A Sly & the Family Stone live recording from their earliest years will be released this summer.
The First Family: Live at Winchester Cathedral 1967 will be available on July 18 in CD, LP and digital download formats.
You can hear “I Gotta Go Now (Up on the Floor)/Funky Broadway” from the album below.
The First Family marks the earliest live recording of Sly & the Family Stone, which formed in San Francisco in 1966. The show performance from Redwood City, California, took place a year before the group’s debut album, A Whole New Thing, arrived.
The group was the house band at the Winchestester Cathedral from December 1966 through April 1967. This performance, which was released as a limited edition for Record Store Day this year, comes from a set on March 26, 1967.
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Within two years, the band had a breakthrough moment at the Woodstock music festival; earlier in the year, their fourth album, Stand!, reached No. 13, their highest charting LP at that point, thanks to the No. 1 single “Everyday People.”
Sly & the Family Stone notched their second No. 1 later in 1969 with the stand-alone single “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin).” In 1971, they released their only No. 1 album, There’s a Riot Goin’ On.
What’s on Sly & the Family Stone’s ‘The First Family: Live at Winchester Cathedral 1967’?
The First Family: Live at Winchester Cathedral 1967 chronicles an earlier period for the band, when it was still making a name for itself in the Bay Area.
The album features the original classic lineup and was part of the Sly Stone documentary Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) earlier this year.
The 10-track set includes mostly covers, including Otis Redding‘s “I Can’t Turn You Loose,” Four Tops’ “Baby I Need Your Loving” and Wilson Pickett’s “Funky Broadway.”
The CD version includes the bonus song, a cover of Redding’s “Try a Little Tenderness.” You can see the track listing below.
Sly & the Family Stone, ‘The First Family: Live at Winchester Cathedral 1967’ Track Listing
I Ain’t Got Nobody
Skate Now
Show Me
What Is Soul?
I Can’t Turn You Loose
Try A Little Tenderness *
Baby I Need Your Loving
Pucker Up Buttercup
Saint James Infirmary
I Gotta Go Now (Up On The Floor) / Funky Broadway
*CD Only Bonus Track
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They leveraged radio-friendly, era-equipped soul-pop music at the turn of the ’70s to become one of the most influential groups from the period.
Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci