Band Together: Sly & The Family Stone: “Dance to the Music”
More than just a ‘60s/’70s funk group, Sly & The Family Stone were a musical army. Instead of guns, there were guitars; rather than a single bugle, a serious horn section. In 1968, they issued an official order to their “souldiers,” and really anyone who wanted to enlist, to simply dance to the music. Sly Stone (Sylvester Stewart), the grinning general and deep-voiced patriarch of this revolutionary group, entrusted one of his officers, the trumpeter Cynthia Robinson, to shout this decree. It’s Robinson’s exclamation at the dawn of “Dance to the Music” that became a soulful reveille heard loud and clear across this great land via vinyl and 8-track; an impassioned cry that also has Robinson later shouting, “All the squares go home!”
Sly meticulously breaks down the rich, full sound that is “Dance to the Music,” creating a compelling brass-clad argument for why one and all should follow this new order. The track celebrates the unique and necessary role each instrument has in constructing and layering a song. Whether you were moved by ‘50s-inspired doo-wop harmonies, Wilson Pickett’s “Mustang Sally,” or maybe you “only need a beat,” there’s no excuse not joining this “dance, dance revolution”; whatever you like, it’s got you covered. Just as diverse individuals would ideally come together to make up a harmonious society based on integration, not segregation, every instrument is an important contribution, “everybody is a star.”
It was some 25 years after its release when Madonna, on The Girlie Show World Tour, incorporated a version of this treatment into the finale song, “Everybody,” as the way to introduce her band members. (Skip to 4:44 of the footage embedded below; also her introduction of the bass player, Victor Baley is one of my favorite moments on DVD.) She also mashes up the second verse from Sly & The Family Stone’s “Everybody is a Star” into the beginning of this live performance.
“Dance to the Music” is Sly’s vision of music as the way to unify, allowing all of its listeners a period of détente, where the focus is less on enemy lines and more on bass lines.
Madonna also sung part of Sly & The Family Stone’s “Family Affair” as the intro to “Keep It Together” on her 1990 Blond Ambition World Tour. Both tracks speak about the complicated relationships, yet unconditional love, that can exist within the family structure. Madonna co-wrote hers about her own upbringing, and later found it translated to her role as “mother figure” to her corps of dancers.
Miramax Films. Director: Alek Keshishian.