Latest news with #TheBurdenofBlackGenius
The Province
19 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Province
Sly Stone, leader of funk revolutionaries Sly and the Family Stone, dies at 82
Published Jun 09, 2025 • 7 minute read This image released by the Sundance Institute shows Sly Stone in "SLY LIVES! (aka The Burden of Black Genius)" by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Photo by Stephen Paley / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK (AP) — Sly Stone, the revolutionary musician and dynamic showman whose Sly and the Family Stone transformed popular music in the 1960s and '70s and beyond with such hits as 'Everyday People,' 'Stand!' and 'Family Affair,' died Monday at age 82 This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by top sports columnists Patrick Johnston, Ben Kuzma, J.J. Abrams and others. Plus, Canucks Report, Sports and Headline News newsletters and events. Unlimited online access to The Province and 15 news sites with one account. The Province ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles and comics, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by top sports columnists Patrick Johnston, Ben Kuzma, J.J. Abrams and others. Plus, Canucks Report, Sports and Headline News newsletters and events. Unlimited online access to The Province and 15 news sites with one account. The Province ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles and comics, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Stone, born Sylvester Stewart, had been in poor health in recent years. His publicist Carleen Donovan said Stone died in Los Angeles surrounded by family after contending with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other ailments. Founded in 1966-67, Sly and the Family Stone was the first major group to include Black and white men and women, and well embodied a time when anything seemed possible — riots and assassinations, communes and love-ins. The singers screeched, chanted, crooned and hollered. The music was a blowout of frantic horns, rapid-fire guitar and locomotive rhythms, a melting pot of jazz, psychedelic rock, doo-wop, soul and the early grooves of funk. Sly's time on top was brief, roughly from 1968-1971, but profound. No band better captured the gravity-defying euphoria of the Woodstock era or more bravely addressed the crash which followed. From early songs as rousing as their titles — 'I Want To Take You Higher,' 'Stand!' — to the sober aftermath of 'Family Affair' and 'Runnin' Away,' Sly and the Family Stone spoke for a generation whether or not it liked what they had to say. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Stone's group began as a Bay Area sextet featuring Sly on keyboards, Larry Graham on bass; Sly's brother, Freddie, on guitar; sister Rose on vocals; Cynthia Robinson and Jerry Martini horns and Greg Errico on drums. They debuted with the album 'A Whole New Thing' and earned the title with their breakthrough single, 'Dance to the Music.' It hit the top 10 in April 1968, the week the Rev. Martin Luther King was murdered, and helped launch an era when the polish of Motown and the understatement of Stax suddenly seemed of another time. Led by Sly Stone, with his leather jumpsuits and goggle shades, mile-wide grin and mile-high Afro, the band dazzled in 1969 at the Woodstock festival and set a new pace on the radio. 'Everyday People,' 'I Wanna Take You Higher' and other songs were anthems of community, non-conformity and a brash and hopeful spirit, built around such catchphrases as 'different strokes for different folks.' The group released five top 10 singles, three of them hitting No. 1, and three million-selling albums: 'Stand!', 'There's a Riot Goin' On' and 'Greatest Hits.' Essential reading for hockey fans who eat, sleep, Canucks, repeat. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. For a time, countless performers wanted to look and sound like Sly and the Family Stone. The Jackson Five's breakthrough hit, 'I Want You Back,' and the Temptations' 'I Can't Get Next to You' were among the many songs from the late 1960s that mimicked Sly's vocal and instrumental arrangements. Miles Davis' landmark blend of jazz, rock and funk, 'Bitches Brew,' was inspired in part by Sly, while fellow jazz artist Herbie Hancock even named a song after him. 'He had a way of talking, moving from playful to earnest at will. He had a look, belts, and hats and jewelry,' Questlove wrote in the foreword to Stone's memoir, 'Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin),' named for one of his biggest hits and published through Questlove's imprint in 2023. 'He was a special case, cooler than everything around him by a factor of infinity.