Acclaimed Albums – Stand! by Sly and the Family Stone

List item: Listen to the 250 greatest albums
Progress: 144/250Title: Stand!
Artist: Sly and the Family Stone
Year: 1969
Position: #198

Four months ago was the first time that I had ever heard a song by Sly and the Family Stone. It was ‘I Want To Take You Higher’ and, for whatever reason, I figured that this was a piece of joy within a rather political album. Where did this idea come from? No clue, but I rather wrong. Maybe it’s because the title of the album, Stand!, reads like an imperative and this was an era of counterculture and anti-Vietnam feeling… anyway.

If you look at the Acclaimed Albums Top 250 chronologically, Stand! is the first album that can be identified as either funk or psychedelic soul. Despite their being six years between Stand! and the earliest soul album on the list (James Brown Live at the Apollo) there appears to be a world of difference. The soul genre had moved on and begun to diverge… for the better.

You see – where a lot of people seem to like to spontaneity of James Brown, it leaves me cold. I can appreciate the energy, but I end up striving for some sort of structure or for the songs to to be a few minute shorter. On Stand! I was able to find an album that gave me what I wanted in an album that was funk and soul-adjacent, including a song that would be a rather unfortunate karaoke choice.

As good as ‘I Want To Take You Higher’ is, for me the standout song is the first and title track: ‘Stand!’. I love the fact that this is an explosion of soulful glitter with a gospel tinge. It’s one of those songs where it is ridiculously hard not to smile or at least ‘feel the music’. I’m not sure how else to describe the feeling, but it’s a really good one. It’s a feeling that you get throughout the album, which helped make this a joy to listen to.