First Family: Live at Winchester Cathedral 1967
HIGH MOON
Before he and his rainbow collective made universally circling pop-funk for the Woodstock generation as Sly & the Family Stone, Sly Stewart was a beloved Bay Area disc jockey, music-maker, and all-around soul scenester looking for a hustle. Finding one with R&B-steeped, family-style musicians such as his guitarist brother Freddie, sax player Jerry Martini, percussionist Gregg Errico, and, of course, low-singing bassist Larry Graham, Sly and his newly minted Family Stone became the house band for the Redwood City, California live room Winchester Cathedral. Not to be confused with the one-time church space in Great Britain, this clubhouse was where Stone’s first manager, Rich Romanello, was able to push this ensemble into woodshedding its buoyant, quickly morphing brand of danceable jazz, psychedelic boogie, and dirty funk two whole years before they’d go on to release Stand!, their first epic full-length work.
Anyone seeking uplifted Technicolor innovation and socially alive political rhetorical lyricism must move elsewhere. This December 1967-taped live gig is loose, goosed, meat-and-potatoes cover-band R&B—albeit certainly sinsemilla- and patchouli-scented—with a roomful of memorable voices that audiences would soon grow to love. The Lou Courtney original “Skate Now”—an earnest, innocently racy soul burner, to be sure—gets an a cappella hook from the Stone Family that lifts its melody high and its sensuality even higher. High-pitched vocalist Cynthia Robinson shows off her chops on the funeral jazz of “Saint James Infirmary.” Even Freddie gets a bold-as-love shot at fronting the Family Stone with a crying “Try a Little Tenderness” that doesn’t rival Otis Redding’s still-new version of that time, yet makes its own case for heartache.
As for staying in the moment and keeping to the hippie shake tenor of the times, what the raspberry beret-like “Pucker Up Buttercup” doesn’t do for psychedelic shacked-up soul, the fleet-footed “I Gotta Go Now (Up on the Floor)/Funky Broadway” medley does, only grimier. If you’re looking for raw relics with some soulful spice, check in here.
