{"id":29808,"date":"2025-07-28T05:30:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T09:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=29808"},"modified":"2025-07-28T08:53:02","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T12:53:02","slug":"album-review-sly-and-the-family-stone-the-first-family-live-at-winchester-cathedral-1967","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/28\/album-review-sly-and-the-family-stone-the-first-family-live-at-winchester-cathedral-1967\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Sly and the Family Stone \u2013 The First Family: Live at Winchester Cathedral 1967"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The history of music is filled with brilliant yet deeply troubled artists. Syd Barrett. Brian Wilson. Roky Erickson. Skip Spence. Arthur Lee. Emitt Rhodes. Bill Evans. I\u2019m sure readers can think of others. And Sly Stone certainly belongs on that list. More importantly, he was responsible for some of his era\u2019s best music, and made groundbreaking strides leading a group that was multi-ethnic and multi-gender. When considering him, It\u2019s easy to allow his troubles to overshadow his accomplishments. But doing so does a great disservice to him, his legacy and to music in general.<\/p>\n

And despite the surfeit of failed so-called \u201ccomebacks\u201d in his post Family Stone years, the release of a Sly and the Family Stone live set from the dawn of their career helps remind us of the greatness of the man and his band. The First Family: Live at Winchester Cathedral 1967<\/i> is that set. It captures the group on the cusp of breaking out, a time when none of the aforementioned issues factored into the music.<\/p>\n

Signed to Epic Records, the group released its debut album A Whole New <\/i>T<\/i>hing<\/i> in October 1967. That set had been recorded during June through September of that year. This newly released live set predates the beginning of those sessions by nearly three months. But hearing the powerful and assured performance, it\u2019s clear that much of the group\u2019s sound and character was, if not fully-formed, nearly all in place.<\/p>\n

The set opens with what Sly tells the audience is an original tune, \u201cI Ain\u2019t Got Nobody (for Real).\u201d The tune would surface on the band\u2019s second album, the hastily-made Dance to the Music<\/i> from April \u201868. It\u2019s not one of the Family Stone\u2019s better-known tunes, and that in and of itself is surprising. It\u2019s full of energy and style, and it\u2019s very very similar to another hit from another Bay Area band: Santana\u2019s \u201cNo One to Depend On\u201d from 1971. (To be fair, Santana\u2019s song is based on a Willie Bobo tune from \u201865, so maybe Sly heard that and was influenced by it as well, just earlier.)<\/p>\n

In any event, the vocal harmonies, the horn charts and the crack rhythm section are all tight as can be imagined. With a deep groove led by Sly and his churchy organ. The audio quality is a bit dodgy \u2013 this is clearly an audience tape, after all \u2013 with Sly\u2019s vocals a bit muffled. But the vibe comes through, and the historical import of the recording renders fidelity criticisms moot.<\/p>\n

\u201cSkate Now\u201d includes elements that would show up on later hits from the band. Here those vocalisms might seem a bit overdone, but from the crowd reaction, it worked well in the live context. The band never lets up even for a second; Greg Errico\u2019s pounding drum work pushes, pushes, pushes<\/i> the band forward. \u201cShow Me\u201d combines the fervor of Otis Redding with the funk of James Brown, adding some tasty rock licks from Brother Freddie Stone.<\/p>\n

This release is also notable for its inclusion of songs that never surfaced on studio albums. A fiery reading of Ben E. King\u2019s \u201cWhat is Soul?\u201d is one of those. A cover of Otis Redding\u2019s \u201cI Can\u2019t Turn You Loose\u201d is superb, delivering insistent, deep groove soul. And those horns! \u201cTry a Little Tenderness\u201d is included on the CD version of this release, but left off the vinyl LP to keep the fidelity from suffering. And honestly, though it\u2019s fine enough, if one tune had to be cut, this would be the one: it only really takes off about four minutes in.<\/p>\n

\u201cBaby I Need Your Lovin\u2019\u201d might seem an odd choice for the group, but they make it their own. It\u2019s virtually unrecognizable as The Four Tops\u2019 hit from 1964. \u201cPucker Up Buttercup\u201d is a brief and mostly instrumental rave-up that gives Cynthia Robinson (trumpet) and Jerry Martini (sax) a chance to step out front.<\/p>\n

A seven-minute take on the jazz standard \u201cSt. James Infirmary\u201d is a study in subtlety for its first five minutes; a thunderous drum solo leads into a full-band jam for the final minute-plus. The set ends with a medley of \u201cI Gotta Go Now (Up on the Floor)\u201d and \u201cFunky Broadway.\u201d The first tune\u2019s vibe is reminiscent of the full-throttle soul coming out of Los Angeles via groups like Thee Midniters. The latter hits hard, emphasizing the precision and power of Sly and the Family Stone.<\/p>\n

Anyone who appreciates The Family Stone\u2019s music \u2013 and can handle mid-fi audio quality \u2013 needs to hear this set. Alec Palao\u2019s essential liner notes \u2013 and a whole bunch of photos, many from the actual gig itself \u2013 are in a fantastic 24pp booklet included with the record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The history of music is filled with brilliant yet deeply troubled artists. Syd Barrett. Brian Wilson. Roky Erickson. Skip Spence. Arthur Lee. Emitt Rhodes. Bill Evans. I\u2019m sure readers can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29809,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,49,60,62,65,69,73],"tags":[1980,1981],"class_list":["post-29808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-funk","category-new-release","category-rb","category-rawk","category-review","category-soul","category-vinyl","tag-sly-and-the-family-stone","tag-sly-stone","cat-31-id","cat-49-id","cat-60-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","cat-69-id","cat-73-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29808"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29837,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29808\/revisions\/29837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}