5/5 The highlight of Woodstock!
  by James D. Wilgus (Glassboro,NJ USA)
To anyone interested in hearing the finest total performance of the festival this is where you want to be. Sly had the crowd horse while shouting "HIGHER" and flashing the peace sign ( I did it again when I spun this for the first time when I bought it).
With the intro of the band and the first beats of the bass, then those voices breaking into "M'Lady", the listener is transported instantly back to that wonderful evening in the hills of Bethel NY.
I know you can't see his pearly white smile on the cd, but you sure as hell can feel the joy this man and his wonderful band gave the crowd that night.
Whenever anyone asked me "which band was the best of the festival?" I always said Sly! Now here's the proof!!
I don't care about genre's or titles people want to hang on musical tastes, this music was pure Woodstock! It brought the entire crowd, no matter what color or creed we were, we all funked out with Sly and he loved it. We all "Danced To The Music" that night, and now it has FINALLY been released!
Thank you Sly and the Family Stone, for those moments, and thank you Sony for giving us this wonderful treat!

Two days after the show was done, and I made it back home to some very worried parents, I cleaned off the mud and laid down with a perpetual smile. As I drifted off to a long satisfying sleep, I thought back to this performance.
Yeah, Canned Heat was great, and Cocker-Ten Years After-Santana-CCR-CSN-Joan Baez- Arlo-Janis-Jimi-The Who-Melanie-Richie Havens-The Band-Jefferson Airplane-and Johnny Winter were all outstanding, but Sly WAS WOODSTOCK!!

"sing out Higher and flash the peace sign, it'll do ya no harm"

5/5 The best by far of the Woodstock Experience collection.
  by Stephen Maestas (Albuquerque,NM)
I had an old Woodstock triple CD which was basically the soundtrack to the movie without the narration. My initial impression of Woodstock came from watching the movie about once a year when PBS would show it, and my CD. I think it had "Everyday People" and "Dance to the Music" as the only 2 Sly and The Family Stone songs on it. I thought those two song were among the highlights of the album, so when I found the rest of the set, I had to try it out. As an extra bonus, it came with the studio album, "Stand!". Either one was worth the price for me because I never have listened to an entire album of Sly and The Family Stone before and am grateful I did! Better late than never I guess. I guess the AOR stations I grew up on in the 70's and 80's didn't play enough of this stuff.

5/5 The Best S&TFS Album paired with their Woostock Performance!
  by Billy K (Durham, CT United States)
Ok First off - "Stand!" the album is an absolute classic - no doubt about it.

I would like to focus on the Woodstock performance.... let me first say that this is the best set of the "Woodstock Experiences" out of the 5 that are out there now

The others have missing parts/dialogue and some of the music is either missing or shrill.

No doubt that this set may be missing "something" - especially tune-ups what have you...but performance wise it is killer.

If you are a S&TFS fan, definately check this CD out if you haven't already.

Worth the $ just for the "Everyday People" > "Dance To The Music > "Music Lover > "Higher" Medley, "I Want To Take You Higher" and "Love City" material.

But the rest of the set is stellar too.

A++

5/5 Buy this now!
  by T. Korol (Rochester, NY)
As it is said to be limited, do not miss out. One of the greatest 60's bands, Sly fused funk, r&b, rock and gospel better than anyone before or after (OK, P-Funkadelic also at the top of this list). I always wondered why there was no live album from them. This will do.

Though short (50 minutes), the band starts in its groove and never loses it. Most of the set is from Stand (a must own studio release). As I said, the set smokes from the outset, and builds to the classic Dance to the Music - Music Lover - Higher medley. 1/2 million people in the church of Sly doing a shout out and everyone just absolutely getting into the moment.

I agree with another review, this immediately goes fairly high on my list of greatest live albums ever (um, cd that is). I am feeling very greedy now - I want more live stuff from them. There must be shows in the archives somewhere? But any fan (or fan of this genre) should pounce on this before it potentially disappears...

5/5 The highlight of the whole festival
  by Music maven (Amherst, MA)
It was really late when Sly and the band hit the stage, and I was starting to nod off--I just couldn't work up the energy to go to my tent (and besides, I had a spot quite close to the stage, and I didn't want to lose it). But when they started, the whole place caught fire. It was like somebody stuck my finger in a wall socket. I don't think I've ever experienced a more electrifying performance anywhere. All 500,000 of us were on our feet screaming. To this day I have an indelible image of them doing "I Want to Take You Higher," with the whole band jumping up and down and the whole audience jumping up and down with them. And this recording really captures that moment vividly. I expected the sound to be pretty awful, but in fact it's terrific, and it brings me back there completely, with all five senses on overload. Thank God somebody finally released this. I've been waiting 40 years.