Sly and the Family Stone's There's A Riot Goin On cover is featured in my avatar and I honestly feel it's one of the most poignant album covers in music history. I'm simply looking for the reasons why this cover has been removed from the current pressings in the U.S., yet the original artwork is easily attainable everywhere else. What's so troubling about this cover?
[Edited 5/16/05 15:22pm]

DorothyParkerWasCool said:

Ha. I thought ur av was just the ameircan flag and I thought "wow, how very uninteresting", but now seeing a bigger picture, I can see dirt on the flag. Which could symbolise lots of rather obvious, but powerful things.

thesexofit said:

Thought I was in a patriotic mood huh...

Don't know the story behind this but the US flag has the 5 pointed star. The 9 points looks comical but I'm sure there was some other significance.

http://www.bahai-library....mydomonas/

Very quick search. Perhaps it has some spiritual significance.

This is THE LP!!! This LP is "headphone candy"....

"His vocals are scary. Recorded largely without effects, Sly sings naked fear, anxiety, anger, and paranoia. He lets his voice roam free, from rumbling, belching baritone to airy, crisp falsetto, often in the same breath. Nobody ever sang on records like this before. It was clearly the kind of recording that could not have been made without extensive experimentation in the studio, almost justifiying the countless hours Sly spent noodling on guitar and otherwise goofing off at $140 and hour. There were unfinished productions lying in the tape box, waiting to be brushed up for future albums- a skeletal "If You Want Me To Stay", a mumbly, incomprehensible "Skin I'm In". With THERE'S A RIOT GOIN' ON, Sly pushed the boundaries of soul music past the horizon. James Brown may have the title, but it was now Sly who was actually Soul Brother #1". Mojo Magazine- August2001..(A good but intense 11 page story..even talks about Sly planning to mafia style "eliminate and exterminate" Larry Graham.)


Sly also has Bobby Womack, Jim Ford, Billy Preston and Miles Davis (uncredited) on this LP. The LP cover may have been a little too "controversial" in those days.."he's destroying the flag..changing the blue to black"!!(lol)...One of my all time faves..This is "Sign O The Times" in the early 70's.

SPYZFAN1 said:

What's the significance of the 9 pointed star?

That's a good question..Only Sly knows.

was it banned or did the label just decide to change it?

sosgemini said:

They've changed it in the U.S. it now comes with the concert photo that was featured in the inside jacket fold in the LP.



The original artwork is still on the pressings sold outside of the U.S.

In 1970, right after the success of two of his biggest albums: Stand! and Greatest Hits, Sly became very stressed. His record executives wanted more material from him, The Black Power movement and Black Panthers wanted his music to reflect the Black movement, and the problems with the band became very notorious. This meant that he started a personal drug abuse phase which actually affected his career up to that point. With his groundbreaking 1971 classic, There's A Riot Going On, he captured all of these conflicts on wax and the album cover was like a undercover of the material on the album. He felt that after Marvin Gaye's What's Going On was released, he striked the BIG answer. Many critics were scared of the album cover and the material on the album upon its release. The original album cover really shows his militant side by representing the american flag as his own flag.

Watch this special Sly Stone clip I found somewhere: http://www.sonymusic.com/...go_300.asx

silverchild said:

I love that clip..i have watched it so many times over the last few years. That synopsis is very accurate and it explains what I've heard about the album. I just do not understand why its still censored today. Incidentally I got into a dispute with someone on this board a while back when I stated that Sly used this album to answer the question that Marvin Gaye posed a year earlier. All of this material is interconnected and Sly's landmark achievement is a grossly underappreciated work of art. It's a damn shame that this album has not been remastered and restored to its full glory. Its one of the greatest albums that was every released and Sly played the majority of the instruments.
[Edited 5/16/05 16:14pm]

DorothyParkerWasCool said:

Didn't the original LP jacket fold have a collage of photos that had pictures of Sly and his family and friends?
[Edited 5/16/05 16:13pm]

silverchild said:

The colloage was on the back side of the LP, the inside opened to the concert photo, with shots of Sly and the band placed in blocks around it. Original artwork below




[Edited 5/16/05 16:20pm]

silverchild said:

Nice clip. "You ain't no boss" (gotta put it on a tee).

anon said:

Maybe it's urban legend... and I can't remember where I read this maybe the Mojo Sly issue, but I think one of the main controversy was that the "stars" really weren't stars, they were supposed to represent bulletholes.

The Wikepedia entry states the following:



I've never heard this, and if the stars were meant to be bullet holes they didn't go out of their way to be obvious about it. I'm not sure how reliable these wikepedia entries are (not very, is my suspicion) - can anybody verify this?

anon said:

I've always loved that.

It seems that "...The 9-pointed star is the symbol of the Ninefold Goddess as the source of inspiration for poetry, dance, history, sacred songs, tragedy, love & music..."

http://www.kevinslair.com...index.html

That might have been their thing. But it's a Pagan thing. I would think that this might have something to do with it being censored. Don't know.

psykosoul said:

OH! Just scratch my last post then.

Still. Even if it was never spoken, there must have been some concern about swapping the "US star" for a Pagan one. Or knowing that some would probably make the association.

DorothyParkerWasCool said:

not even a tad
Now about that clip: I wonder if Larry would let me borrow that vest. I'm sure he only wears it to vacuum.

anon said:

U gotta luv Larry Graham in that clip. I just love the look of the band, the era. I wish I could get some old footage of them performing. I've heard some of their live material and it was mindblowing.

DorothyParkerWasCool said:

It doesn't bother me. It's one of my favorite covers.

I'm sure you have to think about the timing of Sly's commercial peak, patriotism and the Vietnam war. With Sly following up the success of the Woodstock performance and the singles from the Greatest Hits package, an album cover featuring an American flag that's black, red and filled with bullet holes as stars.... that's a pretty damn bold statement to make. I'm pretty sure Sly was the largest act at Epic from 1969-1971, and they were probably shitting bricks with that one.


Even today look at MeShell Ndegeocello's album Dance of the Infidel. They are changing the cover in the U.S. because of the Arabic writing on the original cover.
[Edited 5/16/05 16:47pm]

You know, I don't even think it was the album cover that offended a lot of people. It was the music because it just wasn't mainstream anymore. It was just bleak, paranoid, and depressing music to a lot of people back in 1971 and even today, in 2005, it's considered to be that. But, no the album cover never offended me in any way because it was in one word: "TRUE".

psykosoul said:

I didn't realize it was black.

In flags:

Blue often represents freedom, vigilance, perseverance, justice, prosperity, peace, and/or patriotism.

Black often represents determination, ethnic heritage, and/or defeating one's enemies.


They had it all thunk out.

DorothyParkerWasCool said:

Well, if they don't have that cover in the US, what's the new design, then?

Read the 1995-or 1996 interview From Jon Daks with Sly for his comments on the flag/album

i didn't even know that the cover was censored in the first place--i've seen copies of the non-censored cover.

I just bought the CD digipack version. It's supposed to be remastered but it doesn't sound any different to the previous release. It's a brilliant record though and for once a "classic" album that earns it's reputation.