Latest news with #Sly&theFamilyStone
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Questlove Pays Tribute to Sly Stone: ‘You Will Forever Live'
Ahmir 'Questlove' Thompson, who directed the new documentary 'Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius),' has shared a remembrance of the subject of his film, Sly Stone. The 82 year-old died of COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and other underlying health issues. 'Sly was a giant — not just for his groundbreaking work with the Family Stone, but for the radical inclusivity and deep human truths he poured into every note,' the Roots drummer wrote on Instagram. 'His songs weren't just about fighting injustice; they were about transforming the self to transform the world. He dared to be simple in the most complex ways — using childlike joy, wordless cries, and nursery rhyme cadences to express adult truths. His work looked straight at the brightest and darkest parts of life and demanded we do the same.' More from Variety Sly Stone's 10 Essential Songs: From 'Dance to the Music' to 'Everyday People' to 'Family Affair,' and More Sly & the Family Stone Live Album From 1967 Will Finally See Light of Day Questlove on Why His 'SNL' Music Doc Couldn't Get a Clearance From Pavarotti, but How Eminem Saved the Day View this post on Instagram A post shared by Questlove (@questlove) As songwriter, producer, arranger, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and showman, Stone and his group Sly and the Family Stone dominated the top of the charts with energetic singles and albums. His life and career were documented in Questlove's film, which also features unfiltered commentary from multiple Black artists about the pressures that come with success. 'Yes, Sly battled addiction,' Questlove continued in Monday's statement. 'Yes, he disappeared from the spotlight. But he lived long enough to outlast many of his disciples, to feel the ripples of his genius return through hip-hop samples, documentaries, and his memoir.' He continued, highlighting two lines spoken and sung by Stone — 'We deserve everything we get in this life,' and ''the eternal cry of 'Everyday People': 'We got to live together!'' Questlove writes, 'Once idealistic, now I hear it as a command. Sly's music will likely speak to us even more now than it did then. Thank you, Sly. You will forever live.' Besides his children with Silva and Robinson, Stone is survived by another daughter, L.A. musician Novena Carmel. Best of Variety 25 Hollywood Legends Who Deserve an Honorary Oscar New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Emmy Predictions: Animated Program — Can Netflix Score Big With 'Arcane,' 'Devil May Cry' and the Final Season of 'Big Mouth?'
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sly & the Family Stone's Earliest Known Live Recordings to Be Issued on New Album
Close to 60 years since they were committed to tape, the earliest known live recordings of Sly & the Family Stone will be released this year. Dubbed The First Family: Live at the Winchester Cathedral 1967, the collection of unearthed live cuts will be issued on July 18 via High Moon. More from Billboard The Weeknd Wanders Through Purgatory in 'Baptized in Fear' Music Video Miley Cyrus Says Madonna 'Was Down' to Mud Wrestle in a '4x4' Music Video, But Her Label Said No Belinda's 'Indómita' Album & More Best New Music Latin They'll be available as digital, vinyl and CD editions, with physical copies being issued with a booklet featuring never-before-seen photos, interviews with Sly Stone and original band members, and liner notes from producer Alex Palao. The CD edition will also feature their cover of Otis Redding's 'Try A Little Tenderness' as an exclusive bonus track. Recorded on March 26, 1967, the live set sees the influential group performing as part of their four-month residency at the Winchester Cathedral club in Redwood City, California. Recorded by first manager Rich Romanello, the tapes were soon shelved, but later rediscovered in 2002 by Dutch twins and band archivists Edwin and Arno Konings. 'The Winchester Cathedral recordings showcase a one-of-kind outfit that was already at the peak of its powers, long before it became internationally famous,' said Palao in a statement. 