Fresh [2 LP]

Stripped down and funky beyond words, 1973's Fresh is quite simply the last great album by Sly & the Family Stone. Funkadelic guru George Clinton, a man who knows something about genre cross-wiring, tabbed Fresh as one of his all-time favorites and convinced the Red Hot Chili Peppers to cut "If It Were Left Up To Me" for their 1985 Clinton-produced LP Freaky Styley. Jazz icon Miles Davis reportedly sat his band down to soak up inspiration from multiple playings of Fresh, a work ranked #186 in Rolling Stone's top 500 rock albums of all time. "If You Want Me To Stay," "Frisky" and "If It Were Left Up To Me" all got plenty of airplay and chart action, the last of Sly's works to score such treatment. Following the almost-scary political manifesto of 1971's There's A Riot Goin' On, Fresh seems particularly, well, fresh! And a little nasty too!