Stone Free

Last Saturday I was DJing, and I pulled out the most recent Roots album. I was listening to it through the headphones, trying to find a good track that would fit with whatever was playing at the time. One of the first tracks on it is called "Star." They heavily sample the song "Everybody Is A Star" from Sly & the Family Stone. Instead of playing the Roots, I ended up taking it out and putting in "Family Affair" from There's a Riot Goin' On from Sly.

I've always been fascinated by that band. It's soul and funk and rock and something never duplicated. Some people define the history of soul as pre-Sly & the Family Stone and post-Sly & the Family Stone.

Sly's real name is Sylvester Stewart. Early on, Sly and his brother Freddie combined their two bands (Sly & the Stoners and Freddie & the Stone Souls) in 1967 to form Sly & the Family Stone. They were the first major American rock band to have a multicultural lineup featuring men and women in key instrumental roles.

From 1967 to 1975 the band was pivotal in the development of soul, funk, and psychedelia. Along with the Chambers Brothers, they were the origin of psychedelic funk. They recorded five top ten hits, and four groundbreaking albums, which were a major influence on American pop and rock music.

In the '70s, the band's sound switched to a grittier drug-influenced funk. This is especially evident on the album "There's a Riot Goin' On." At that time, Sly was getting into cocaine and PCP a little too much, you could say. He was getting very jaded and bitter about the state of the world. By 1975, the band fell apart due to various problems including heavy drug use. Sly continued to record solo albums under the name Sly & the Family Stone until 1987 when he was arrested for possession of cocaine. After his release, Sly became reclusive. He stays at his home near Beverly Hills, where he lives with two female assistants and records in his home studio. Apparently in the late 1990s, he sported a blonde mohawk. Sounds like he was hangin' with the guys from Fishbone. Maybe that's just wishful thinking.

I'll be honest, before I got curious, I really thought that Sly Stone died in the late '70s from a drug overdose. I don't think I ever heard or read it, I just assumed. Maybe because he's been so reclusive and I figured that if he were still alive, he' still be recording or at least somewhat in the public eye. Shit, George Clinton barely bothers to hide his proclivities toward smokin' rocks, so I figured Sly would be out around town, too.