\n<\/p>\n
In Sly & the Family Stone\u2019s prime, from 1968 to 1973, the band was one of music\u2019s greatest live acts as well as a fount of remarkable singles including \u201cEveryday People\u201d<\/a> and \u201cHot Fun in the Summertime.\u201d<\/a> There was a shining optimism to its sound, which mixed funk with the ecstasy of gospel, a little rock and a touch of psychedelia \u2014 as well as a vision of community and brotherhood that stood out in a period of political separatism.<\/p>\n The visionary behind it all was Sly Stone, who wrote, produced and arranged the music, winning acclaim as the author of invigorating anthems and an inventor of new, more complex recording sounds. But by the early 1970s, he was ravaged by drug addiction, kicking off a cycle of spirals and comebacks and sporadic, desultory live appearances. Now Stone, 81, is the subject of \u201cSly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius),\u201d<\/a> a documentary directed by Ahmir Thompson, better known as the Roots drummer Questlove, that debuts on Hulu on Thursday.<\/p>\n Stone, who was born Sylvester Stewart and grew up in Vallejo, Calif., had gospel in his blood. His father, K.C., was a deacon in a Pentecostal church, and Sly began performing with his younger brother Freddie and younger sisters Rose and Vet in the Stewart Four, which released a single, \u201cOn the Battlefield,\u201d in 1956 on the Church of God in Christ label.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n As he learned to play guitar, bass, keyboards, drums and harmonica, Stone\u2019s ambition swelled. In 1964, he produced and co-wrote Bobby Freeman\u2019s No. 5 hit \u201cC\u2019mon and Swim,\u201d and soon talked himself into an on-air gig at KSOL, the Bay Area\u2019s AM soul music powerhouse, where he read dedications in his nimble baritone and mixed in Bob Dylan and Beatles songs to the format. \u201cI think there shouldn\u2019t be \u2018Black radio.\u2019 Just radio,\u201d he later told Rolling Stone. \u201cEverybody be a part of everything.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n After having a small local hit in the Viscaynes, one of the few integrated groups in doo wop, he assembled Sly & the Family Stone with a lineup of men and women, Black and white. In 1967, \u201cDance to the Music\u201d<\/a> became their first of five Top 10 singles. Two years later, they performed at Woodstock, providing one of the weekend\u2019s high points. The days of playing nightclubs were over. \u201cAfter Woodstock, everything glowed,\u201d Stone wrote in his 2023 memoir<\/a>.<\/p>\n Stone was a unifying figure, \u201cthe only rock artist who appealed equally to Black and white audiences,\u201d the critic Robert Christgau wrote<\/a>, but the singer\u2019s optimism curdled. He moved from the Bay Area to a mansion in Bel Air that was once owned by the 1930s film star Jeanette MacDonald, and began snorting and freebasing copious amounts of PCP and cocaine, which he toted around in a violin case. People kept giving him drugs, he wrote. \u201cIt would have been rude to refuse.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a Riot Goin\u2019 On,\u201d<\/a> released in 1971, is a difficult, disjointed album that\u2019s also considered a masterpiece. But soon, the good times were over<\/a>: The hits dried up and Stone\u2019s drug arrests mounted. Stone\u2019s last major public appearances came at the 1993 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony and a Grammy tribute in 2006.<\/p>\n The influence of Sly & the Family Stone\u2019s sound is so vast, it\u2019s hard to measure. It\u2019s in music from Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock, Talking Heads and Prince, and many more: Public Enemy, Beastie Boys, Tricky, Outkast, De La Soul, KLF, Beck, Lenny Kravitz, Seal, even U2\u2019s \u201cMysterious Ways.\u201d Stone may be out of sight, but he is somehow always still around. Here are 15 songs that help explain his musical impact.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n This perfect, concise unity song, which popularized the phrase \u201cdifferent strokes for different folks,\u201d is built on simple layers like Larry Graham\u2019s one-note bass line. \u201cI kept it short with the idea that it would have a long life,\u201d Stone said in his memoir.<\/p>\n For those who chose to sit rather than stand at this precarious moment of protest, Stone had a message: \u201cThere\u2019s a permanent crease in your right and wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n Though Sly was the group\u2019s mastermind, Freddie Stone was a world-class guitarist whose dynamic funk licks added hooks and percussive cross-rhythms. Jimi Hendrix borrowed the riff from this song for Band of Gypsys\u2019 live recording of \u201cWe Gotta Live Together.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n This laid-back song about nostalgia for the carefree days of childhood rises on Rose Stone\u2019s minimalist, single-chord piano part and her explosive singing voice. Sly slips in a bittersweet note \u2014 autumn will arrive soon, he sings, and it\u2019s time to brace for a chill.<\/p>\n One of the funkiest songs ever recorded, thanks to the \u201cthumping and plucking\u201d bass style Graham credibly claimed to have invented. \u201cLookin\u2019 at the devil, grinnin\u2019 at his gun,\u201d Stone sings in a clipped voice, and in the following verses, he quotes from his own hits and shares lead vocals with all six other band members.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The first Sly & the Family Stone album sold poorly, and Stone\u2019s record company pressured him for a single. \u201cDance to the Music\u201d did the trick, but the singer hated the song, according to the sax player Jerry Martini. \u201cDance to the Medley,\u201d on the same album, was far more complex \u2014 a 12-minute suite in which the band interpolates its own hit.