Best song on "There's a Riot Goin On"?

running away

all so good - spaced cowboy, family affair, spaced cowboy, just like a baby, and thank you for talkin to me africa all contend

today its spaced cowboy

"Runnin' Away". Musically almost gives a hint of hope, but not much hope in the lyrics....

"Just Like a Baby" makes me squirm it's so intense

Runnin' Away

those horns on "Luv N'Haight" are one of the few things to which the phrase "years ahead of its time" seems appropriate

thread has me listening to this. "Family Affair" is really hard to fuck with just because the groove & the emotional depth of the lyrics & the vocal delivery are all so perfectly balanced, and that last verse...shit makes me wanna buy into a lot of romantic hoo-hah about how you gotta let the art destroy you to really be able to come back from the well with the good cold stuff 'n' all

running away pitched

"Luv N' Haight" because better than any track, it achieves that synthesis of torpor and energy that makes this arguably the greatest album ever recorded (and confirms fatigue as the quintessential rock & roll subject). Also dig that opening thud.

^^^^^^ but that obstinate bass line in "Thank You..." epitomizes that exhausted/jittery feel even more than "Luv", sez me. (The auditory equivalent of angel dust, perhaps? Don't ask me.) For that it gets my vote among a half-dozen equal worthies.

(Hope nobody wants to vote for the title cut...)

(They should have had it in as an unvoteable option, like the original CD without an actual track number...)

too difficult.

ive never totally got all the people that say riot is 'sooooooooooooo dark and depressing' btw. its kinda cynical/wry and and a bit 'dour' maybe but depressing? i never found that.

no, me neither.

Barking, possibly.

the musics nowhere near as happy as the earlier stuff but its more sobering than depressing.

not depressing, but dark - I mean, "feel so good inside myself don't wanna move" is pretty ominous stuff, you could unpack a lot outta that. same with those "ha ha ha ha"s on "Running Away." I don't think the overall vibe is uncomplicatedly dark, but there's a pretty persistent feel of menace jumping out of stuff. though really the drum machine could probably take credit for some of that, and did, in its Grammy acceptance speech.

and did, in its Grammy acceptance speech.

?!

Prob'ly "Just Like a Baby", but too difficult. Nah, I'm just being contrary, has to be "Family Affair".

The deeper in debt, the harder you bet

This and Gaucho – perfect bookends for the decade.

"Runnin' Away." It always surprises me.

running away... the melody is so upbeat, but the lyric seems so sad. same could be said for 'caught me smilin', which would be my second choice.

TIMBER

I voted for Smilin'

its kinda cynical/wry and and a bit 'dour' maybe but depressing? i never found that.

Maybe it's about context; how must this have sounded at the time after "Dance To The Music," "Everyday People," "Hot Fun In The Summertime" etc?

"Stand" is not esp. happy-go-lucky. And last single before "Riot" was "Thank You" after all.

TS: Title track of "There's A Riot Goin' On" vs. "Nutopian International Anthem" by John Lennon.

I prefer "Anniversary of World War III" by the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band

couldnt not vote family affair

because runnin done won

def "family affair" vs "runnin' away" fer me

I'm leaning "family affair" but prolly need to hear both to decide

it's horns on "runnin' away" vs. sly's sweet sweet croak on "family affair", vocal tone on that one is sick.

milton that pitched version of "runnin' away" sounds like the greatest no wave band that never was

I wanted to make sure "Luv 'N Haight" got at least one vote. But I do find this album relentlessly depressing, and I rarely listen to it all the way through for that reason.

what the hell is going on in this pitched version of running away???

can't decide btwn "family affair" and "(you caught me) smilin"

i will probably go with "family affair", though, in part for reasons that J0hn was getting at upthread. the vocal performance kills and verges, if not embodies, that dangerous ground between cautionary tale by example and full-on endorsement for substance abuse situations that will end up fucking up yr life wholesale even though some creative masterwork might come out of it if you already have some serious gifts going on

but, that could be my argument for "smilin", as well. the way that the vocal performance manages to encapsulate aspects of his notorious dick cavett tv show appearance, while adding some poignancy to the mix is tough to argue with

what the hell is going on in this pitched version of running away???

-- stevie, Tuesday, June 24, 2008 5:34 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

there is no charge for awesomeness

I keep listening to the last minute of it over and over

oh, i'm not saying its bad by any stretch... but what is it? how was it achieved??

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

what the hell is going on

internet only remix by 'dj marissa marchant'

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

"Spaced Cowboy" is the only one I don't like. but it's still interesting in a "fuck it, let's just yodel" kind of way

Considering the results of the poll, I think 1970 gem is needed

would change my vote to "luv n haight"

would have voted for "space cowboy" probably.

this album is interesting to me...i cant quite unreservedly love it in the way most do...J0hn D nailed it, it's dark but even more so its cold, though in a sort of compassionate, portraiture-of-human-wreckage sort of way...I wouldve voted for Family Affair, one of the best songs ever, even though Somebody's Watching You might be better...Running Away is also extraordinary, in that it scares the shit out of me, the bright gleaming glare of its (self)hatred always provokes a gut reaction...the reason i always kind of hold the album at arms length is bcz i dont/(cant?) listen to the albums setpieces...luv n haight, thank you, asphalt jungle...all of them are epic explorations of the cavernous ruins of Slys 60s vision, but theyre cold...you live inside yr favourite albums, and the bleak majesty of these songs (genre: King Lear funk) forbids anyone from getting too comfortable inside...the ballads are SO much more up my alley: time, just like a baby, poet...the textures & atmospheres of these songs are astonishing...part silky-smooth after midnight jam, part troubled insominiac rumination...even though i love family affair, time actually might be my favourite song on the album...