'Sly is fully in command, while the unique arrangements and tighter-than-tight ensemble playing point clearly to the road ahead, and the enduring influence of Sly & the Family Stone's music.' Alongside the announcement of the package, a preview of the record has been released by way of final track, 'I Gotta Go Now (Up On The Floor)/Funky Broadway.' Despite being recorded in March 1967, the live set features no tracks which would appear on their debut album – A Whole New Thing – when it arrived in October of that year. Largely comprising cover songs, only the opening track, 'I Ain't Got Nobody (For Real),' would be issued on one of the band's albums, appearing on Dance to the Music in 1968. Sly & the Family Stone would release a total of ten albums across their 19-year career, with the band coming to an end in 1983, and later being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. Stone would release a solo album in 1975, with his most recent full-length release being 2011's I'm Back! Family & Friends. Earlier this year, Ahmir 'Questlove' Thompson directed the film Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius), which provided a deeper look into the life and legacy of its titular musical mastermind. 'I wanted to investigate and interrogate the idea of Black genius. How is it different from the idea of genius in general? What is the effect of being saddled with that label? How much promise is built into it, how much fear and how much unreasonable expectation?' Questlove said in a statement. 'Sly wanted to take you higher — I hope that this film also takes you deeper.' Listen to 'I Gotta Go Now (Up On The Floor)/Funky Broadway' below: Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sly & the Family Stone's 10 Best Songs (Staff Picks)
Funk, rock and soul maverick Sly Stone died at 82 on Monday (June 9). According to a statement from his family, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer's passing came after 'a prolonged battle with COPD and other underlying health issues,' while he was surrounded by family and loved ones. More from Billboard Cardi B Stresses 'Music Is a Collaboration' While Accepting 2025 ASCAP Voice of the Culture Award The Doobie Brothers On 'Civic Duty,' 'Limitations' in Today's Music & Writing Songs With Charlie Puth Liam Gallagher Gushes About Oasis Reunion Drummer Joey Waronker: 'This Guy Is Special' 'While we mourn his absence, we take solace in knowing that his extraordinary musical legacy will continue to resonate and inspire for generations to come,' the statement continues. That legacy is indeed a singular one, and he built most of it with his eponymous '60s and '70s group Sly & the Family Stone. With the band, Sly Stone both scaled the greatest heights of Flower Power utopianism and plumbed the lowest depths of Nixon-era disillusionment, with incisive lyrics, brilliant hooks and grooves that could be as lock-step tight or as meanderingly loose as the song called for. Over the course of their original run, Sly & the Family Stone scored three Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hits, released at least two albums considered among the greatest of the entire rock era, and played one of the signature sets at 1969's iconic Woodstock festival. Though the band largely fell into disarray in the mid-'70s, and neither the Family Stone or its leader ever were able to quite recapture their peak prominence, the music lived on through subsequent generations — and could be heard sampled and recycled on major hits by Janet Jackson, LL Cool J, Cypress Hill, the Beastie Boys and countless other later acts. Below, Billboard rounds up our picks for Sly & Co.'s 10 all-time greatest — songs that captured turbulent times and spoke to universal truths, and remain just as potent over a half-century later. Opening with a drum roll and the shouted titular command, Sly & the Family Stone made sure their first masterpiece LP immediately snapped listeners to attention. But 'Stand!' is too melodic and empathetic to ever risk coming off didactic, with even directives like 'Stand for the things you know are right/ It's the truth that the truth makes them so uptight' delivered so tenderly it sounds like the band realizes it's not telling you anything you don't already know. And unlike too many protests, this one ends in unequivocal victory, as the song closes with a glorious parade of trumpets and jubilant 'na-na-na-na-na's. — ANDREW UNTERBERGER With lullaby organs and a drum groove so clipped and woozy it almost sounds like it's predicting J Dilla, 'Just Like a Baby' made it clear early in There's a Riot Goin' On that the Woodstock-era triumphalism of Stand! was well over. While even that album's angriest songs had energy and purpose to them, the band's uncertainty is felt throughout the narcotic groove and buried, often wordless vocals here, but with results just as spellbinding — and arguably even funkier. Future generations would agree, as you can hear traces of 'Baby' in