The Weekend Stream: November 22, 2025

Welcome to another edition of The Weekend Stream, The Second Disc’s review of notable catalogue titles (and some new ones, too!) making digital debuts. A real grab bag for you before the Thanksgiving holiday: cut songs from Broadway comedies, rarities from a ’60s soul/rock legend, an inexplicably remastered charity single, rare 12″ mixes and remastered jazz. Have a listen, won’t you?? Various Artists, Monty Python’s Spamalot (Original Broadway Cast Recording/20th Anniversary Edition) (Decca Broadway) (Apple / Amazon) Something to (always) look on the bright side of life over: a new reissue of the music…

Continue Reading

In Memoriam: Sly Stone (1943-2025)

“I am everyday people,” boldly proclaimed Sly Stone on Sly and The Family Stone’s 1968 chart-topping single.  “I am no better and neither are you/We are the same, whatever we do/You love me, you hate me, you know me and then/You can’t figure out the bag I’m in…”  Using straightforward, direct language, a penchant for nonsense words that nonetheless carried weight (ooh-sha-sha, scooby-dooby-dooby, boom-laka-laka-laka), and the funkiest grooves ever to find their way to a vinyl platter, the artist born Sylvester Stewart pointedly commented on the era in which he lived.  Leading…

Continue Reading
Categories:
Formats:

Record Store Day 2025: The Best of the Rest

Next Saturday, April 12, is certainly one of the most packed Record Store Days in recent memory. Since the list was announced, we drilled down on titles from Craft Recordings, Legacy Recordings, Rhino Records, Universal Music Group, Real Gone Music, Omnivore Recordings, BMG, Cooking Vinyl and Demon Music Group, as well as some notable titles that were getting later general releases on CD. Well, if you thought that was it, you’re wrong! We pored and pored over the list and are here to share with you more than four dozen one-offs, archival…

Continue Reading

Thankful N’ Thoughtful: Legacy Releases Soundtrack to Sly Stone Documentary

A pleasant surprise available digitally today and on CD and 2LP in May is the soundtrack to an exciting new documentary about one of the great musical icons of the ’60s: Sly Stone. SLY LIVES! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) – the latest documentary by The Roots’ drummer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, who picked up an Academy Award for his work on 2021’s Summer of Soul (…or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) – has a new companion album that features 21 favorite hits and album cuts, about half of which are…

Continue Reading

Not So Simple Songs: Ace Records Compiles Sly Stone Covers

A timely new collection will pay tribute to the work of Sly & The Family Stone through a diverse group of covers and rarely-heard singles written and produced by the group’s iconic frontman for others. Everybody is a Star – The Sly Stone Songbook is the latest entry in Ace Records’ Songwriter Series, chronicling some of the greatest modern songwriters of the last century. Naturally, the man born Sylvester Stewart is a prime candidate for such an overview. His mix of R&B, funk, pop and rock music sounded like nothing else in…

Continue Reading

Going “Crazay”: Jesse Johnson’s Solo Albums Back in Print from Robinsongs

Minneapolis guitarist Jesse Johnson, best known as a member of The Time, will be celebrated by Cherry Red’s Robinsongs imprint with a 2CD set that combines three of his solo albums for the A&M label and an assortment of extras. The simply titled Jesse Johnson Revue / Shockadelica / Every Shade of Love + Bonus Tracks brings together Johnson’s three post-Time solo efforts issued between 1985 and 1988, featuring the Billboard Hot 100 hits “Be Your Man,” “I Want My Girl,” “Crazay” (featuring funk legend Sly Stone) and “Love Struck.” In addition to the three…

Continue Reading
Categories:
Formats:

I Guess I’ll Be: Sly Stone’s “Baby Pictures” Collected on Sly and The Viscaynes’ “Yellow Moon”

Sylvester Stewart, a.k.a. Sly Stone, thrillingly fused R&B with funk, rock, pop, and jazz as leader of the psychedelic outfit Sly and The Family Stone.  But the visionary artist didn’t emerge from nowhere with his most famous band; he’d paid his dues in the early part of the 1960s at the Bay Area’s Autumn Records label as a producer and artist.  Many of these recordings have been chronicled on collections from Ace (Precious Stone: In the Studio with Sly Stone 1963-1965, Listen to the Voices: Sly Stone in the Studio 1965-1970) and…

Continue Reading
Categories:
Formats:
Genres:
Scroll to Top