My only excuse is that I remember being impressed with his 1971 hit It's a Family Affair. Listening again, 54 years later, it still sounds good. Sly's vocal maybe suggesting that Tom Waits had also been listening to him. Billy Preston and Bobby Womack were in the band along with Rosie Stone who split the vocal with Sly.
Marc Myers of Jazzwax, in an excellent post, cites Sly as influencing a variety of icons from Miles Davis to Stevie Wonder so I guess I'm vindicated.
Time to check out his back catalogue and catch up on what I've been missing,
R.I.P. Lance
2 comments :
And today Brian Wilson has gone! Another iconic figure from the music world. I was so lucky to see him at his Sage concert a few years ago, doing the whole Pet Sounds album - an unforgettable gig. This news will add a certain poignancy to Paul Booth's forthcoming tribute at Pilgrim.
Sly Stone certainly deserves a tribute on a jazz site, as a significant name in the American Century's Great Artform - Black American Music - and more specifically, as a key architect of one of its closest cousins - Funk. Cross Sly with James Brown and you get classic funk and none of the classic bands could have happened without them, though I've always liked many of them more.
There's maybe half a dozen tracks I really like; I always say that There's A riot Goin On ( probably a reply to Marvin Gaye's historic album of the same year) is a better album, but Stand has better tracks.
Some think the former at least is one of the greatest soul albums of all time; if you agree you should probably do Fresh as well and maybe the couple immediately before Stand but I've always thought a decent Best Of will suffice.
The band were one of the first multi-gender and multi-cultural bands and Larry Graham - a legend in his own right - is more or less universally recognised as the man who invented the slap bass technique, specifically on Thank You Faletinme Be Mice Elf Agin, and ahead of Bootsy, Stanley Clarke, Jaco, Louis Johnson, Marcus Miller and every other bass guitarist of the last six decades.
James Brown and Sly Stone were the main inspirations for Miles' On the Corner (an album that has benefitted from a reappraisal in recent years and my own favourite from his fusion period) and there's a track on Herbie Hancock's Headhunters called Sly.
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