everything from D'Angelo's Voodoo to Childish Gambino's 'Awaken, My Love!' — A.U. A Doris Day song from an Alfred Hitchcock movie might seem like unlikely material for a gospel-inflected funk cover, but Sly Stone never played by anyone's rules (even his own). Stone spent much of There's a Riot Goin' On and follow-up album Fresh tearing down the utopian hippie view of America he'd built in the '60s, and 'Que Sera, Sera' — which arrived on the latter album's side two – seems to be his shoulder-shrugging admission that just like everyone else, he ultimately has no idea what the hell is going on in this life. But when the funk is this mellow and the organ playing this heavenly, uncertainty doesn't sound so quite so scary. — JOE LYNCH Underpinned by a bold lead bass line, this 1973 hit that reached No. 12 on the Hot 100 features one of Sly's most impressive vocal performances, as he both growls and croons in due course to a girlfriend about what he needs to stay in a relationship. One of the most iconic basslines in funk, its genius is in its steady simplicity, allowing the organ, piano and horn flourishes to really breathe, and Sly's voice to shine, with no line delivered in the same way twice. Its parent album, Fresh, is one notorious for its overdubs, but even still 'Stay' has an improvisational feel, melding the backline rigor with the expressive fluidity that is a hallmark of great funk records. — DAN RYS Something of a thesis statement for the Family Stone, 'Family Affair' — which became the band's third and final No. 1 on the Hot 100 in late 1971 — is a more laid-back groove, with Sly's voice melting and oozing all over the track as he sings about sibling, parental and newlywed relationships, and what keeps them all together. Trading off vocals with his sister Rose, Sly keeps it simple, with a bass, rhythm guitar and keyboard holding down most of the track, a breezy wah-wah guitar providing flourishes here and there. But as with much of Sly's work, it's the sum of its parts that makes 'Family Affair' such an enduring cut more than 50 years later. — D.R. As the multi-racial, multi-gender Sly & the Family Stone emerged in the mid-'60s, its demographic composition wasn't the only radical thing about it – it also fused the worlds of R&B, soul, and rock and roll in ways that thrilled audiences, but confounded the suits. When the band's 1967 debut, A Whole New Thing, flopped, management told Stone it was 'too funky' and that he should 'just do something simple.' 'I said, 'OK, something simple, huh?'' Stone later recounted. That something simple: 'Dance to the Music,' which with its relentless rhythm section and direct lyrics, commands listeners to do just that. Stone would go on to make higher-concept music, but 'Dance To The Music' is a foundational text in psychedelic soul — and, perhaps more importantly, was a big enough hit that it afforded the ambitious musician the considerable creative freedom he would need moving forward. — ERIC RENNER BROWN Opening in medias rock, 'I Want to Take You Higher' is a blunt battering ram of blues, psych, soul and funk that was initially stowed away as the B-side to 'Stand!', but hit America's eardrums so hard that it went top 40 in its own right. This rallying cry is the sound of Sly Stone and his merry pranksters pushing James Brown's meticulously timed funk off its foundations, destabilizing it with the untethered energy of an off-the-rails rock n' roll jam session. The studio version feels like it might fling off into the ether at a moment's notice — and in concert (including at Woodstock), it often did. — J.L. For those rare times in life when there's no riot goin' on and nothing immediately pressing to take a stand over, there can simply be 'Hot Fun in the Summertime.' Sly & the Family Stone's most classic-sounding pop song — tone down a couple of those vocal ad libs and it could've easily been a Nat King Cole composition — remains an essential seasonal standard for its sun-tanned horns, nostalgic lyrics and impossibly breezy sway, one of the most topical bands of its era proving it could be be just as potent blissing out in the shade for two and a half minutes. But like all truly great good-time songs, 'Summertime' also comes tinged with the unmistakable sadness of knowing it's all too good to last: 'First of the fall, and then she goes back/ Bye, bye, bye, bye.' — A.U. This is the rare example of a band figuring itself out in a transitional period while still delivering its best work. Sly and the Family Stone achieved so much and evolved so quickly from 1967-69, it's no wonder that Stone felt compelled to craft a song that