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Friday Funk #2 – ‘Loose Booty’ by Sly & The Family Stone
Friday Funk #2 – ‘Loose Booty’ by Sly & The Family Stone
Friday Funk #2 – ‘Loose Booty’ by Sly & The Family Stone
‘Loose Booty’ is non-stop energy. Its first half is full of constant variations: the guitar is in and out; the bass alternates between assured grooving and lengthy ascending lines as if trying to climb its way out of the song; during two bars only the drums and horns play; keyboard parts come and never return. It may be disconcerting if not for the obvious joy.
The horns, throughout the almost-four minutes, sound like they’re only half-sure what song they’re playing. Weird, unresolved phrases alternate between cheery energy and the dejected wails of a balloon’s air being let out. If you heard them in isolation you might wonder whether the band was tuning up.
But they play off the bass and drums brilliantly, usually leaving the One to those instruments and instead filling other space so that nearly every bar feels jam-packed. When they do play on the One, it’s to help emphasise a transition between sections (for example, on the “Hey, hey” part after the first chorus, or in the brief “Loose Booty” bridge section around 1:22).
The track was one of two singles from 1974’s Small Talk, the last album with the original Family Stone band (albeit drummer Greg Errico and bassist Larry Graham had already departed). Although, by the time of Dance To The Music (’68), Sly had begun to play “most everything on all my records.”
In contrast with the slower, at times melancholy grooves of There’s a Riot Goin’ On three years earlier, ‘Loose Booty’ is carefree, bouncing fun. In between, there was 1973’s Fresh, which wasn’t quite as joyous as its fantastic cover suggested but was an upturn in energy and optimism. ‘Booty’ was a rarity in Sly’s ’70s material in matching the intensity of earlier songs like ‘Underdog’ (1967) and ‘I Want To Take You Higher’ (1969), as indicated by its pairing with ‘Higher’ for a live performance in ’75.
‘Booty’ is a little twitchier, less predictable, and less reliant on the chorus. Sly wrote in his autobiography about the creation of 1969’s Stand. “Mostly I’d get hold of a rhythm, get it down, and then listen to it again and again as the song grew around it. Words would come in, countermelodies, ideas for arrangements.” It’s easy to imagine the same rhythm-first method was in place for ‘Loose Booty’.
On first listen (or first hundred listens), the refrain could be heard as nonsense syllables (cool sounds in the vein of ‘Higher’’s “Boom-laka-laka”). What’s that? “Offend the goat”? That’s actually “Abednego” in the refrain of “Shadrach, Meshack, Abednego.”
Sly wrote, “It was a Bible story: Three men refused to worship King Nebuchadnezzar and were thrown in a fiery pit. But they didn’t die. They came out, with a fourth figure leading them, the prophet Daniel. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were figures of resistance.” In between repetitions, there are joyous cries of “Bootyyy!” (which were not part of the Bible story).
The lyrics otherwise are fairly typical of Sly: positive messages about dancing. (“I didn’t retell the whole story but I wanted a taste of it in there. Music could help you resist everyday problems. Music could keep you out of the fire.”) His lyrics were often poetic (“Blind ‘cause your eyes see only glitter / Closed to the things that make you free”), but just as often they were invitations to move your butt.
‘Loose Booty’ is non-stop energy. Its first half is full of constant variations: the guitar is in and out; the bass alternates between assured grooving and lengthy ascending lines as if trying to climb its way out of the song; during two bars only the drums and horns play; keyboard parts come and never return. It may be disconcerting if not for the obvious joy.
The horns, throughout the almost-four minutes, sound like they’re only half-sure what song they’re playing. Weird, unresolved phrases alternate between cheery energy and the dejected wails of a balloon’s air being let out. If you heard them in isolation you might wonder whether the band was tuning up.
But they play off the bass and drums brilliantly, usually leaving the One to those instruments and instead filling other space so that nearly every bar feels jam-packed. When they do play on the One, it’s to help emphasise a transition between sections (for example, on the “Hey, hey” part after the first chorus, or in the brief “Loose Booty” bridge section around 1:22).
The track was one of two singles from 1974’s Small Talk, the last album with the original Family Stone band (albeit drummer Greg Errico and bassist Larry Graham had already departed). Although, by the time of Dance To The Music (’68), Sly had begun to play “most everything on all my records.”
