I was slow to the party to appreciate the music of Sly and the Family Stone. Growing up in the Midwest as a young rockabilly kid, it just wasn’t my kind of music. As I got a little older and saw a few clips of them performing live, it began to dawn on me: holy bejeezus, they were one of the greatest groups of all time.
I have never been a fan of music from the 1970s, as a general rule (bad childhood memories of mullets, drum sets with a hundred tom toms, ugly people with long hair and brown clothes, etc. etc.), however when I began to see clips like this, I had to begrudgingly admit that the 1970s were still pretty freakin’ great. Sly and his band performed everything without AutoTune, without teleprompters, without fancy light shows and pyrotechnics and all the nonsense that passes for live entertainment nowadays. They just did it with sheer talent and hard work. They were one of the greatest bands of all time.
And to his credit, Sly put together an incredibly diverse band: black dudes, white dudes, talented women, sharp-dressed soul brothers and raggedy hippies—and, most incredibly (to me), a really happening white drummer in a funk band. Whatever the multicultural amalgamation he came up with, the main thing is that this band kicked some serious ass. Eventually I realized that all my previous prejudices against music from the 1970s were incorrect; there was great music in the 1970s and bad music in the 1970s, just as there was great music and bad music from every decade, and Sly Stone was absolutely the turning point in that personal realization. Now I watch their videos with absolute amazement and glee; I’m not sure music could get any better.
Sly Stone was also a poster child for the danger of drugs. The life of the party heading the greatest band on the planet did too many party favors and wound up living in a camper, nearly homeless, for the last couple of decades. The dude really died a long time ago, it just took this long for his body to give out. If you ever want a master class on why you shouldn’t do drugs in this business, just look at how much Sly achieved and how hard he crashed and burned. It’s a really, really sad, cautionary tale.
RIP Sly Stone, I hope the afterlife gives you more peace than the one you had down here. And thank you for the incredible music. Now, dig this band! Play these clips and watch how good music can be, if you play it like you mean it:
