Music and lyrics
The music of "Are You Ready" is a variation of the music of the album's hit single "Dance to the Music". [1] Allmusic critc Matthew Greenwald felt that the song is a precursor to the disco music of the 1970s. [2] Greenwald noted the song's "relentless, 4/4 backbeat and overall sense of funk.">ref mame=allmusic/> The Guardian critic Angus Batey said that "2min 48sec of strident, direct, raw musical intensity, and foreshadows the sound and style [the group] would make their own at the close of the 1960." [1] Batey credited drummer Greg Errico with "brilliantly combining uncompromising physicality with what ought to be an incompatible embrace of funk bounce and sophisticated jazz-tinged swing." [1] Batey also praised the way the trumpet played by Cynthia Robinson and the saxophone played by Jerry Martini interact with Larry Graham’s "intuitive, deceptively complicated bass part." [1] Batey suggests that at times Robinson and Martini sound like they are playing an incorrect note bot that this gives the song "immediacy and urgency". [1]
The lyrics make a "positive, affirmative statement" with respect to racial acceptance. [2] [3] They include the line "Don't hate the black, don't hate the white / If you get bitten, just hate the bite." [3] [4] Stewart read that line to the audience before the group performed on the Ed Sullivan Show in December 1968. [4]
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