Sly Stone (1973) If It Were Left Up To Me - LOST70sGEMS

Sly Stone's Fresh (1973) album is just that a considerable boost going into the new decade; a fresh injection of songs, melodies and lyrical pizzazz decorate this colouring book of bright eyed psych funk bubblegum soul. The high kick suspended in mid air on the front cover would become an iconic image, though it captured how they had become less a band a more of Sly and his backing unit, it also captured their fire straight out the gate on this new more smoother sound.


Let Me Have It All is a slippery wet wah wah 'hush-child' groover from the master of that style, with a defiant war cry of a hook, this is still inferior to the sonically similar If You Want Me To Stay but captures the band's mix of power and sensitivity. The juicy wah wah and hollow box drums make Thankful N' Thoughtful an even better quiet soul number with excellent interplay between explosive horns and chorus vocal while the sweetly distorted guitars chime and blurting horns contrast back and forth. The wah wah gets more Parliament styled quacked out and the picking is really something subtle in it's pre-disco swagger and Sly's melodic vocals root everything as they always do; a one of a kind performer.

The heavily muffled drum and bass intro of Skin I'm In form a rugged foundation for some nice circus organ playing before the track suddenly explodes into an orgasm of swan song horns and funeral wailing from Sly. Probably one of their greatest moments is there powerful gospel cover of Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be), they're ability to turn showtunes into the most raw, realest gritty statement with so much emotion pouring out of them made them gods.
Babies Makin' Babies starts with some wonderful soft harmonised vocals, the bass is a really standout as are the restrained but sweet horn parts while the subtle organ chords keep a dark tone. The walkabout strut of the end that the guitar and organ play in sync shows how musicality just dripped from their joints coming up wit effortless beats and melodies while the other bands jammed for hours to come up with the same blues standards repeated over and over again.

The gem though is the single, If It Were Left Up To Me, with an indelible hook, a circular vocal melody that they were great at this just centres on their stacked vocals with lovingly played horns riding alongside a bumping bass rhythm. That incredibly catchy and timeless vocal line would be heard much more in their mid 70s work (Mother was a Hippie, Heard ye)and it shouldve been a commercial direction but it didn't work.