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. In 2025, Questlove released the documentary 'Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius).' Sly's influence has endured for decades. The top funk artist of the 1970s, Parliament-Funkadelic creator George Clinton, was a Stone disciple. Prince, Rick James and the Black Eyed Peas were among the many performers from the 1980s and after shaped in part by Sly, and countless hip-hop artists have sampled his riffs, from the Beastie Boys to Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. A 2005 tribute record included Maroon 5, John Legend and the Roots. 'Sly did so many things so well that he turned my head all the way around,' Clinton once wrote. 'He could create polished R&B that sounded like it came from an act that had gigged at clubs for years, and then in the next breath he could be as psychedelic as the heaviest rock band.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. A dream dies, a career burns away By the early '70s, Stone himself was beginning a descent from which he never recovered, driven by the pressures of fame and the added burden of Black fame. His record company was anxious for more hits, while the Black Panthers were pressing him to drop the white members from his group. After moving from the Bay Area to Los Angeles in 1970, he became increasingly hooked on cocaine and erratic in his behavior. A promised album, 'The Incredible and Unpredictable Sly and the Family Stone' ('The most optimistic of all,' Rolling Stone reported) never appeared. He became notorious for being late to concerts or not showing up at all, often leaving 'other band members waiting backstage for hours wondering whether he was going to show up or not,' according to Stone biographer Joel Selvin. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Around the country, separatism and paranoia were setting in. As a turn of the calendar, and as a state of mind, the '60s were over. 'The possibility of possibility was leaking out,' Stone later explained in his memoir. On 'Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin),' Stone had warned: 'Dying young is hard to take/selling out is harder.' Late in 1971, he released 'There's a Riot Going On,' one of the grimmest, most uncompromising records ever to top the album charts. The sound was dense and murky (Sly was among the first musicians to use drum machines), the mood reflective ('Family Affair'), fearful ('Runnin' Away') and despairing: 'Time, they say, is the answer _ but I don't believe it,' Sly sings on 'Time.' The fast, funky pace of the original 'Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)' was slowed, stretched and retitled 'Thank You For Talkin' to Me, Africa.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The running time of the title track was 0:00. 'It is Muzak with its finger on the trigger,' critic Greil Marcus called the album. 'Riot' highlighted an extraordinary run of blunt, hard-hitting records by Black artists, from the Stevie Wonder single 'Superstition' to Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On' album, to which 'Riot' was an unofficial response. But Stone seemed to back away from the nightmare he had related. He was reluctant to perform material from 'Riot' in concert and softened the mood on the acclaimed 1973 album 'Fresh,' which did feature a cover of 'Que Sera Sera,' the wistful Doris Day song reworked into a rueful testament to fate's upper hand. By the end of the decade, Sly and the Family Stone had broken up and Sly was releasing solo records with such unmet promises as 'Heard You Missed Me, Well I'm Back' and 'Back On the Right Track.' Most of the news he made over the following decades was of drug busts, financial troubles and mishaps on stage. Sly and the Family Stone was inducted into the Rock & Roll of Fame in 1993 and honored in 2006 at the Grammy Awards, but Sly released just one album after the early '80s, 'I'm Back! Family & Friends,' much of it updated recordings of his old hits. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. He would allege he had hundreds of unreleased songs and did collaborate on occasion with Clinton, who would recall how Stone 'could just be sitting there doing nothing and then open his eyes and shock you with a lyric so brilliant that it was obvious no one had ever thought of it before.' Sly Stone had three children, including a daughter with Cynthia Robinson, and was married once — briefly and very publicly. In 1974, he and actor Kathy Silva wed on stage at Madison Square Garden, an event that inspired an 11,000-word story in The New Yorker. Sly and Silva soon divorced. A born musician, a born uniter He was born Sylvester Stewart in Denton, Texas, and raised in Vallejo, California, the second of five children in a close, religious family. Sylvester became 'Sly' by accident, when a teacher mistakenly spelled his name 'Slyvester.