In contrast with the slower, at times melancholy grooves of There’s a Riot Goin’ On three years earlier, ‘Loose Booty’ is carefree, bouncing fun. In between, there was 1973’s Fresh, which wasn’t quite as joyous as its fantastic cover suggested but was an upturn in energy and optimism. ‘Booty’ was a rarity in Sly’s ’70s material in matching the intensity of earlier songs like ‘Underdog’ (1967) and ‘I Want To Take You Higher’ (1969), as indicated by its pairing with ‘Higher’ for a live performance in ’75.
‘Booty’ is a little twitchier, less predictable, and less reliant on the chorus. Sly wrote in his autobiography about the creation of 1969’s Stand. “Mostly I’d get hold of a rhythm, get it down, and then listen to it again and again as the song grew around it. Words would come in, countermelodies, ideas for arrangements.” It’s easy to imagine the same rhythm-first method was in place for ‘Loose Booty’.
On first listen (or first hundred listens), the refrain could be heard as nonsense syllables (cool sounds in the vein of ‘Higher’’s “Boom-laka-laka”). What’s that? “Offend the goat”? That’s actually “Abednego” in the refrain of “Shadrach, Meshack, Abednego.”
Sly wrote, “It was a Bible story: Three men refused to worship King Nebuchadnezzar and were thrown in a fiery pit. But they didn’t die. They came out, with a fourth figure leading them, the prophet Daniel. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were figures of resistance.” In between repetitions, there are joyous cries of “Bootyyy!” (which were not part of the Bible story).
The lyrics otherwise are fairly typical of Sly: positive messages about dancing. (“I didn’t retell the whole story but I wanted a taste of it in there. Music could help you resist everyday problems. Music could keep you out of the fire.”) His lyrics were often poetic (“Blind ‘cause your eyes see only glitter / Closed to the things that make you free”), but just as often they were invitations to move your butt.
‘Loose Booty’ is non-stop energy. Its first half is full of constant variations: the guitar is in and out; the bass alternates between assured grooving and lengthy ascending lines as if trying to climb its way out of the song; during two bars only the drums and horns play; keyboard parts come and never return. It may be disconcerting if not for the obvious joy.
The horns, throughout the almost-four minutes, sound like they’re only half-sure what song they’re playing. Weird, unresolved phrases alternate between cheery energy and the dejected wails of a balloon’s air being let out. If you heard them in isolation you might wonder whether the band was tuning up.
But they play off the bass and drums brilliantly, usually leaving the One to those instruments and instead filling other space so that nearly every bar feels jam-packed. When they do play on the One, it’s to help emphasise a transition between sections (for example, on the “Hey, hey” part after the first chorus, or in the brief “Loose Booty” bridge section around 1:22).
The track was one of two singles from 1974’s Small Talk, the last album with the original Family Stone band (albeit drummer Greg Errico and bassist Larry Graham had already departed). Although, by the time of Dance To The Music (’68), Sly had begun to play “most everything on all my records.”
In contrast with the slower, at times melancholy grooves of There’s a Riot Goin’ On three years earlier, ‘Loose Booty’ is carefree, bouncing fun. In between, there was 1973’s Fresh, which wasn’t quite as joyous as its fantastic cover suggested but was an upturn in energy and optimism. ‘Booty’ was a rarity in Sly’s ’70s material in matching the intensity of earlier songs like ‘Underdog’ (1967) and ‘I Want To Take You Higher’ (1969), as indicated by its pairing with ‘Higher’ for a live performance in ’75.
‘Booty’ is a little twitchier, less predictable, and less reliant on the chorus. Sly wrote in his autobiography about the creation of 1969’s Stand. “Mostly I’d get hold of a rhythm, get it down, and then listen to it again and again as the song grew around it. Words would come in, countermelodies, ideas for arrangements.” It’s easy to imagine the same rhythm-first method was in place for ‘Loose Booty’.
On first listen (or first hundred listens), the refrain could be heard as nonsense syllables (cool sounds in the vein of ‘Higher’’s “Boom-laka-laka”). What’s that? “Offend the goat”? That’s actually “Abednego” in the refrain of “Shadrach, Meshack, Abednego.”
Sly wrote, “It was a Bible story: Three men refused to worship King Nebuchadnezzar and were thrown in a fiery pit. But they didn’t die. They came out, with a fourth figure leading them, the prophet Daniel. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were figures of resistance.” In between repetitions, there are joyous cries of “Bootyyy!” (which were not part of the Bible story).
The lyrics otherwise are fairly typical of Sly: positive messages about dancing. (“I didn’t retell the whole story but I wanted a taste of it in there. Music could help you resist everyday problems. Music could keep you out of the fire.”) His lyrics were often poetic (“Blind ‘cause your eyes see only glitter / Closed to the things that make you free”), but just as often they were invitations to move your butt.