Sly & The Family Stone - The Second Disc

A Second Disc Interview: Mixing It Up with John Luongo

January 11, 2024 by Mike Duquette | 3 Comments

John Luongo is a good liar. Well, maybe he’s good at being tongue-in-cheek. “I’m bashful,” he says at the start of our interview back in October. “You’re gonna have to really drag these things outta me, ’cause I’m a little shy!” What follows is about 100 minutes of captivating stories and thoughtful, enthusiastic lessons from one of the most notable names in dance music. The Boston-born DJ and mix engineer made a name for himself transforming dozens of soul and pop tracks for disco 12″ singles in the late ’70s; so creative…

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Features, Interviews

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Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

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Classic Rock, Disco/Dance, Pop, R&B/Soul, Rock

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Barbra Streisand, Blancmange, Cheap Trick, Dan Hartman, Huey Lewis and The News, Jackie Moore, John Luongo, John Waite, Melba Moore, Sly & The Family Stone, The Jacksons

UPDATE: “Summer of Soul” Soundtrack, Out Now on CD and Digital, Coming to Expanded Vinyl in June

February 11, 2022 by The Second Disc | 5 Comments

Last summer, as some music lovers took tentative steps in getting back to concertgoing amid the early vaccinations against COVID-19, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson gifted audiences with an incredible display of live performance some 50 years in the past. Summer of Soul is The Roots drummer’s debut documentary, concerning a little-seen arts festival in Harlem that took place before, during and after that year’s Woodstock Music & Art Fair – with some of the greatest soul, blues and jazz performers of the late ’60s gracing the stages. On January 28, Legacy Recordings made…

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News

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CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

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R&B/Soul, Soundtracks

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B.B. King, David Ruffin, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Herbie Mann, Mahalia Jackson, Mavis Staples, Nina Simone, Sly & The Family Stone, The 5th Dimension, The Edwin Hawkins Singers, The Staple Singers

Winter of ‘Summer of Soul’: Soundtrack to Acclaimed Music Doc Coming in January

December 9, 2021 by The Second Disc | 5 Comments

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News

Formats:

CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

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R&B/Soul, Soundtracks

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B.B. King, David Ruffin, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Herbie Mann, Mahalia Jackson, Mavis Staples, Nina Simone, Sly & The Family Stone, The 5th Dimension, The Edwin Hawkins Singers, The Staple Singers

Beautiful Strange: ‘Ultimate Rave’ Combines Two Prince Albums and One Live Concert

February 22, 2019 by Sam Stone | 2 Comments

Over the last few months, Legacy Recordings has released a number of exciting Prince reissues on purple vinyl and CD as part of the label’s initiative to bring Prince’s post-1995 catalogue back in print. Today, Legacy has announced the April 26 release of a new 2-CD/DVD set called Ultimate Rave. The collection brings together two of Prince’s albums from the turn of the new millennium: Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic from 1999 and Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic, a hard-to-find 2001 remix album that was only available to members of Prince’s NPG Music Club…

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News

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CD, DVD, Vinyl

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Classic Rock, Pop, R&B/Soul, Rock

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Ani DiFranco, Chuck D, Eve, George Clinton, Gwen Stefani, Lenny Kravitz, Prince, Sheryl Crow, Sly & The Family Stone, The Time

Lovely Day: Aretha, Sly, Andy, Marvin and Billie Headline “The Brazil Connection”

June 26, 2014 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

Well, summer is officially upon us! Already there’s talk about which songs will be anointed the perfect summer jams for 2014 – songs by artists like Ariana Grande, Iggy Azalea and the ubiquitous Pharrell Williams. If those names don’t set your pulse racing, however, Legacy Recordings has an alternative that’s bound to conjure up images of tropical sunsets, refreshing drinks and summer breeze. Studio Rio Presents The Brazil Connection makes over 12 pop classics from the Sony vaults by melding the original vocals with new bossa nova and samba arrangements written and/or…

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News, Reviews

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CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming

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Pop

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Andy Williams, Bill Withers, Marcos Valle, Nina Simone, Sarah Vaughan, Sly & The Family Stone

Back to Black: Legacy Unveils Record Store Day Black Friday Exclusives From Simon, Dylan, Davis, Nilsson, Hendrix & More

October 17, 2013 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

It’s that time of year again! Though Black Friday has taken a backseat in recent years to the once-unheard-of Thanksgiving Day sales, the folks at Record Store Day still hold the day after Thanksgiving in high esteem. News has begun to trickle out about this year’s RSD Back to Black Friday exclusives, and the team at Legacy has certainly put together a collection of special vinyl releases – and a handful of CDs, too – that look back to recent releases from the label and forward to future titles. All titles are…

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News

Formats:

Vinyl

Genres:

Classic Rock, Jazz, Pop, Rock

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Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, Nas, Paul Simon, Record Store Day, Roy Orbison, Sly & The Family Stone, The Clash, Uncle Tupelo, Vinyl

Review: Sly and the Family Stone, “Higher!”