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. He loved performing so much that his mother alleged he would cry if the congregation in church didn't respond when he sang before it. He was so gifted and ambitious that by age 4 he had sung on stage at a Sam Cooke show and by age 11 had mastered several instruments and recorded a gospel song with his siblings. He was so committed to the races working together that in his teens and early 20s he was playing in local bands that included Black and white members and was becoming known around the Bay Area as a deejay equally willing to play the Beatles and rhythm and blues acts. Through his radio connections, he produced some of the top San Francisco bands, including the Great Society, Grace Slick's group before she joined the Jefferson Airplane. Along with an early mentor and champion, San Francisco deejay Tom 'Big Daddy' Donahue, he worked on rhythm and blues hits (Bobby Freeman's 'C'mon and Swim') and the Beau Brummels' Beatle-esque 'Laugh, Laugh.' Meanwhile, he was putting together his own group, recruiting family members and local musicians and settling on the name Sly and the Family Stone. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'A Whole New Thing' came out in 1967, soon followed by the single 'Dance to the Music,' in which each member was granted a moment of introduction as the song rightly proclaimed a 'brand new beat.' In December 1968, the group appeared on 'The Ed Sullivan Show' and performed a medley that included 'Dance to the Music' and 'Everyday People.' Before the set began, Sly turned to the audience and recited a brief passage from his song 'Are You Ready': 'Don't hate the Black, don't hate the white, if you get bitten, just hate the bite.' Love concerts, but can't make it to the venue? Stream live shows and events from your couch with VEEPS, a music-first streaming service now operating in Canada. Click here for an introductory offer of 30% off. Explore upcoming concerts and the extensive archive of past performances! News Vancouver Canucks Vancouver Canucks News Sports
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Questlove, Chuck D & More React to Sly Stone Death: ‘Sly's Music Will Likely Speak to Us Even More Now Than It Did Then'
Sly Stone of Sly and the Family Stone died Monday (June 9) at age 82, and the music community is grieving the groundbreaking funk pioneer. Questlove, who directed the new documentary Sly Lives (aka The Burden of Black Genius), shared a touching tribute on Instagram. More from Billboard Sly Stone Dead at 82 Kylie Minogue Joins Prestigious '21 Club' at London's O2 Arena Kevin Parker Previews New Tame Impala Music During Barcelona DJ Set 'Sly Stone, born Sylvester Stewart, left this earth today, but the changes he sparked while here will echo forever. From the moment his music reached me in the early 1970s, it became a part of my soul. 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,' he wrote. '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.' The Roots drummer also highlighted two lines that 'haunt me' as he reflected on his legacy: 'We deserve everything we get in this life' from Sly Lives! and 'We got to live together' from the group's 1968 Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit 'Everyday People.' '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,' Questlove continued. Public Enemy's Chuck D thanked Questlove 'for keeping his FIRE blazing in this Century' on X while sharing an illustration of Stone and Questlove. He posted more artwork of the psychedelic soul group while writing, '………and The Family Stone Rest In Beats SLY.' Legendary record executive Clive Davis, who worked with the group when it signed to CBS Records in 1967, wrote in a statement to Billboard, 'Sly was truly one of a kind. I had the very special experience of knowing him when he was at his most creative, his hardest working and his genius flourishing vibrantly. Sly's artistry influenced so many of our important creative talents. He will be forever missed.' KISS frontman Paul Stanley remembered seeing Sly and the Family Stone 'debut at the Fillmore East in New York City opening for Jimi Hendrix. They were a freight train of bombastic, joyous SouI that would soon climb the charts and change the sound of R&B for so many other artists. Rest In Soul!' he wrote on X. Holly Robinson Pete also celebrated Stone's pioneering efforts. 'You didn't just make music—you shifted the culture. As kids in Philly, my brother played Sly, I was Cynthia on my imaginary horn. We lived your music. You gave us the groove & the message. Thank you, genius,' she wrote on X. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame posted an in memoriam tribute thread on X, including a clip of Stone's acceptance speech during a very rare public appearance when he and the group were induced in 1993. The Rock Hall praised Sly and the Family Stone for making 'it possible for Black popular music to burst free on its own terms' and 'extending the boundaries of pop and R&B with each new song,' while hailing its 1969 Hot 100 No. 1 hit 'Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin),' the double A-side single with 'Everybody Is a Star,' for helping 'create the sonic blueprint for the funk and disco genres that followed.' 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
a day 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?'
