The music legend who invented his own kind of funky hybrid of rock ‘n’ roll and R&B with his ’60s group Sly and the Family Stone has just penned a memoir, « Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin). »
There is no one quite like Sly Stone. He invented his own funky, mixed-up hybrid of rock ‘n’ roll and R&B, and with his band, Sly and the Family Stone, he became one of the most influential musicians of the late 1960s.
Funk legend and longtime friend George Clinton said, « It was like seeing the Black version of The Beatles. He had the sensibility of the street, the church, and then, like, the qualities of a Motown, you know, Smokey Robinson – he was all of that in one person. »
The songs – « Everyday People, » « Dance to the Music, » » Hot Fun in the Summertime » – are American classics. But the guy behind them is something of a mystery.
Watching the band in the 2021 documentary « Summer of Soul, » it still feels like something new. Ahmir Questlove Thompson, who won an Oscar for that film, is now publishing Stone’s memoir, with a title taken from his classic 1969 song: « Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again). »
Sanneh said, « When he puts together this band, Sly and the Family Stone, it seems like he really has a vision. Jerry Martini, the saxophone player, said he knew exactly what he was doing. Boys, girls, Black, white. »
« Sly knew which buttons to push to not only make his musicians better, but also how we would receive it, » said Thompson, « knowing that we’d never seen a band before in which, you know, the women just aren’t background singing foils that play the tambourine. Like, Cynthia Robinson could destroy anybody playing trumpet. So, to have a band that has women playing instruments as serious as men do? To have a white guy as the drummer? If you’re the drummer in a Black band, you better be good, you know what I mean? »
Sly Stone grew up Sylvester Stewart in San Francisco, and worked as a DJ before founding the band in 1966.
