Latest news with #BenGreenman
New York Times
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Remembering Sly Stone and Brian Wilson
This week, pop music lost a pair of world builders: Sly Stone, who created visionary psychedelic rock, soul and pop that helped integrate popular music and captured harsh social realities under the guise of big-tent cheer; and Brian Wilson, the macher of the Beach Boys, whose ear for elevated harmony helped create some of the defining sounds of the 1960s. Both men were 82. Wilson and Stone excelled in a moment in which the country was shaking off the staidness of the 1950s. Wilson's work with the Beach Boys initially took on themes of American freedom before evolving into a more complex outfit on 'Pet Sounds.' After that album, Wilson descended into mental instability, and remained largely out of view for decades. Stone had his commercial peak in the early 1970s with up-tempo funk numbers riven deep with social meaning. But he, too, lost his grip on his career, and was heard from only intermittently in subsequent years. On this week's Popcast, a conversation about Stone's improvisational genius, how he channeled his social moment through music, and what it took to turn the life stories of Stone and Wilson into books and film. Guests: Ben Greenman, a longtime journalist who collaborated with Stone on 'Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin): A Memoir' and Wilson on 'I Am Brian Wilson' Joseph Patel, a producer of the documentary 'Sly Lives! (aka the Burden of Black Genius)' Vernon Reid, a rock musician who was the founder of Living Colour and a co-founder of the Black Rock Coalition Connect With Popcast. Become a part of the Popcast community: Join the show's Facebook group and Discord channel. We want to hear from you! Tune in, and tell us what you think at popcast@ Follow our host, Jon Caramanica, on Twitter: @joncaramanica. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
CBS News
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Sly Stone, Sly and the Family Stone frontman, dies at 82
Sly Stone, the funk music pioneer and frontman of Sly and the Family Stone, has died at the age of 82, his manger, Arlene Hirschkowitz, confirmed to CBS News. Despite keeping his personal life mostly out of the public eye, Stone became one of the most influential musicians of the late 1960s and 70s with hits like "Everyday People," "Dance to the Music," "Hot Fun in the Summertime." Sly Stone of Sly And The Family Stone performs on stage in July 1974 in Los Angeles, United States. Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns In 2023, the music legend let fans get a rare look into his world by releasing a memoir titled "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" — also the title of one of his greatest hits. The book, co-written with music journalist Ben Greenman, detailed his revolutionary music style and also the addictions which took him out of the spotlight. Born Sylvester Stewart in Denton, Texas, Stone's family moved to Vallejo, California, when he was young — and music was always with him. "My father played washboard, guitar, violin, fiddle, harmonica. My mother played keyboards and guitar. Music was as much a part of our home as the walls or the floor," Stone wrote in his memoir. "The piano was as prominent as the kitchen table." He went on to study music composition at a junior college while working as a radio DJ. Sly and the Family Stone was formed in March 1967, and the band quickly made its way up the charts in the winter of 1968 with "Dance To the Music," which was later chosen for the Grammy Hall Of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's "500 Songs That Shaped Rock." Every composition of the band was penned by Stone. This is a developing story and will be updated.