served as both a meta victory lap and farewell to his bright, buoyant first chapter before segueing into a lyrically and sonically murkier second act. But how many artists can write a song about their biggest, most beloved hits that's also better than damn near all of them? Larry Graham's slap bass gets a lot of the credit, but the tightly wound guitars, woozy horns and staccato vocals are equally hypnotic. — J.L. Sly & The Family Stone's first of three No. 1s on the Billboard Hot 100 was more than a massive hit – it was a reflection of contemporary American society. Released in November 1968, as one of the most tumultuous years in American history drew to a close, 'Everyday People' uses near-childlike simplicity ('There is a blue one who can't accept the green one/ For living with a fat one, trying to be a skinny one') to urge Americans to come together despite their differences. The song had an immediate impact and a lasting influence, from helping to mint a new catchphrase ('different strokes for different folks,' originally popularized by Muhammad Ali and later the inspiration for the title of the TV show Diff'rent Strokes) to featuring an early instance of the slap-bass technique. And few moments in Sly's catalog are as singularly stunning as when he and his bandmates arrive at the first chorus shout: 'I am everyday people!' — E.R.B. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
New York Times
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
How ‘Government Cheese' Creates a Dream World in the Valley
In a scene early in the Apple TV+ period comedy 'Government Cheese,' the show's Chambers family watches an episode of 'The Addams Family' in which a neighbor remarks, 'Addamses, you are kooks!' The sentiment applies to both clans, as well as to the family upon which the Chambers are based: that of Paul Hunter, a creator and showrunner of 'Government Cheese.' 'They called us odd,' Hunter said in a video interview from Mexico City. 'They said, 'Oh, you guys are always in the clouds. Do you know what's going on?' We knew what was going on. We just really were in our own world.' Set in the late 1960s San Fernando Valley, 'Government Cheese' follows the Chambers, a Black family pursuing idiosyncratic interests — inventions, pole vaulting, eagle feather hunting — with little concern for the realities of the outside world. (The title, taken from the processed foodstuff once distributed to low-income families, also refers to the delicious sandwiches Hampton's mother made from it, and to the sense of invention and aspiration they embodied.) Matthew J. Lloyd, the show's cinematographer, called the Chambers family — the parents, Hampton (David Oyelowo) and Astoria (Simone Missick), and sons, Einstein (Evan Ellison) and Harrison (Jahi Di'Allo Winston) — and their adventures a 'fable-ized version' of Hunter's upbringing. Magical, fantastical things happen to Hampton, in particular, and the audience is asked to believe them. Aeysha Carr, the other creator and showrunner, described the show's comedic language as 'absurdist, amusing, amusingly absurd.' The world of 'Government Cheese' is also distinctive and fanciful, steeped in the rich olive green, mustard yellow and pumpkin orange palette of the '60s. 'The foundation of it comes from a place that's all built on true feelings,' said Hunter, who directed four of the 10 episodes. 'Then from there, it wants to express itself from an unusual lens. It captures the spirit of dreamers.' In 'Government Cheese,' there are little, carefully constructed vignettes nested within vignettes like Matryoshka dolls, with nods to the work of William Eggleston, David Lynch, Wes Anderson and others. The attention to detail is painstaking, as it was in selecting that specific 'Addams Family' scene. 'From the composition to the cinematography, everything is very considered,' said Hunter, a former music video and commercial director perhaps best known for his 2001 Nike freestyle ad. 'Nothing is random.' In separate interviews, Hunter, Carr, Lloyd, the production designer Warren Alan Young, and the costume designer Nancy Steiner discussed several scenes from the first episode that illustrate how they built the surreal world of 'Government Cheese.' Fresh out of the slammer When 'Government Cheese' begins, Hampton is in prison for tax fraud. When he is released early in the first episode, viewers get their first look at Hampton as he sees himself. The needle drops on the buoyant 'Hot Fun in the Summertime' by Sly & the Family Stone, and Hampton struts down the hallway, almost catwalk style. It's the fresh fit that sells it. 