August 29, 2013 by Joe Marchese | 7 Comments

Sly Stone was a sponge. After leading Bobby “Do You Wanna Dance” Freeman to a hit record with 1965’s “C’mon and Swim,” the writer-producer-artist formerly known as Sylvester Stewart knew he had hit on a good thing. Hence, “I Just Learned to Swim.” Then, “Scat Swim.” But on the latter, Stone was already showing off his stylistic diversity, interrupting the beat to “slow it down a little so everybody can swim” and then speeding it back up again. He had soaked up the fertile creative atmosphere in the Bay Area, studying the…

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News, Reviews

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Box Sets

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Pop, R&B/Soul

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Sly & The Family Stone

Release Round-Up: Week of August 27

August 27, 2013 by Mike Duquette | No Comments

The Beach Boys, Made in California (Capitol/UMe) Six discs of career-spanning tunes – hits and rarities aplenty – from the best band to come out of Hawthorne, California. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Bob Dylan, Another Self Portrait (1969-1971): The Bootleg Series Vol. 10 (Columbia) Revisit one of the most polarizing periods of Dylan’s career with the latest Bootleg Series entry, featuring outtakes from Nashville Skyline, Self Portrait and New Morning. A deluxe version includes Dylan and The Band’s complete Isle of Wight performance and a remastered version of Self Portrait, and a vinyl version also exists. 2CD standard edition: Amazon U.S….

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News, Release Round-Up

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Box Sets

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Soundtracks

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Bob Dylan, Mario Lanza, Naked Eyes, Nina Simone, Robert Palmer, Sly & The Family Stone, The Band, The Beach Boys, Vinyl

Release Round-Up: Week of July 30

July 30, 2013 by Mike Duquette | No Comments

sly and the family stone theres a riot gold

Nilsson, The RCA Albums Collection (RCA/Legacy) Easily one of the box set purchases of the year. Every one of the legendary singer/songwriter’s 14 solo albums for the RCA label, newly remastered and expanded with bonus tracks, mono mixes and other treasures, plus another three discs of rarities and outtakes. The packaging is beautiful and the music more than matches. You will not be disappointed. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Dionne Warwick, The Complete Warner Bros. Singles / We Need to Go Back — The Unissued Warner Bros. Masters / Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis, Jr., The Two of…

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News, Release Round-Up

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Box Sets

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Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Sly & The Family Stone, The Cult

It’s a Family Affair: Sly and the Family Stone Want to Take You “Higher!” With New Career-Spanning Box Set

May 31, 2013 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

Epic Records and Legacy Recordings want you to have some hot fun in the summertime. On August 27, the labels will release the first-ever career-spanning box set dedicated to Sly and the Family Stone, as previewed on Record Store Day 2013. The box succinctly entitled Higher! wants to take you there. 77 tracks chronicle the period between 1964 and 1977, and 17 of those recordings are previously unissued. Sly Stone, born Sylvester Stewart in 1943, couldn’t hide his prodigious musical talents from an early age. By the mid-1960s, the Texas boy had…

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News

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Box Sets

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Sly & The Family Stone

The Second Disc’s Record Store Day 2013 Essential Releases

April 19, 2013 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

Raise your hand if you’ll be joining 2013 Ambassador Jack White tomorrow to celebrate Record Store Day 2013! Yes, on Saturday, April 20, independent record stores everywhere will offer an eclectic roster of limited edition releases of all kinds – most on vinyl, but some on CD, too. As usual, the labels participating in RSD ’13 have a number of surprises on the way, previewing future releases, revisiting past titles and even curating completely new packages. As is our tradition here, we’re taking the occasion to count down the titles to which…

