Talk:There's a Riot Goin' On

Title

 * I have ever heard a rumor that the title of this album is the answer to "What's Goin' On" by Marvin Gaye - Does anyone know the truth? --1523 03:05, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

Removed the following non-fact:

"*There was a title track originally, which was played on the radio at the time. It was a blues shuffle who's chorus went "There's a riot going on... It's student demonstration time again..."  Apparently the track was removed from the album at some point."

Oops! You are absolutely correct... see how one's memory plays tricks on you! DavidRavenMoon 23:05, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

This is a Beach Boys song called Student Demonstration Time, a remake of Riot in Cell Block #9.

i got a question: why does it say "All songs written by Sylvester Stewart, and produced and arranged by Sly Stone for Stone Flower Productions."? since sylvester stewart and sly stone are the same person...is this because thats how its written originally on the album? 85.250.209.229


 * That's exactly why: because that's how the billing is done on the original album. Anyone who doesn't know Sylvester Stewart and Sly Stone are the same person will learn such after clicking the links. --70.119.135.219 05:21, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Slyfam-justbaby-1971.ogg
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BetacommandBot (talk) 05:33, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

External Link suggestion: Excerpt from 33 1/3 volume
As an editor at Crawdaddy!, and to comply with COI guidelines, I am not posting the link to this excerpt from Miles Marshall Lewis' 33 1/3 volume on There's a Riot Goin' On, reprinted by permission on the site. However, I would like to recommend it as a useful link for readers of this page, and hope that an editor will find the time to check out the excerpt and—if he or she sees fit—post it as an external link here. I appreciate your time. Crawdaddy! Mike harkin (talk) 22:54, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

Potential GA review
I would review this article as I think you are a good writer and knowledgeable about the music in your articles. However, you already know that I object to the length and number of quoted copyrighted sources. This prevents me from undertaking the review; I know your position that you will not shorten them or decrease their number. &mdash; Mattisse (Talk) 03:16, 25 October 2008 (UTC)

"[…] of all time"?
I love this album (and Stand! as well), but to write it is praised as "one of the greatest albums of all time" is rather misleading. "One of the greatest" would make many assume it is ranked somewhere in the top five or 10 of most published lists, when this is not the case.

If this album is considered "one of the" greatest, what do we then say for albums like Abbey Road and Highway 61 Revisited, which are considerably more acclaimed, while not necessarily regarded as the two best albums ever? I argue "one of the greatest of the 1970s" is more proper.


 * You're citing your impression of the phrase "one of the greatest", not the literal meaning of the phrase. In the source citing this in the lead, there are a number of lists of the greatest albums, including lists of 100, 500, and up to 1000 records. If a particular album is listed as one of those 500 albums considered the greatest, then it's being considered as one of the greatest. Dan56 (talk) 05:25, 15 January 2015 (UTC)

The song "There's a Riot Gon' On"
I appreciate the explanation of and speculation about the 4-second silent title track (#6). What I can't understand is that there's a well-known actual song with those lyrics as the hook. If in the key of C, it would go A-C-Eb-Eb-C-A-C over an F7 chord, then the same melody and lyrics over a C7 chord. But I can't find any reference to that song on Wikipedia or YouTube. This page seems the perfect place to explain this mystery for users like myself. I guess it must be a chorus from a song by another group, but I can't seem to find it even if I search for just the title or with -Sly — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kevintimba (talk • contribs) 04:16, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Incorrect hyperlink
Please delete this section - I see now that by the end of the track it quotes the other song extensively at a much slower tempo. I haven't figured out how to delete a section. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kevintimba (talk • contribs) 06:26, 2 September 2020 (UTC)

Under track listing, track 12, Thank You for Talkin' to Me, Africa links to the article on Thank You For Lettin' Me Be Mice Elf — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kevintimba (talk • contribs) 06:23, 2 September 2020 (UTC)

Release date
The stated release date of November 20, 1971 can't be right, as it had already appeared on Billboard's album charts in the Nov. 13 issue. It must have been released at least a couple of weeks before that, probably sometime in October. PatConolly (talk) 09:02, 16 February 2021 (UTC)


 * Where do you see its appearance in the November 13th issue? A number of reliable sources here appear to verify November, if not November 20. isento (talk) 09:21, 16 February 2021 (UTC)


 * The Top LP's chart is on page 70. There's a Riot Goin' on makes its debut at #39. If you mean, where is a link to see that - https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/70s/1971/Billboard%201971-11-13.pdf The page in the PDF file is page 100 - since Billboard frequently included special sections which weren't counted as part of the regular page listing. For comparison, note that Led Zeppelin IV was released November 8, and it didn't make its first appearance on the chart until Billboard's Nov. 27 issue. Looking further, I saw that the November 6 issue has an ad for this album. Also looking further, I saw that the copyrights for the songs list a publishing date of November 8. However, I've seen over the years that song publishing dates almost never match record release dates. PatConolly (talk) 09:46, 16 February 2021 (UTC)


 * Ok, I found a contemporary source which states November 1 as the release date. Record World issue of November 6, 1971, page 18, explicitly says 'Sly and the Family Stone's new Epic album, "There's a Riot Goin' On", released Nov. 1 ... ' The album was reviewed in this issue; also in the November 6 issue of Cash Box. Now that I have a source, I can change the page. I don't know where everyone got November 20. https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Record-World/70s/71/Record-World-1971-11-06.pdf PatConolly (talk) 10:24, 16 February 2021 (UTC)
 * The release date of November 20, 1971 was sourced per Allmusic.com with a secondary source per Discogs.com (cross-referenced with the Epic Records catalog number: KE 30986 with the vinyl album pressed at Columbia Records Pressing Plant, Terre Haute). 99.47.248.31 (talk) 22:45, 10 March 2022 (UTC)


 * Neither are reliable sources, AllMusic's sidebar being unverified and Discogs being user-generated (WP:ALBUMS/SOURCE). Piotr Jr. (talk) 05:14, 11 March 2022 (UTC)

Drum machine
"It is one of the earliest hit recordings to use a drum machine – the first was probably another Sly Stone production, Little Sister's "Somebody's Watching You".[23]"

Robin Gibb might have something to say about the latter point, if not others too. So I'm wondering, does the source mean probably the first in the US specifically? If so I think that should be noted rather than the whole point being removed, as I think it helps further contextualise the crossover appeal of Stone's peculiar productions in this period.--TangoTizerWolfstone (talk) 16:42, 1 March 2021 (UTC)

Gibb's single precedes it by less than a year. What others? How about just rephrasing it to "was also among the first"? isento (talk) 17:52, 1 March 2021 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure if there were others, just half-remembering things, which is why Gibb is the only one I'm sure of. That rewording sounds good to me.--TangoTizerWolfstone (talk) 18:00, 1 March 2021 (UTC)