'One of my favorite looks is when Hampton comes out of jail,' Steiner said. 'It's a green suit with the mustard top. And I loved that suit. And I just loved the swagger of it and the boldness of it.' We don't know exactly how long Hampton has been in prison, but it has clearly been a few years — his clothes feel a twinge dated. But they are still sharp and a little flashy, the dress of a man who lost some time in jail but none of his self-assurance. Much of the show follows Hampton's pursuit of success and riches via the self-sharpening drill he dreamed up in the prison machine shop, and soon he will change into a blue suit, a crisp white shirt and a tie — the picture of a respectable businessman. His get-out-of-jail clothes show us the confidence he will bring to the effort. 'That's the thing about clothing,' Steiner said. 'It's all a facade, in a way. It's what you want to say to the world about yourself.' A chilly homecoming Sly & the Family Stone fade out as Hampton arrives, triumphant and expectant, at the front door of his home. Astoria greets him with a combination of disbelief, disappointment, frustration and resignation. Eleven years ago, Lloyd, the cinematographer, received a cold call from Hunter. They met for breakfast and Hunter handed Lloyd a script for 'Government Cheese' — which was written as a feature film at the time. A few years later they instead made it into a 20-minute short, also starring Oyelowo as Hampton, which they eventually showed to Apple when they were selling the show. 'It really just became about: How do you photograph someone who's coming back into their own space, but now he's alien to it, to some degree, and it's not really his anymore?' Lloyd said. When Hampton heads for their bedroom, Astoria informs him that he'll be sleeping in the garage instead, where all of his things — including a prized Barcalounger chair — have been piled into a heap. Lloyd and Hunter referenced the photography of Eggleston and Stephen Shore in designing the show's visual style, and the carefully composed sequence creates a pungently colorful image of suburban dilapidation. (Hunter even tipped over the patio umbrella for an extra dash of chaos.) 'There's that wonderful image of the garage door flying open,' Lloyd said. 'And the cutting pattern in the scene: They're inside, and the door flies open, you're on his face, and then you just go wide and you see a very Eggleston-inspired image of the garage and the backyard and the umbrella has folded over. It fell together in this wonderful tableau.' Trapped in the Valley Hunter and Young, the production designer, grew up in and around Los Angeles around the same time, and they have 'similar childhood memories of what the sky looked like,' Hunter said. 'How the sun goes down in the San Fernando Valley; what that feels like,' he added. Young remembers when the Valley was still largely rolling orange groves, part of the backdrop of the show. Then neighborhoods like Chatsworth — where the Hamptons live and where Hunter spent much of his childhood — popped up, full of California-style ranch houses. Young surveyed hundreds of these before settling on a house in L.A.'s Northridge neighborhood for exterior shots. The interior of the Hamptons' house was built on a soundstage in North Hollywood. 'What I wanted to do is make sure that we had some vertical lines in the wallpaper in the main area, the living room area, to help remind us that both Astoria and Hampton are seeking to escape from wherever they were,' Young said. 'We tried to put vertical lines around Hampton as much as we could to remind everyone that there's a place he's trying to escape from, but he's still trapped.' Astoria works as a secretary at an interior design firm and aspires to become a designer herself. A bulletin board on the wall doubles as her vision board, collaged with snippets, clippings and swatches in marigold yellows and bright blues. 'She's thinking about things that a lot of people — especially white people at the time — would not think Black people might be thinking about,' Young said. 'Even in the African American community, there are people who would not necessarily be thinking about this, because, hey, that's what white people do.' 'Astoria was clearly on her own planet, and her own person,' he added. 'We worked to really make that clear.' Hunter said the creators' diligence with these individual grace notes amounted to a unified vision for the show. 'It comes together in a really cohesive way,' he said. 'It all feels like one thought.' 'I was thinking of this as a meal,' he added. 'There's just so many levels of taste here that you can enjoy.'