Toronto Sun
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Toronto Sun
Sly Stone, leader of funk revolutionaries Sly and the Family Stone, dies at 82
Published Jun 09, 2025 • 7 minute read This image released by the Sundance Institute shows Sly Stone in "SLY LIVES! (aka The Burden of Black Genius)" by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Photo by Stephen Paley / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK (AP) — Sly Stone, the revolutionary musician and dynamic showman whose Sly and the Family Stone transformed popular music in the 1960s and '70s and beyond with such hits as 'Everyday People,' 'Stand!' and 'Family Affair,' died Monday at age 82 This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Stone, born Sylvester Stewart, had been in poor health in recent years. His publicist Carleen Donovan said Stone died in Los Angeles surrounded by family after contending with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other ailments. Founded in 1966-67, Sly and the Family Stone was the first major group to include Black and white men and women, and well embodied a time when anything seemed possible — riots and assassinations, communes and love-ins. The singers screeched, chanted, crooned and hollered. The music was a blowout of frantic horns, rapid-fire guitar and locomotive rhythms, a melting pot of jazz, psychedelic rock, doo-wop, soul and the early grooves of funk. Sly's time on top was brief, roughly from 1968-1971, but profound. No band better captured the gravity-defying euphoria of the Woodstock era or more bravely addressed the crash which followed. From early songs as rousing as their titles — 'I Want To Take You Higher,' 'Stand!' — to the sober aftermath of 'Family Affair' and 'Runnin' Away,' Sly and the Family Stone spoke for a generation whether or not it liked what they had to say. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Stone's group began as a Bay Area sextet featuring Sly on keyboards, Larry Graham on bass; Sly's brother, Freddie, on guitar; sister Rose on vocals; Cynthia Robinson and Jerry Martini horns and Greg Errico on drums. They debuted with the album 'A Whole New Thing' and earned the title with their breakthrough single, 'Dance to the Music.' It hit the top 10 in April 1968, the week the Rev. Martin Luther King was murdered, and helped launch an era when the polish of Motown and the understatement of Stax suddenly seemed of another time. Led by Sly Stone, with his leather jumpsuits and goggle shades, mile-wide grin and mile-high Afro, the band dazzled in 1969 at the Woodstock festival and set a new pace on the radio. 'Everyday People,' 'I Wanna Take You Higher' and other songs were anthems of community, non-conformity and a brash and hopeful spirit, built around such catchphrases as 'different strokes for different folks.' The group released five top 10 singles, three of them hitting No. 1, and three million-selling albums: 'Stand!', 'There's a Riot Goin' On' and 'Greatest Hits.' Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. For a time, countless performers wanted to look and sound like Sly and the Family Stone. The Jackson Five's breakthrough hit, 'I Want You Back,' and the Temptations' 'I Can't Get Next to You' were among the many songs from the late 1960s that mimicked Sly's vocal and instrumental arrangements. Miles Davis' landmark blend of jazz, rock and funk, 'Bitches Brew,' was inspired in part by Sly, while fellow jazz artist Herbie Hancock even named a song after him. 'He had a way of talking, moving from playful to earnest at will. He had a look, belts, and hats and jewelry,' Questlove wrote in the foreword to Stone's memoir, 'Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin),' named for one of his biggest hits and published through Questlove's imprint in 2023. 'He was a special case, cooler than everything around him by a factor of infinity.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. In 2025, Questlove released the documentary 'Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius).' Sly's influence has endured for decades. The top funk artist of the 1970s, Parliament-Funkadelic creator George Clinton, was a Stone disciple. Prince, Rick James and the Black Eyed Peas were among the many performers from the 1980s and after shaped in part by Sly, and countless hip-hop artists have sampled his riffs, from the Beastie Boys to Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. A 2005 tribute record included Maroon 5, John Legend and the Roots. 'Sly did so many things so well that he turned my head all the way around,' Clinton once wrote. 'He could create polished R&B that sounded like it came from an act that had gigged at clubs for years, and then in the next breath he could be as psychedelic as the heaviest rock band.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. A dream dies, a career burns away By the early '70s, Stone himself was beginning a descent from which he never recovered, driven by the pressures of fame and the added burden of Black fame. His record company was anxious for more hits, while the Black Panthers were pressing him to drop the white members from his group. After moving from the Bay Area to Los Angeles in 1970, he became increasingly hooked on cocaine and erratic in his behavior. A promised album, 'The Incredible and Unpredictable Sly and the Family Stone' ('The most optimistic of all,' Rolling Stone reported) never appeared. He became notorious for being late to concerts or not showing up at all, often leaving 'other band members waiting backstage for hours wondering whether he was going to show up or not,' according to Stone biographer Joel Selvin. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Around the country, separatism and paranoia were setting in. As a turn of the calendar, and as a state of mind, the '60s were over. 