1969-2020 -- Still Time to "Stand!"

“Stand
You've been sitting much too long
There's a permanent crease in your right and wrong
Stand
There's a midget standing tall
And the giant beside him about to fall

“Stand! Stand! Ooh!
Stand! Stand! Ooh!
Ooo ooo stand!

“They will try to make you crawl
And they know what you're saying makes sense and all
Stand!
Don't you know that you are free
Well at least in your mind if you want to be”

“Stand!” by Sly & the Family Stone (1969)

“Stand!” was the title song from Sly Stone's fourth classic black-rock studio LP. It dropped at a moment of intense cultural and political change, and the album provided a soundtrack for that fight.

Prior to the release of the album, Sly & the Family Stone was best known for rollicking soul and rock jams like “Dance to the Music.” Though they had earned commercial and critical success, the band was coming off the release of their somewhat disappointing third album Life, which had hit shelves in July of 1968. Life was a solid, reasonably light album that was fun but didn’t really break any new ground.

Stand! became Sly and The Family Stone’s best and most commercially successful album of their career. It went platinum in less than a year, eventually selling three million copies and spawning the hugely popular #1 chart-topping “Everyday People.” The album is one of the defining pieces of musical work of the late 1960s. Whereas the group had dabbled in themes of unity and peace on Life, these subjects became the super-text of Stand!

The song “Stand!” became a civil rights anthem, and it peaked at Number 14 on the Billboard charts. Like nearly all of Sly & the Family Stone's songs, Sylvester "Sly Stone" Stewart was credited as the sole songwriter. The song quickly became Sly and the Family Stone’s defining statement as it encouraged revolutionary political protest while honoring those engaged in more personal, private struggles with oppression.

The song remains one of the most skyscraping high points in the history of music as protest. It has been covered by artists such as Solomon Burke, The Jackson 5, Liquid Jesus, Kathy Troccoli, Tony! Toni Tone! And Phish.

Sly & The Family Stone closed out their set at Woodstock with “Stand!” It was about 4:15 a.m. on the second day by the time they got to it, but most of the groggy crowd was up and enjoying the music.

Oliver Wang of Rolling Stone says, “Sly and the Family Stone became the poster children for a particularly San Francisco sensibility of the late Sixties: integrated, progressive, indomitably idealistic.”

“If there was anything to be happy about, then everybody’d be happy about it. If there were a lot of songs to sing, then everybody got to sing. If we have something to suffer or a cross to bear – we bear it together.”

– Sly Stone

The lyrics and the theme of this simple song speak volumes in 2020 as America struggles with civil rights and related issues like police brutality. The message in 1969 and 2020 remains the same: the time for indecision has long since passed, and everyone has to speak up (Stand!) for what they believe in. Especially powerful is the imagery of little people standing tall and giants about to fall, all while encouraging people to remember that they’re free if they want to be.

“Stand!” not only endures but sounds as fresh today as ever. It remains a tribute to love, unity, optimism, and equality. In truth, 21st century Americans must still stand up to the Goliaths in the government to make a difference. Only then can people turn the world into a better place for everyone. 

"Stand
In the end you'll still be you
One that's done all the things you set out to do
Stand
There's a cross for you to bear
Things to go through if you're going anywhere
Stand”