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Big Star, Miles Davis, Old 97's, Paul McCartney, R.E.M., Record Store Day, Ringo Starr, Shuggie Otis, Sly & The Family Stone, The Grateful Dead, Van Dyke Parks, Vinyl, Waylon Jennings

The Legacy of Record Store Day: Upcoming Exclusives Revealed From Sly, Willie, Miles, Taj, Aerosmith and More

March 22, 2013 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

It’s not quite the summertime yet, but Legacy Recordings has some hot fun planned for Record Store Day thanks to a diverse slate of releases from A (Aerosmith) to, well, S (Sly and the Family Stone)! April 20 is the date when Legacy will join 2013 Record Store Day Ambassador Jack White to celebrate not only those beloved black vinyl discs, but also the brick-and-mortar retail record store experience which we hold very dear at The Second Disc. Titles for the sixth annual Record Store Day have already been announced from artists…

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News

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Mad Season, Miles Davis, Record Store Day, Sly & The Family Stone, Taj Mahal, Vinyl

He Picks The Songs That Make The Whole World Sing: Clive Davis Curates “The Soundtrack of My Life”

February 28, 2013 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

In a year that counts Tommy Mottola, Cissy Houston, Burt Bacharach and Paul Anka among the music biz icons who have published, or will publish, their memoirs, one such figure’s autobiography has already made headlines: Clive Davis’ The Soundtrack of My Life. The attorney-turned-music mogul took a no-holds-barred approach to chronicling his history, including his tenures at Columbia, Arista, J and the RCA Label Group. This should come as no surprise to anybody who’s followed his illustrious and admittedly controversial career, but some readers might still be surprised at the sheer volume of…

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Barry Manilow, Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith, Simon and Garfunkel, Sly & The Family Stone

The Second Disc Buyers Guide: The 100 Greatest Reissues of All Time, Part 9 (#60-55)

December 8, 2011 by Mike Duquette | No Comments

We’re nearing the halfway point of our list of all the reissues of Rolling Stone‘s list of the 100 greatest albums of all time. How many do you have? What are your favorites? Which ones need reissues? Don’t be afraid to sound off! Today’s installment has a few of my own favorite albums, and all-around classics to boot. 60. Sly & The Family Stone, Greatest Hits (Epic, 1970) Including tracks from Dance to the Music, Life and Stand! – three excellent ’60s funk albums – was impressive enough. But Sly and The Family Stone’s Greatest Hits added not…

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News

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Box Sets

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Sly & The Family Stone, Stevie Wonder, TSD Buyers Guide, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones

The Second Disc Buyers Guide: The 100 Greatest Reissues of All Time (Part 1: #100-96)

November 28, 2011 by Mike Duquette | No Comments

Welcome to our brand-new, exhaustive feature to take us to the end of another great year for reissues and box sets: our first-ever official Second Disc Buyers Guide! From now until Christmas, we’re taking you on a delightful trip through the 100 greatest albums of all time, as selected by Rolling Stone in 2003, through the filter of when and how these classic albums have been reissued, remastered and repackaged. If you’ve ever wondered to yourself which versions of these albums to buy for certain bonus tracks and the like, wonder no…

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Bob Dylan, Sly & The Family Stone, TSD Buyers Guide, The Who

Back Tracks: Sly and The Family Stone

July 4, 2011 by Mike Duquette | No Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G861C3J9ms] Today being the Fourth of July, there are few better reasons to give a spin to Sly and The Family Stone’s Greatest Hits, arguably one of the best single-artist compilations in pop history. Those danceable grooves will get you moving at any barbecue, family reunion, pool party or whatever you might be celebrating this holiday weekend. But revisiting Sly has another purpose as of late: to get set up for one of the most unexpected comebacks in contemporary American music. Next month, Stone is slated to release I’m Back! Friends and…

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Back Tracks, Sly & The Family Stone

People All Over the World! A New “Soul Train” Comp Rolls Your Way

June 27, 2011 by Mike Duquette | No Comments

For most of its 35-year run, there was no better outlet for soul music on television than Soul Train. Featuring a diverse palette of R&B artists and the commanding presence of creator/producer/host Don Cornelius, Soul Train has become an institution, the longest-running, nationally syndicated show in American history – albeit one that modern audiences would be slow to appreciate, were it not for the efforts of Time-Life Entertainment in releasing several official DVDs of content from the shows back in 2009. Now, Time-Life follows up those discs with a special compilation, The Best…

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News

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Sly & The Family Stone, Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, The Isley Brothers