The career of the legendary soul-funk act will be chronicled across four discs.
To celebrate Sly’s 70th birthday, Epic/Legacy will release Higher! on August 27. The 4CD set includes 77 tracks, 17 of them previously unreleased, and includes a 104-page book of liner notes, career timeline, track annotations, art, and more.
The boxset covers the band’s career, which spanned 1964 to 1977, and found the San Francisco band at the forefront of soul, funk, and psychedelic music. Along with mono recordings of hits like ‘Dance To the Music,’ ‘Everyday People,’ ‘Stand!,’ ‘I Want To Take You Higher,’ ‘Hot Fun In the Summertime,’ and ‘Thank You (Falletinme Be Mice Elf Again),’ the set includes pre-Epic Records by then-A&R producer “Sly Stewart” and live rarities.
The liner notes essay is written by Jeff Kaliss, author of I Want To Take You Higher: The Life And Times Of Sly & The Family Stone, the group’s only authorized biography. “Refracted in these treasures,” Kaliss says of the boxset, “are colors you may be unused to seeing in Sly: old R&B, jazz, nursery rhymes, gospel, and even country, fused and transformed by a precious visionary and his fellow musical alchemists.”
Disc One (1964-1967):
1. I Just Learned How To Swim by Sly Stewart (Autumn Records single, 1964)
2. Scat Swim by Sly Stewart (Autumn single, 1964)
3. Buttermilk (Part 1) by Sly (Autumn single, 1965)
4. Dance All Night by Sly and Freddie (1965, originally unissued)
5. Temptation Walk by Sly (Autumn single, 1965)
6. I Ain’t Got Nobody (For Real) (Loadstone single, 1967)
7. I Can’t Turn You Loose (Loadstone single, 1967)
8. Higher (mono Epic single master, promo only, 1967)
9. Underdog (mono Epic single master, 1967)
10. Bad Risk (mono Epic single master, 1967)
11. Let Me Hear It From You (mono Epic single master, 1967)
12. Advice (A)
13. If This Room Could Talk (A)
14. I Cannot Make It (A)
15. Trip To Your Heart (A)
16. I Hate To Love Her (A)
17. Silent Communications (1967, previously unissued)
18. I Get High On You (version one, 1967, previously unissued)
19. I Remember (1967, previously unissued)
20. My Woman’s Head (instrumental demo, 1967, previously unissued)
Disc Two (1967-1968):
1. What’s That Got To Do With Me (1967, previously unissued)
2. Fortune And Fame (1967, previously unissued)
3. What Would I Do (1967, originally unissued, B)
4. Only One Way Out Of This Mess (1967, originally unissued, B)
5. I Know What You Came To Say (1967, previously unissued)
6. Dance To The Music (mono Epic single master, 1967)
7. Ride The Rhythm (C)
8. Color Me True (C)
9. Are You Ready (C)
10. Don’t Burn Baby (C)
11. We Love All (D)
12. Danse A La Musique by The French Fries (mono Epic single, 1968)
13. Small Fries by The French Fries (mono Epic single, 1968)
14. Chicken (mono Epic single master, 1968)
15. Into My Own Thing (E)
16. Life (mono Epic single master, 1968)
17. Love City (1968, previously unissued mono mix)
18. M’Lady (mono Epic single master, 1968)
19. Dynamite! featuring Johnny Robinson on vocals (1968, previously unissued)
20. Undercat (instrumental, 1967, previously unissued)
Disc Three (1968-1970):
1. Everyday People (mono Epic single master, 1968)
2. Sing A Simple Song (mono Epic single master, 1968)
3. I Get High On You (version two, 1968, previously unissued)
4. Wonderful World Of Color (instrumental, 1968, previously unissued)
5. Pressure (originally unissued, F)
6. I Want To Take You Higher (mono Epic single master, 1969)
7. Seven More Days (originally unissued, F)
8. Feathers (instrumental, 1968, previously unissued)
9. Somebody’s Watching You (G)
10. Sex Machine (G)
11. Hot Fun In The Summertime (mono Epic single master, 1969)
12. Everybody Is A Star (mono Epic single master, 1969)
13. Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) (mono Epic single master, 1969)
14. Stand! (LIVE at the Isle of Wight Festival, August 30, 1970, H)
15. You Can Make It If You Try (LIVE, same as track 14, H)
16. Dance To The Music (LIVE, same as track 14, previously unissued)
17. MEDLEY: Music Lover / I Want To Take You Higher / Music Lover (LIVE, same as track 14, previously unissued)
Disc Four (1971-1977):
1. Luv N’ Haight (Epic single master, 1971)
2. Family Affair (I)
3. Brave & Strong (Epic single master, 1971)
4. Runnin’ Away (Epic single master, 1971)
5. (You Caught Me) Smilin’ (Epic single master, 1971)
6. Spaced Cowboy (I)
7. You’re The One featuring Little Sister (LIVE on Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert, September 1973, previously unissued)
8. In Time (J)
9. If You Want Me To Stay (Epic single master, 1973)
10. Frisky (Epic single master, 1973)
11. Skin I’m In (J)
12. If It Were Left Up To Me (Epic single master, 1973)
13. Time For Livin’ (Epic single master, 1974)
14. Can’t Strain My Brain (Epic single master, 1974)
15. Loose Booty (K)
16. Le Lo Li (Epic single master, 1975)
17. Crossword Puzzle (Epic single master, 1975)
18. Family Again (Epic single, 1976)
19. Hoboken by Sly Stone (originally unissued, 1975-1977)
20. High by Sly Stone (1975, previously unissued)
Epic Records album index:
A – from A Whole New Thing (originally released November 1967, as Epic LN 24324, mono)
B – from A Whole New Thing (Expanded Edition) (originally released April 2007, as Epic/ Legacy 82796 90277 2)
C – from Dance To The Music (originally released April 1968, as Epic BN 26371)
D – from Dance To The Music (Expanded Edition) (originally released April 2007, as Epic/Legacy 82796 90274 2)
E – from Life (originally released November 1968, as Epic BN 26397)
F – from Life (Expanded Edition) (originally rel. April 2007, as Epic/Legacy 82876 83945 2)
G – from Stand! (originally released April 1969, as Epic BN 26456)
H – from The First Great Rock Festivals Of The Seventies (originally released August 1971, as Columbia C 30807)
I – from There’s A Riot Goin’ On (originally released October 1971, as Epic KE 30986)
J – from Fresh (originally released June 1973, as Epic KE 32134)
K – from Small Talk (originally released July 1974, as Epic PE 32930)
