Sly Stone has passed

[David Houck]

Sly Stone has passed.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/sly-and-the-family-stone-dead-obituary-1234810064/

[cozmik_cowboy]

Around this time of year, 1972 or so, my buddy Crazy Mike bought a used (you can no doubt read that as "hot") 8-track for his '64
Mercury; it came with Fever Tree's eponymous debut, ELP's Tarkus, and Sly & The Family Stone's Greatest Hits.
Over the next couple years Mr. Stewart's art was burned into me.
This sucks hard - but let us not forget to Dance To The Music!

Peter (who, despite being an old, fat, white guy, still has urges to dress like Sly in '73 or so.........)

[David Houck]

He and that band had a significant and positive influence on our culture, on the music, and on me.  And I'm grateful.

[peoplechipper]

The world just got a little less funky, and that's sad; I think we could use more funky right now...

[Quasar1]

Very sad indeed 

He was (and will always be) an absolute Icon!!

I saw him live one time only

Crazy situation,

OK,

in one of the great mismatches of the century, Grand Funk opened for them

Grand were smokin and bass heavy but got booed off the stage!

It took Sly and band more than an hour to take over

They were fantastically tight, but, they played just under an hour, and left, no encore

Folks were pissed and wanted their money back!

[keith_h]

This is sad news. Just a few days ago I was waking my granddaughter up for school with Dance to the Music.

[gearhed289]

He brought a lot of joy to this world and had one hell of an interesting life. May he rest in peace.

[StephenR]

My wife and I recently watched the "Sly Lives" documentary on Hulu, it was excellent, highly recommended. So, Sly was already on our minds when the news of his death broke, especially since we are mid-way through the James Brown documentary "Say it Loud",  also on Hulu. James wrote the book on funk and Sly's music would not have sounded like it did without James Brown.

I was lucky to see Sly twice in 1969 and both shows were excellent. The first was at the 1969 Newport Jazz Festival. Memories of the entire festival are a bit murky to me but I distinctly remember that when Sly came on as the very first notes of the set were played it started to pour rain. Everyone was just dancing and digging the music despite the rain, which let up shortly after. Second Sly set was at Woodstock. Another great show but I thought not quite as intense and focused as the Newport set. Besides all the drugs circulating backstage his set was sometime in the middle of the night, the entire festival ran late so bands were kept waiting to go on and there were brief periods of rain, not exactly an ideal environment for playing a focused show.

Such a shame that Sly and his career kind of went off the rails but he remains one of the most important artists of the 20th century, the music and message are timeless. Huge loss...

[David Houck]

... Just a few days ago I was waking my granddaughter up for school with Dance to the Music.

   

[pauldo]

… he remains one of the most important artists of the 20th century, the music and message are timeless. Huge loss...

Agreed!

Sadly it feels as if so many people have forgotten his message(s).

[DistillaMatto]

Sly brought everyone together. He is missed.

[bigredbass]

I saw him in Houston in '72 or '73, Sly with the original Family Stone lineup (with Larry Graham ! !).  Opened with 'Want to Take You Higher' for about 20 minutes, and plowed through most of his songs for the next two hours.  The band was fabulous, but he was already involved with the dependencies that would rule for the majority of the rest of his life.  I always remember that this show was great, but obviously something was a little 'off'.  It was also easily the LOUDEST show I ever heard:  I could've easily fired the Beretta alongside either ear and the only way I'd have known if went was the felt recoil, it was that loud.

The opener?  Marc Bolan and T Rex, and Bolan was there . . . . but not present at all.

James Brown distilled R+B into the foundation of funk, and Sly ran with it and added rock with a Bay Area taste, and the book the two of them co-authored was used by Prince, Michael Jackson, Parliament/Funkadelic and so many others.  Listen to 'Dance to the Music', the 'only ONE chord?' 'Everyday People', the huge-riff driven 'Sing a Simple Song', and the call of 'Stand' and there's one vital life force behind all of them and more:  Sly Stone.

[gearhed289]

That sounds like an amazing show!