“Doggett’s encyclopaedic account of Sixties counter-culture is a fascinating history of pop’s relationship with politics.” —The Independent Between 1965 and 1972, political activists around the globe prepared to mount a revolution. While the Vietnam War raged, calls for black power grew louder and liberation movements erupted everywhere from Berkeley, Detroit, and Newark to Paris, Berlin, Ghana, and Peking. Rock and soul music fueled the revolutionary movement with anthems and iconic imagery. Soon the musicians themselves, from John Lennon and Bob Dylan to James Brown and Fela Kuti, were being dragged into the fray. From Mick Jagger’s legendary appearance in Grosvenor Square standing on the sidelines and snapping pictures, to the infamous incident during the Woodstock Festival when Pete Townshend kicked yippie Abbie Hoffman off the stage while he tried to make a speech about an imprisoned comrade, Peter Doggett unravels the truth about how these were not the “Street Fighting Men” they liked to see themselves as and how the increasing corporatization of the music industry played an integral role in derailing the cultural dream. There’s a Riot Going On is a fresh, definitive, and exceedingly well-researched behind-the-scenes account of this uniquely turbulent period when pop culture and politics shared the world stage with mixed results. “A fresh and near-definitive slant on a subject you might have thought had been picked clean by journalists and historians.” —Time Out London “An extraordinary book . . . Doggett emerges triumphant. Grab a copy—by any means necessary.” —Mojo

The story behind the making of the album that signaled the descent of Sylvester Sly Stone Stewart into a haze of drug addiction and delirium is captivating enough for the cinema. In the spacious attic of a Beverly Hills mansion belonging to John and Michelle Phillips (of the Mamas and the Papas) during the fall of 1970, Sly Stone began recording his follow-up to 1969's "Stand!" the most popular album of his band's career.

Sly Stone began recording There's a Riot Goin' On in late 1970 as a follow-up to the commercially successful Stand!. In this brisk, inventive book, Miles Marshall Lewis chronicles Sly's descent into a haze of drug addiction and delirium as he rejects the successful formula - "'Dance to the Medley,' dance to the shmedly" - and creates one of the most powerful and haunting albums to inspire the hiphop movement. Book jacket.

From his anthemic early hits (“I Want to Take You Higher,” “Family Affair,” “Dance to the Music”), through the moody meditations of “There's a Riot Going On” and beyond, Sly & the Family Stone left an indelible stamp on rock, funk, pop, and hip hop, and their enigmatic frontman in particular continues to inspire fascination and speculation. This fully updated edition fills in the gaps since the book’s original 2008 publication, including Sly’s successful legal action against his former manager, the death of band member (and mother of a child with Sly) Cynthia Robinson, and the new projects undertaken by family and former collaborators.

Explores the intersection between political activism and rock music that marked the late 1960s and early 1970s, discussing how music fueled the revolutionary movement and examining the involvement of prominent musicians.

Between 1965 and 1972, political activists around the globe prepared to mount a revolution, from the Black Panthers to the Gay Liberation Front, from the Yippies to the IRA. Rock and soul music supplied the revolutionary tide with anthems and iconic imagery; and renowned musicians such as John Lennon, Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan were particularly influential in the movement. This is the definitive account of this unique period in modern history; a compelling portrait of an era when revolutionaries turned into rock stars, and rock stars dressed up as revolutionaries.