There's A Riot Goin' On - Conception

Conception

Following the massive critical and commercial acclaim of their previous studio album, 1969's Stand! and their performance at Woodstock, and the newfound fame it engendered for the band, Sly & the Family Stone were due to have submitted an album of new recordings to Epic Records in 1970. However, creative head of the group and multi-instrumentalist Sly Stone missed several recording deadlines, worrying CBS executive Clive Davis. The band's Greatest Hits album had been released in the midst of an eighteen-month stretch from late 1969 to late 1971, during which the band released no new material. With the newfound fame and success came other problems. Relationships within the band were deteriorating, as there was friction between the Stone brothers, Sly and Freddie, and bassist Larry Graham. Meanwhile, Epic executives requested more product. In addition to this, the Black Panther Party, with which Stone may have become associated, demanded that Sly make his music more militant in style and reflective of the black power movement, replace Greg Errico and Jerry Martini with black instrumentalists, and replace manager David Kapralik.

After moving to Los Angeles, California in fall 1969, Sly Stone and his bandmates quickly became heavy users of illegal drugs, primarily cocaine and PCP. As the band members became increasingly focused on drug use and partying (Sly Stone carried a violin case filled with illegal drugs wherever he went), recording slowed significantly. Between summer 1969 and fall 1971, Sly & the Family Stone released only one single, "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" / "Everybody Is a Star", issued in December 1969. Although "Star" was another positive-message song in the vein of their previous hit "Everyday People" (1968), the single's lead A-side featured a darker theme by Stone, who declared that he could no longer pretend to be something they were not (peaceful, loving, and happy) and sarcastically thanked the audience "for letting me be myself again." "Thank You" reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart in February 1970. Foreshadowing the new musical direction, deep funk, which Sly Stone would experiment later with, "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" was the final single issued in the 1960s by the band and marked the beginning of a twenty-month gap without new material. By 1970, Sly Stone had become erratic and moody, missing nearly a third of the band's concert dates and spending most of his time using drugs. Meanwhile, he hired streetwise friends Hamp "Bubba" Banks and J.B. Brown as his personal managers, whom after which enlisted gangsters Edward "Eddie Chin" Elliott and Mafioso J.R. Valtrano as Sly's bodyguards. In addition, Stone assigned these individuals to handle his business dealings, to retrieve drugs, and to protect him from those he considered as enemies, some of whom were his own bandmates and staff. A rift developed between Sly and the rest of the band, which led to drummer Gregg Errico's departure from the band to pursue other ventures in early 1971. Following the release of the band's Greatest Hits record, "Thank You"'s popularity cooling off and the band's absence from the media, speculation by fans and critics arose as to the release of new studio material. In a December 24, 1970 article for Rolling Stone magazine, journalist Jon Landau elaborated on the anticipation of the group's next record:

The man from Epic tells me that Sly hasn't recorded much lately. His last album of new material was released well over a year ago and even "Thank You", his last single, is old by now. Greatest Hits was released only as a last resort in order to get something salable into the record stores. It was a necessary release and stands as the final record of the first chapter in Sly & the Family Stone's career. Whatever the reasons for his recording abstinence, I hope it ends soon so that he can get back to making new music and we can get back to listening to it. —Jon Landau

Influenced by drug use and the pivotal events which had led to, what writer Miles Marshall Lewis called, "the death of the sixties", including political assassinations, police brutality, the decline of the civil rights movement and social disillusionment, Stone had sought to create a darker, more conceptual work in contrast to the optimistic and radio-friendly work prior to There's a Riot Goin' On. A music writer later noted that, "slowed down, quest for post-stardom identity mirrored black America's quest for post-Sixties purpose."

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