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With the upcoming release of Higher!, the 4-CD Sly & The Family Stone box set available August 27, Cynthia Robinson recently spoke with Mike Ragogna of The Huffington Post. Here is an excerpt:

Q: After all these years, the band means so much to the people …

CR: I know the songs that Sly wrote still have the meaning for those that are living today that weren’t even around when we started playing before, in the beginning. His lyrics, to me, if you listen to them, they can form a lifestyle that will leave you a happier person, a better person on this planet. It’s just lyrics to live by.

Q: The music was funk and also a philosophy. Were you aware at the time when you were having hits that it was bigger than its parts?

CR: No, it was just music that was so exciting and so fulfilling within me as a person. I’m sure other members of the band felt the same things because I could see the looks on their faces, that something inside of them was waking up and joyful about them, so I knew. Being an introvert, maybe it was just me, but I thought they were feeling what I was feeling inside. The way that they conducted their lives, they were all ready and eager to be there for the next gig and excited to be together to play together. That was a big thing. We spent more time together than they spent with their wives and girlfriends. Sly always had us rehearsing and he always had something planned out that he wanted us to do. So it wasn’t ever like, “Well what should we work on?” It was never that. He always had the plan, “This is what we’re going to do today, shoop shoop shoop shoop,” and everybody’s minds were in the same direction.

Q: So that’s the bottom line, you truly were family.

CR: Absolutely.

Read the complete interview with Cynthia Robinson at The Huffington Post.

In early 1968, Epic Records had the members of Sly & The Family Stone record as the studio band for several other R&B singers on the label. One of those tracks, “Dynamite!” is premiering at USA TODAY. It’s one of 17 unreleased tracks on Higher!, the four-CD box set coming from Epic/Legacy on Aug. 27.

Cut in April 1968, “Dynamite!” features the Family Stone backing an R&B singer named Johnny Robinson at the suggestion of David Kapralik, Epic Records’ vice president of A&R and, for several years, the group’s manager. …The track opens with a wailing guitar riff and another guitar that has the distinctive Family Stone fuzz-tone sound. Near the end, it also incorporates elements of “Dance to the Music,” Sly & The Family Stone’s breakthrough hit, which had been released in January of that year.

Listen to “Dynamite!” and read more at USA TODAY.

Sly and the Family Stone are celebrating their career – and Sly Stone’s 70th birthday – with the new anthology collection Higher!, out August 27th. To mark the release, the influential funk group dug deep into their vaults for mono single masters and old, rare recordings. At Rolling Stone, you can get an exclusive listen to Sly and the Family Stone’s take on the track “What’s That Got to Do With Me,” originally by Jim and Jean.

Listen to “What’s That Got to Do With Me” and read more at Rolling Stone.

All through the brilliant highs and the murky lows of the late ’60s and early ’70s, Sly & The Family Stone had the globe dancing to the music. The creativity of the mixed-race, mixed-gender, and mixed-genre band shines in this new 77-track, 4CD box set, Higher!. With 17 previously unreleased tracks, it’s a lot more music than you knew was there – all remastered to hit the pinnacle of sound.

Also included in Higher! is a stunningly colorful and evocatively detailed 104-page, 10-inch book of rare photographs, posters, picture sleeves, recording documents, vintage ads, and other memorabilia, along with extensive liner notes by Jeff Kaliss), track-by-track annotations, and a detailed timeline of Sly & The Family Stone’s life and career.

As a special exclusive with purchase of Higher! on Amazon.com, you’ll get a bonus CD including 6 extremely rare and previously unreleased tracks! *** UPDATE: The Amazon edition with bonus CD is now sold out. ***

AMAZON EXCLUSIVE BONUS CD Track list:

1. Stand! (long version)
2. TV Medley: Sing A Simple Song/ Hot Fun In The Summertime / I Want To Take You Higher
3. Time For Livin’ (alternate Record Plant mix)
4. Saint James Infirmary (instrumental) (live)
5. Sittin’ On My Fanny
6. Dust To Dust (instrumental)

All tracks previously unissued except track 2, available on Epic/Legacy 10” vinyl I Want To Take You Higher.