Unlike its predecessor, Dance to the Music, Life was not a commercial success, although it has received mostly positive reviews from music critics over the years. Many of its songs, including "M'Lady", "Fun", "Love City", as well as the title track, became popular staples in the Family Stone's live show. A middle ground between the fiery A Whole New Thing and the more commercial Dance to the Music, Life features very little use of studio effects, and is instead more driven by frontman Sly Stone's compositions. Topics for the album's songs include the dating scene ("Dynamite!", "Chicken", "M'Lady"), groupies ("Jane is a Groupee"), and "plastic" (or "fake") people (the Beatlesque "Plastic Jim", which references "Eleanor Rigby" in its chorus). Of particular note is that the Family Stone's main themes of unity and integration are explored here in several songs ("Fun", "Harmony", "Life", and "Love City"). The next Family Stone LP, Stand!, would focus almost exclusively on these topics.
Much of Life has been heavily sampled for hip hop and electronica recordings, particularly Gregg Errico's drum solo on "Love City". The opening riff on "Into My Own Thing" was sampled for Fatboy Slim's 2001 hit "Weapon of Choice".
Track listing[]
All tracks written by Sylvester Stewart, and produced and arranged by Sly Stone for Stone Flower Productions.
Side one
"Dynamite!" – 2:44
"Chicken" – 2:13
"Plastic Jim" – 3:29
"Fun" – 2:23
"Into My Own Thing" – 2:13
"Harmony" – 2:51
Side two
"Life" – 3:01
"Love City" – 2:43
"I'm an Animal" – 3:21
"M'Lady" – 2:46
"Jane Is a Groupee" – 2:49
CD bonus tracks[]
1995 limited edition CD reissue
"Only One Way Out Of This Mess" (3:51, added for 1995 compact disc rerelease)
^Hanson, Michael Stephen (2004). People Get Ready: Race, Place and Political Identity in Post-civil Rights Black Popular Music, 1965-1975. UC Berkeley. p. 124.
[2]
[3]
[5]