'The possibility of possibility was leaking out,' Stone later explained in his memoir. On 'Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin),' Stone had warned: 'Dying young is hard to take/selling out is harder.' Late in 1971, he released 'There's a Riot Going On,' one of the grimmest, most uncompromising records ever to top the album charts. The sound was dense and murky (Sly was among the first musicians to use drum machines), the mood reflective ('Family Affair'), fearful ('Runnin' Away') and despairing: 'Time, they say, is the answer _ but I don't believe it,' Sly sings on 'Time.' The fast, funky pace of the original 'Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)' was slowed, stretched and retitled 'Thank You For Talkin' to Me, Africa.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The running time of the title track was 0:00. 'It is Muzak with its finger on the trigger,' critic Greil Marcus called the album. 'Riot' highlighted an extraordinary run of blunt, hard-hitting records by Black artists, from the Stevie Wonder single 'Superstition' to Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On' album, to which 'Riot' was an unofficial response. But Stone seemed to back away from the nightmare he had related. He was reluctant to perform material from 'Riot' in concert and softened the mood on the acclaimed 1973 album 'Fresh,' which did feature a cover of 'Que Sera Sera,' the wistful Doris Day song reworked into a rueful testament to fate's upper hand. By the end of the decade, Sly and the Family Stone had broken up and Sly was releasing solo records with such unmet promises as 'Heard You Missed Me, Well I'm Back' and 'Back On the Right Track.' Most of the news he made over the following decades was of drug busts, financial troubles and mishaps on stage. Sly and the Family Stone was inducted into the Rock & Roll of Fame in 1993 and honored in 2006 at the Grammy Awards, but Sly released just one album after the early '80s, 'I'm Back! Family & Friends,' much of it updated recordings of his old hits. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. He would allege he had hundreds of unreleased songs and did collaborate on occasion with Clinton, who would recall how Stone 'could just be sitting there doing nothing and then open his eyes and shock you with a lyric so brilliant that it was obvious no one had ever thought of it before.' Sly Stone had three children, including a daughter with Cynthia Robinson, and was married once — briefly and very publicly. In 1974, he and actor Kathy Silva wed on stage at Madison Square Garden, an event that inspired an 11,000-word story in The New Yorker. Sly and Silva soon divorced. A born musician, a born uniter He was born Sylvester Stewart in Denton, Texas, and raised in Vallejo, California, the second of five children in a close, religious family. Sylvester became 'Sly' by accident, when a teacher mistakenly spelled his name 'Slyvester.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. He loved performing so much that his mother alleged he would cry if the congregation in church didn't respond when he sang before it. He was so gifted and ambitious that by age 4 he had sung on stage at a Sam Cooke show and by age 11 had mastered several instruments and recorded a gospel song with his siblings. He was so committed to the races working together that in his teens and early 20s he was playing in local bands that included Black and white members and was becoming known around the Bay Area as a deejay equally willing to play the Beatles and rhythm and blues acts. Through his radio connections, he produced some of the top San Francisco bands, including the Great Society, Grace Slick's group before she joined the Jefferson Airplane. Along with an early mentor and champion, San Francisco deejay Tom 'Big Daddy' Donahue, he worked on rhythm and blues hits (Bobby Freeman's 'C'mon and Swim') and the Beau Brummels' Beatle-esque 'Laugh, Laugh.' Meanwhile, he was putting together his own group, recruiting family members and local musicians and settling on the name Sly and the Family Stone. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'A Whole New Thing' came out in 1967, soon followed by the single 'Dance to the Music,' in which each member was granted a moment of introduction as the song rightly proclaimed a 'brand new beat.' In December 1968, the group appeared on 'The Ed Sullivan Show' and performed a medley that included 'Dance to the Music' and 'Everyday People.' Before the set began, Sly turned to the audience and recited a brief passage from his song 'Are You Ready': 'Don't hate the Black, don't hate the white, if you get bitten, just hate the bite.' Love concerts, but can't make it to the venue? Stream live shows and events from your couch with VEEPS, a music-first streaming service now operating in Canada. Click here for an introductory offer of 30% off. Explore upcoming concerts and the extensive archive of past performances! Toronto Blue Jays Olympics Columnists Toronto & GTA Olympics
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius)': How Sly Stone impacted artists Questlove, D'Angelo, Chaka Khan