<\/p>\n Stone borrows a melody from the Beatles\u2019 \u201cEleanor Rigby\u201d to decry an untrustworthy square who \u201cwill take a blind man\u2019s glasses.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The title makes this woozy mid-tempo number sound like a Black Power statement, but its lyrics also ask African Americans to stop using insulting terms for white people. There\u2019s a breathless mood in the music, thanks to Stone\u2019s distorted harmonica, which he played through one of the first commercially available talk boxes.<\/p>\n Stone had one final reinvention in him: On \u201cFresh,\u201d<\/a> he applied his increasingly croaky voice to deconstructed R&B \u2014 funk that didn\u2019t swing. As the producer Brian Eno told the composer Charles Amirkhanian in a radio interview, Stone \u201creshuffled all the instrument roles\u201d by making bass and drums as important as vocals and guitar.<\/p>\n Among Stone\u2019s intermittent \u201ccomeback\u201d albums, \u201cBack on the Right Track\u201d<\/a> feels the least distant from his prime. \u201cShine It On\u201d is a chugging funk number that mixes positivity with a bit of resentment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n This elegant 45, released under the musician\u2019s birth name five years before he formed Sly & the Family Stone, has strong echoes of the Drifters but also hints at the greatness ahead. His voice moves easily into falsetto and enlivens the song with rhythmic gusto, while the dramatic arrangement utilizes a Latin bolero rhythm.<\/p>\n Preston, a dazzling organ player, had been a gospel prodigy like Stone, and brought in Sly to arrange the music on \u201cWildest Organ in Town!\u201d<\/a> They wrote three songs together, including \u201cAdvice,\u201d in which Preston sings, \u201cI want to take you higher.\u201d The ecstatic notion of a spiritual high was common in gospel, most notably in Mahalia Jackson\u2019s 1947 standard \u201cMove on Up a Little Higher,\u201d and \u201cAdvice\u201d served as a precursor to Stone\u2019s \u201cI Want to Take You Higher\u201d just three years later.<\/p>\n Stone wrote and produced this song, which he described in his memoir as \u201cfilled with philosophy,\u201d and released it on his Stone Flower label. \u201cIf it feels good, it\u2019s all right,\u201d the San Francisco singer Joe Hicks moans, but the creepy mood and drawn-out six-minute length suggest nothing feels good, nothing is all right.<\/p>\n Medleys are usually redolent of Vegas revues and wedding bands, but the great soul singer Merry Clayton holds down this suite of four joyous Sly & the Family Stone tunes with strong, knowing contributions from the bassist Neil Jason and Paulinho Da Costa on percussion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n George Clinton, the outr\u00e9 Funkadelic mastermind, brought in Stone, a pal and a peer, for \u201cFirst Ya Gotta Shake the Gate,\u201d<\/a> a sprawling three-disc session. Of the six songs that feature Stone, the most interesting is \u201cThe Naz,\u201d originally by the 1950s comedian and spoken-word performer Lord Buckley, one of Stone\u2019s earliest jive-talking inspirations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n When he was 19, Stone had national success with the Beau Brummels, a Bay Area folk-rock group inspired by the British Invasion sound. Their first two singles, \u201cLaugh, Laugh\u201d and \u201cJust a Little,\u201d both produced by Stone, charted at No. 15 and No. 8. \u201cHe was great to work with,\u201d the singer Sal Valentino recalled<\/a>. \u201cHe could play everything if we needed him to.\u201d<\/p>\n5 Hits<\/h2>\n
\u201c<\/strong>Everyday People<\/a><\/strong>\u201d (1968)<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
\u201c<\/strong>Stand!<\/a><\/strong>\u201d (1969)<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
\u201c<\/strong>Sing a Simple Song<\/a><\/strong>\u201d (1969)<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
\u201c<\/strong>Hot Fun in the Summertime<\/a><\/strong>\u201d (1969)<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
\u201c<\/strong>Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)<\/a><\/strong>\u201d (1969)<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
5 Deeper Cuts<\/h2>\n
\u201c<\/strong>Dance to the Medley<\/a><\/strong>\u201d (1967)<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
\u201c<\/strong>Plastic Jim<\/a><\/strong>\u201d (1968)<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
\u201c<\/strong>Don\u2019t Call Me Nigger, Whitey<\/a><\/strong>\u201d (1969)<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
\u201c<\/strong>Let Me Have It All<\/a><\/strong>\u201d (1973)<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
\u201c<\/strong>Shine It On<\/a><\/strong>\u201d (1979)<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
5 Curiosities<\/h2>\n
Sylvester Stewart, \u201c<\/strong>Help Me With My Broken Heart<\/a><\/strong>\u201d (1962)<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
Billy Preston, \u201c<\/strong>Advice<\/a><\/strong>\u201d (1966)<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
Joe Hicks, \u201c<\/strong>Life & Death in G & A<\/a><\/strong>\u201d (1970)<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
Merry Clayton, \u201c<\/strong>Sly Suite<\/a><\/strong>\u201d (1980)<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
Funkadelic featuring Sly Stone, \u201c<\/strong>The Naz<\/a><\/strong>\u201d (2014)<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
3 Things You Should Know<\/h2>\n