Sly & The Family Stone - Aint But The One Way '1982

Tracks list

Aint But the One Way was the last in a series of comeback albums attempted by an
increasingly dispirited Sly Stone and ended up being his swan song. On the
surface, its a relatively poor Sly & the Family Stone album, one that only
dedicated fans, completists, and the historically curious will want to seek out.
So if youre just a casual Sly listener, steer clear! But if you do fall into
that category of Sly fanatics curious about those hazy final days before the
funk legend descended into semi-obscurity, youll find some insight here if you
put the album into its proper context. To backtrack for a moment and frame that
context, remember that Sly had been struggling, both commercially and
creatively, for years. Following a long dry spell, he left Epic and moved to
Warner Brothers at the end of the 70s, resulting in Back on the Right Track
(1979). That album didnt prove to be the comeback it was planned to be, and Sly
then drifted toward Warner labelmate George Clinton, with whom he would plan his
next comeback. If you dig into the credits of P-Funk songs of this early-80s era
such as Funk Gets Stronger (from Electric Spanking of War Babies, 1981) and
Hydraulic Pump (Urban Dancefloor Guerillas, 1983), youll note some co-writing
credits for Sly. And if you attended some P-Funk concerts back then, you may
have seen him open for Clinton and company. But when it came time to record Aint
But the One Way, problems arose. For one, Clinton had a serious falling out with
Warner Brothers. Secondly, urban legend says Sly simply disappeared after
half-recording these songs around 1980 or so, leaving the album in an
uncompleted state for a while. Whatever the truth, Clintons presence is indeed
lacking here on Aint But the One Way (despite evidence of a demo version of Who
in the Funk Do You Think You Are later arising on the first volume of the
odds-and-ends George Clintons Family Series), and Warner did bring in producer
Stewart Levine (Jazz Crusaders, Simply Red) to pull the album together for
release. (Another urban legend claims that the cover photo of Sly dates back to
Back on the Right Track, further proof perhaps that Sly was AWOL.) The resulting
album confirms such speculation: in general, the songs are sketchy funk vamps
along the lines of what Clinton and company were recording around that time, and
the innumerable studio musicians and the overall stitched-together feel of the
album do suggest Levine earned his production paycheck. In any event, there are
some glimmers of Slys genius here, albeit momentary glimmers. Ha Ha, Hee Hee is
a gem -- a gentle ballad à la Runnin Away with curiously cryptic lyrics --
while Who in the Funk Do You Think You Are stands out with a bracing guitar
riff, if not much else too noteworthy going for it. Elsewhere, High, YAll is an
I Wanna Take You Higher rewrite, Sylvester is a spooky a cappella minute,
L.O.V.I.N.U. is a perky pop song, and yes, You Really Got Me is a run-through of
the Kinks classic. Taken together, these songs amount to less than a solid
album, let alone a good one, but as latter-day leftovers, theyre fairly
interesting glimpses into Slys hazy descent into coked-out infamy. And as such,
theyre a little sad.
© Jason Birchmeier /TiVo


Tracks:

01. L.O.V.I.N.U. 04:40
02. One Way 04:26
03. Ha Ha, Hee Hee 03:45
04. Hobo Ken 02:40
05. Who in the Funk Do You Think You Are 04:35
06. You Really Got Me 03:53
07. Sylvester 00:44
08. We Can Do It 03:44
09. High, Yall 05:45

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