In the early days of Sly and the Family Stone, Sly himself was an entertainer par excellence, bolstered by the music that had paraded through the clubs in his native San Francisco. Much of this changed in 1973 when Sly Stone emerged from the (relative) sidelines to exhibit an avant-garde imagination and technical flawlessness, resulting in the sophisticated polish of Fresh.
Not surprisingly, the album’s themes boast a licentious undertone, not least on the genuinely steamy “If You Want Me To Stay,” Stone hurrying the lines to fit in with the bouncy rhythm and sensual atmosphere.
There are moments of naked introspection (“Can’t explain how you make me feel”) and conscious attempts to marry the political with the personal (“People to see, even me Man with a little got more of a plea”). Stone was determined to make his art heard: as a black man in an America divided by gender, creed, and race, he felt it was as much duty as it was determination that merited his place on the grand stage.
Fresh didn’t disappoint, an album that was contemporary yet as scintillating as anything heard on the rock airwaves. At its best, Stone’s production is the sound of one lingering instrument, tying the singer and band together as one tremendous whole. There is a razor-sharp tone to the brass instruments which reinforces the urgency of the work. “Thankful ‘n’ Thoughtful” is an ambiguous number on which Stone is not really asking for absolution from the world around him, but engages with the moment that it presents to him.
The vocals are sweetness and light, until drummer Andy Newmark throws in an instrumental curveball, challenging the course of the song as he does so. The bass-heavy “Skin I’m In” is beautifully packaged by a series of shrill, soulful noises emanating from a whisper to the towering roar that closes out the track.
Throughout Fresh, Stone acts as narrator of a new becoming, casting off the shackles of the 1960s for a more primal form of expression. Obeying the regulations of the 1970s, Stone issues a vocal of yearning and unvarnished passion on “Keep on Dancin'”:
“Take the floor then, you lookin’ good
I’d get snowed in, if I could
You’re the one girl and you know
Number one girl that’s for sure”
Beyond the occasional kaleidoscopic flourish, Fresh was an album of striking honesty and force. The aesthetic key does not lie in its colorful melodies or instrumentation, but in the flavor from the vocal performances, every note committed and ready. In presenting a lo-fi rendition of “Qué Será, Será (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)”, Stone breathes new life into a standard that was diving into the annals of antiquated balladry. Rose Stone delivers one of the album’s most genuinely affecting vocals, cemented by a haunting piano line.
All but two of the album’s eleven tracks stick to the tested radio-friendly format (four minutes), and the two that stretch the listener are cemented with messages of spiritual and emotional commitment to merit the decision worthwhile.
Given everything Fresh represents, it would be virtually impossible to separate the year it was released from the work itself. Happily, the record is one of the most concise, delicately arranged works of the era, with songs that hold up very nicely fifty years after they were first issued to the public at large.
-Eoghan Lyng
Photo: Getty Images
My name is Eggham, and I like this piece.
Another one of Sly’s best, and yours too Eoghan. Thank you! 👏🏿🎼👏🏿🎶
Thank you.
There’s a mickey in the tastin’ of disaster. In time you get faster