Boston Globe
12-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
‘SLY LIVES!' asks: What is the burden of Black genius?
As Questlove parades a litany of famous songwriters, producers, and musicians before us in the film's opening montage, we get a brief primer on why his subject was so integral to music. 'It can't be overstated how massively popular they were,' we're told of the band. Stone was also the first songwriter to use a drum machine in a hit song, 'Family Affair.' He wrote music that was classified as R&B, soul, psychedelic, funk, and rock. Sometimes a song was all of those genres at once. You probably know the band's hits, either in their original form or as samples for too many rap songs to mention. LL Cool J famously opens 'I'm Gonna Knock You Out' with a Sly & the Family Stone sample. 'Everyday People,' 'Stand,' and 'Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)' became beloved anthems. The Advertisement Without Sly & the Family Stone, there would be no Prince and the Revolution, a notion seconded by fellow Minnesotans and Prince protégés Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. You can hear Stone's influence in Prince's music, plus both men played multiple instruments and wrote all their songs. Jam and Lewis are just two of the many talking heads the film interviews. Members of Sly & the Family Stone are also interviewed, looking much older than they do in the bounty of clips from nearly 60 years ago. The band members speak highly of their leader but also truthfully. Their tone is a mixture of love, exasperation, pain, and joy. Advertisement Director Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson and producer Joseph Patel. 'SLY LIVES! (a.k.a. The Burden of Black Genius)' examines the life and legacy of Sly & The Family Stone. Disney/Kelsey McNeal In addition to sounding great, 'SLY LIVES!' is superbly edited by Joshua L. Pearson. When you have a fellow musician and mix master like Questlove at the helm, every clip is perfectly selected; every song and sample feels part of a bigger thematic whole. Additionally, since this is a film by someone who understands how to make music, we get more than just platitudes. People like Chic's Nile Rodgers discuss how songs are crafted, and the unusual ways Stone incorporated instruments and hooks into his compositions. But all is not sunshine and flowers and hippies writhing around at Woodstock (where Sly & the Family Stone played). This is a darker film than 'Summer of Soul,' one that quickly puts us on notice. After that exhilarating and complementary montage introduces the film, Questlove presents archival footage of Sly Stone being interviewed — and it's like a kick in the gut. With the camera pointed at Stone, his interviewer says, 'There are guys and girls all over this country trying to get to the top, and you get there. And you blow it .' Immediately, you see the joy leave Stone's face. It's brutal, but it's also not untrue. Stone's own demons eventually led to drugs, run-ins with the law, and the demise of the band. If you were around for Sly & the Family Stone's Advertisement So what happened? Questlove has a theory that's summed up in his title's parenthetical aside. He presents this theory to his interview subjects. 'For Black artists in America, success can be more frightening than failure,' he says. 'The world's watching you … and I think that Sly was kind of the first Black artist to go through that publicly.' 'A burden came with his genius.' From there, 'SLY LIVES!' becomes an exploration of what 'Black genius' is, and why it may be a double-edged sword. And it's here where the film slightly disappoints — because we never get a definitive answer. Everyone has difficulty pinpointing the exact definition. I don't think I was expecting a conclusive argument, to be honest, but the creative part of me held out hope that I'd get one. Blackness forces your skillset to be held up as an example, whether you want it or not. We are not a monolith, but damn if we're not often judged as one. Perhaps Andre 3000 sums it up best when he basically says we'll know Black genius when we see it. 'SLY LIVES!' not only lets you see that genius, it also lets you hear it in the music of Sly & the Family Stone. And since this movie is streaming on Hulu, you can sing along and dance with impunity from the privacy of your own home. ★★★½ SLY LIVES! Directed by Questlove. On Hulu starting Thursday. 110 minutes. Unrated (profanity) Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe's film critic.
