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Somewhere around 2000 I bought a mid price cd with "the Greatest Hits" of Sly & The Family Stone. To be frank, I was totally disappointed. It was just limp music to my ears. The reason being a defining moment in my early teens.
After my then friend Frits got the triple album 'Woodstock' from his dad in an illegal Taiwanese pressing, our respective fathers were merchant marines, so you can guess which assignment my dad received when he sailed to Taiwan two years later, we played the album beyond grey. There was so much extremely exciting music on the album. You will know the names and if not go and check it out now.
One of these exciting tunes was a medley by Sly and The Family Stone. I had no idea what funk was or whatever the music was called at the time. 'I Wanna Take You Higher' and 'Dance To The Music' were one boost of energy. We were too young to call it sexually charged but charged we were. This band took the thousands upon thousands in the audience on Max Yasgur's farm ever higher. No drugs were needed in any form to reach ecstasy during this set. Each time the break came and bang, another explosion of music followed. I had never heard this much rhythm before. There's no other word for it, Sly and The Family Stone spread pure jubilation.
It is no surprise that nothing is able to surpass this high mass of rock and funk music. Nothing I heard on this cd came even within a continent's reach of the Woodstock version of these songs. The medley the band allowed to be on the Woodstock compilation album is one of the best pieces of live music ever recorded and officially released. It is a monument for a deeply troubled man but also for his time. "I wanna take you higher .... higher". And that they went, band and audience and teen listener.
Wout de Natris - van der Borght
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