Poet is totally underrated (on this thread)

'runnin' away' ran away with this poll?? wow. I'm utterly astounded by that. it's the only sly song I can't stomach. I find it kind of embarrassingly schlocky and unlistenable.

almost anything else on this record could have taken it for me, but I probably would have gone for 'time' or 'africa'.

love this record so much. listened to it last night and was struck by what Drugs is getting at up there, it's funky but not sexy - def not a makeout album - a cold dispassionate junkie funk perfect for late-night chillin

any other R&B records w/ a similar sound and vibe?

def not a makeout album, altho I associate this more with the end of summer/long afternoons

nothing really reaches the vibe of this record imho. D'Angelo's "Voodoo" maybe but that is def a makeout album (at least parts of it anyway)

i always think of inspiration information by shuggie otis cuz he uses (i think) that same tinny early drum machine alot, but that's kinda the sunny day dreamy opposite vers of there's a riot goin on

James Brown's "Sho Is Funky Down Here" reminds me of it in a way, but that's probably mostly because of the weird keyboards. Same deal w/Funkadelic's "Free Your Mind..."

Free Your Mind is another one that's kind of cold, though it feels like it tries to be warm or could have been warm. Might be the lo-fi fuzz-wah production?...favourite tracks off of that album are the first one and the last one

I dunno Free Your Mind is so much more aggro than Riot

the production and feel of this album reminds me of Soon Over Babaluma by Can somehow? maybe it's just the drum machine, idk.

no it's more than that, feel like SOB is TARGO's twin, from mars.

all good suggestions and great albums though not quite there - thx for the reminders that I need to get Shuggie and Babaluma.

keep goin' on

On The Corner and parts of other 70s electric Miles.

Inspiration Information is so good.

honestly the other stuff that's closest is Sly's other productions/singles from the time - Little Sister, 6iX, Joe Hicks

on the corner seems way too aggro too

Inspiration Information is awesome.

on the corner seems way too aggro too

yeah I agree (will chime in here that imho McLaughlin appears to bite the riff from Funkadelic's Super Stupid throughout OTC tho lol)

also the anecdote about Sly telling Miles not to "play any of that voodoo shit" on his organs kinda sums up the differences

Point taken re:Miles, but there's gotta be some 70s fusion in the same vein, no? (And if so, what is it?)

On the same tip, Eugene MacDaniels' Headless Heroes... comes close, but once again too aggro.

I almost want to suggest stuff like Cloak and Dagger or Blackboard Jungle Dub. Not as bleak though

Deep and weird and funky though, for sure

On the Beach/Tonight's the Night wd be the white-rock equivalents

i never liked runnin away? surprised its a popular one. love spaced cowboy. on the beach otm

"I almost want to suggest stuff like Cloak and Dagger or Blackboard Jungle Dub. Not as bleak though"

Roast Fish Collie Weed & Corn Bread is probably the best Perry example since it's sort of prefigures him falling apart as well, although the album is more weird than it is bleak, I guess.

Surprised no one has mentioned the obvious (since critics compared the two constantly when it came out): Maxinquaye.

"Just Like a Baby" makes me squirm it's so intense

― J0hn D., Monday, June 23, 2008 6:04 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^^^

Spaced Cowboy fucking rules. It's not the best on this, but it was robbed.

also Brave and Strong is really good too. Runnin' Away is brutal lyrically but I feel like naming it as the best song on this album is kind of strange... it's not like the rest of the album. It feels less claustrophobic. It acts as a repreive from the sly's private hell that crystalizes social problems.

This is one of the best albums ever btw.

(sorry for writing such a shitty explanation for this album. i was trying to talk about how it is political but also fundamentally about isolation)

"just like a baby" was the first song on this record i really got, it sounded like the most lonely and tense thing in the world

The little guitar phrase on Thank You For Talkin' To Me Africa, the way it pulls back and then suddenly fly at you face, man.

It is a wonderous mystery to me what the guitars are doing on that track and how they sound like they do

Best album of the Seventies and it’s not close

Where is the love for “Poet”? Always my go-to on this record (even when he’s singing about Shaun Ryder)

Truly a great and cohesive album, I usually listen to in its entirety. It's always made a much bigger impact that way - every track gains something within the complete context.

'Just Like a Baby' was my entry point.

Before my time here, but "Family Affair" easily--one of the most complicated, unsettling songs of the decade.

I agree, Poet & Just Like a Baby are my #1 & 2 on this, one of my favorite albums by anyone ever.