Graham Central Station
Graham Central Station

THE REVIEW

Exactly 40 years ago in the United States, one of the most incredible and unsettling stories that pop music has ever produced took place: after the release of the album THERE'S A RIOT GOIN' ON, the path of SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE was more akin to the script of a Black-Gangsta Movie than that of a seminal band predestined to chart the course of FUNK and spread it without setting any boundaries in an America that was barely beginning to comprehend the real disastrous impact of the Vietnam War and the internal Nixonian poisons within the country.

Due to the massive use of cocaine and the consequent harmful effects on the sense of reality, the band had split into two opposing factions: on one side was Sly Stone, surrounded by mafia gorillas, a mix of pushers and hitmen, backed by the dangerous BLACK PANTHERS movement, which led to a dark and politicized sound that enveloped the album; on the other was the bassist cousin Larry Graham, from an entourage only seemingly more moderate, in reality, the genuine fire smoldering under the ashes.

After yet another argument, Graham hires a hitman to take out Stone, but in that environment stifled by excesses, even the walls transmitted messages, and before the absurd plan could materialize, Stone unleashes his henchmen on Graham, who manages to escape by fleeing out of the hotel window with his woman and disappearing with the providential help of flutist and trusted friend PAT RIZZO.

From that moment on, the two would never meet again, but unlike Stone's sad creative and personal debacle, a new life began for Larry Graham, blessed by good fortune and the equally good reputation he enjoyed as a musician and inventor of the Slap-Bass technique associated with the instrument of which he is still a legendary performer. Within a few months, he freed himself from drugs, embraced GOD THE CREATOR, and finally took on an already tested band, making it his own and bringing it to the studio after signing a lucrative contract with Warner Bros.

This debut album is an explicit declaration of intent and a liberation at the same time, and the a cappella start speaks for itself: We've been waitin' for so long, waitin' to play for you some of our songs, preceding a scream that dismisses the remaining toxins and introduces a fabulous cover of Al Green, IT AIN'T NO FUN TO ME, with a loving and controversial text typical of the author, but rich with the rhythmic sunshine that Graham's recent past had forgotten.

The nine tracks alternate social themes and sentiment in perfect harmony, the sound retains the polyrhythmic Funk of the past with a more considered use of keyboards, an organist, and a clavinet operator weaving imaginative phrases and the use of the FUNK BOX, a Proto-Drum Machine rhythmic box puffing like a locomotive at full throttle, in the hands of the fascinating PATRICE "CHOCOLATE" BANKS, a velvet voice in the smooth pace of WE BE'S GETTIN' DOWN and the energetic and contagious WHY?. Graham's voice is equally a Trademark: second only to ISAAC HAYES in its deep sensuality, it joins the others in the ride of TELL ME WHAT IT IS in a gospel-tinged paean, his slap in HAIR is textbook material that would blow any bassist's mind, while the twisted distortion of the instrument makes GHETTO a socially conscious statement psychedelically framed. And what to say about CAN YOU HANDLE IT? made to move and finally PEOPLE, a grand political manifesto written by Graham and cousin FREDDIE STONE, briefly sheltered in the band: even today it holds an undeniable finger pointed at the comfortable presidential seats, People are dying, People are crying, culminating in a choired and proud WE ARE THE SAME to dispel any doubt, the arrangement of great beauty and Freddie's guitar make it a timeless track, any current R&B act would strip itself of everything to compose something even remotely similar.

The album, co-produced by luminary RUSS TITELMAN, will fill record executives with enthusiasm, to the point of including the band in a Warner traveling caravan between America and Europe: needless to say, the energy on stage was mind-blowing. At the time, this album changed and broadened my musical horizons, today I can only point it out to you as its sincere and grand DECLARATION OF FUNK.