Directed by Questlove, featuring artists like D'Angelo, Chaka Khan and Andre 3000, the documentary Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius), now on Disney+ in Canada, tells the story of the musical legend Sly Stone. Following the Oscar-winning film Summer of Soul, Questlove reunited with producer Joseph Patel for this exploration of Stone's life and career, navigating success as a Black artist in the U.S., and Stone's impact on future generations of musicians. "We're of similar age, we have very different backgrounds in terms of our upbringing, but we are hip-hop kids who knelt down on the dirty floor of a dusty record shop looking for records," Patel told Yahoo Canada about what makes his collaboration with Questlove so effective. "And in a lot of ways, I think this kind of filmmaking is similar to that. It's the same mentality." Patel added that what's also appealing about Questlove's approach to filmmaking is that, even with all his success, "he is still a music fan." "I met him in 1996 writing my first cover story for Rap Pages magazine on The Roots. ... I flew out to Philadelphia to interview him, ... and I had never met anyone like him," Patel shared. "He was Questlove of The Roots, but also, he was a music fan, and he nerded out over record reviews and magazines the same way me and my friends did." "He's not a gatekeeper, when he learns something he wants to share that story with people. And I think that part of him has always been there, and I think it's the thing that really bonds us together." Everyday People, Family know the music, it's time to meet the man. Directed by #QuestLove, SLY LIVES! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) comes to #DisneyPlusCA February 13. — Disney+ Canada 🇨🇦 (@DisneyPlusCA) February 13, 2025 As Patel's fellow producer, Derik Murray, highlighted, the impact of having Questlove, a music icon in his own right, lead the stars through the interviews for this film created a place of trust for them to not just open up about Stone, but their own lives. "He brought comfort and trust," Murray told Yahoo Canada. "When he sat down with these folks, he wasn't stepping into that world a stranger, and ... he's being very honest about his own trials and tribulations with fame and success, and he is ... a genius in his own right." "We spent a lot of time trying to figure out who to talk to, but we wanted them to be proxies for Sly," Patel said in a separate interview. "D'Angelo was hard. Even though him and Amir are really tight and have a lot of history, it took a year to get D'Angelo to sit on camera for us." "We started talking about Sly, but he's really talking about himself, and those are, to me, my favourite parts of the movie. Those are the ones where you see the connection between Sly and these artists that he's ... influenced, but also who have sort of taken on the contours of his own experiences." Sly Lives! begins with one impactful question, "What is Black genius?" Stated very clearly and directly, it's the question that we go on the journey of answering throughout the film. "The movie opens with this montage of people contemplating the question, 'What is Black genius?' And the editing sleight of hand is that they're really struggling with the question, and ostensibly, the story of Sly is the answer to that question," Patel explained. "Here's an example of Black genius." "But really they all answered that question, to some degree. It was not an unfamiliar question for them. ... I think Questlove asking that question would have solicited a different response." But with any documentary, there's an element of wanting to serve the people who may know nothing about its subject, and those who are particularly informed. "I want to find the sweet spot right between people who know a lot and people who are coming to it fresh, and you want to draw them in," Patel said. "I think one of the things we learned in making Summer of Soul is that sometimes you have to kill your darlings in service of the bigger idea, and we approached Sly very similarly." "Even for those obsessives, there's stuff in this film that they have never seen or heard before. Sony gave us access to the vaults where we got to hear "Stan" take one. And "Everyday People" take one. ... But for everybody else, we wanted to give them the story, 'Oh you recognize these hits, here's the story of the ... person behind those hits.'" As time progresses in the documentary, we get to understand the pressures Sly Stone as a pioneering successful Civil Rights Era Black artist, tasked with navigating the anxieties of his career. In an interesting portion of the film, we get to the superstar's drug use and eventual time in rehab, but as we see the archival footage of Stone talking about his drug addiction and going to rehab, he doesn't have the vocabulary to talk about his trauma, or the understanding of generational trauma. "We wanted to show how he was struggling to describe, really, what therapy was," Patel said. "He's facing the sort of the double whammy of being part of the late '60s hippie generation, but also being Black. And so in the conservative Reagan '80s, he's a prime target for for people to take joy in his downfall." "And we were very careful, we didn't want to rob Sly of his agency. He made these choices. The last bite of the film, ... this interview he does with Maria Shriver that we use as a through line through the movie, he says, 'We get everything we deserve'. ... So he understands that he made these choices. ... We didn't want to get lost in the drug stories. We wanted to really spend time in the context around those stories and really how they were portrayed." "He's a trailblazer, there's no road map for him to follow," Murray added in a separate interview. "I think from that standpoint, I think he felt trapped within his role as this Black artist, as this superstar." "That's the beautiful part about the archive in this film, is we really get to hear from Sly firsthand, this journey that he was on, and I think that's what allows us to really start to feel like we're understanding what the stresses are, what the complications are, and we're seeing this incredible, epic success complicated by the factor that he's such a change-maker. ... In many ways, I think he was a target for many in the universe that were, quite frankly, racially motivated not to support an artist that had that vision."
