Sly & the Family Stone

Welcome to Rock and Roll Flashback!  I'm Jumpin' John, and in this episode I will highlight the career of one of the most influential bands of the late 1960's and 1970's.  This band blended funk, soul, rock, and psychedelic music into a groundbreaking sound that helped shape modern pop, R&B, and hip-hop.  Of course, I'm referring to the one and only Sly and the Family Stone!

All podcasts on the Rock and Roll Flashback Podcast are produced by brothers-in-law Bill Price and "Jumpin' John" McDermott. The Podcast Theme Song, "You Essay", was written by John. It was initially recorded by Bill and John on April 1, 2004 with several revisions since then.
Multiple promo videos and photos for Rock and Roll Flashback Podcasts are available on the following social media sites:

https://www.youtube.com/@RockandRollFlashback

https://www.facebook.com/rockandrollflashbackpodcast

https://www.instagram.com/jumpinjohnmcdermott/

Bill and John welcome your feedback and comments, and they can be emailed to rockandrollflashback@outlook.com.
Thank you for listening to Rock and Roll Flashback Podcasts!
Until next time...
Rock On!

Transcript

Thank you for that splendid introduction and greetings to all of you fans of Rock and Roll Flashback!  I'm Jumpin' John, and in this episode I will highlight the career of one of the most influential bands of the late 1960's and 1970's.  This band blended funk, soul, rock, and psychedelic music into a groundbreaking sound that helped shape modern pop, R&B, and hip-hop.  Of course, I'm referring to the one and only Sly and the Family Stone!

Sylvester Stewart was born in 1943 in Denton, Texas, and the family soon moved to Vallejo, California.  It was there that the youngest four Stewart children (Sylvester, Freddie, Rose, and Vaetta) formed "The Stewart Four".  "The Stewart Four" released a local 78 RPM single, "On the Battlefield of the Lord" backed with "Walking in Jesus' Name".  While attending high school, Sylvester and Freddie joined student bands, with Sylvester being in a doo-wop group called the Viscaynes. The Viscaynes released a few local singles, and Sylvester recorded several solo singles under the name "Danny Stewart".  

By 1964, Sylvester had become Sly Stone and was a disc jockey for San Mateo, California R&B radio station KSOL.  He also worked as a record producer for Autumn Records.  One of the Sylvester Stewart-produced singles, Bobby Freeman's "C'mon and Swim", was a national hit.  He also produced for San Francisco-area bands such as the Beau Brummels and the Mojo Men.  To learn more about the Mojo Men, be sure to check out Rock and Roll Flashback podcast episode number 29!  

In 1966, Sly Stone formed a band called Sly & the Stoners, which included acquaintance Cynthia Robinson on trumpet.  Freddie started a band called Freddie & the Stone Souls, which included Greg Errico on drums.  The Stewart brothers soon combined their two bands into one, creating Sly and the Family Stone in November 1966.  Since both Sly and Freddie were guitarists, Sly appointed Freddie the official guitarist for the Family Stone, and taught himself to play the electric organ.  Sly also recruited Larry Graham, Robinson's cousin, to play bass guitar.  Unlike most groups of the time, the Family Stone was racially integrated and included both men and women, which was a powerful statement in the civil rights era.  Led by singer-songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Sly Stone, their core line-up would eventually include Stone's siblings Freddie Stone on guitar & vocals and Rose Stone on keyboard & vocals.  Completing the band were Cynthia Robinson on trumpet & vocals, Greg Errico on drums, Jerry Martini on saxophone, and Larry Graham on bass & vocals.

CBS Records executive David Kapralik signed the group to CBS's Epic Records label.  The Family Stone's first album, A Whole New Thing, was rooted in soul and R&B with hints of funk and psychedelia.  Released in 1967, it didn’t make much of a commercial splash, but showed Sly’s ambition as a songwriter and bandleader.  CBS Records executive Clive Davis then encouraged Sly to come up with something more commercially viable.  So Sly Stone blended the band's distinct psychedelic rock leanings with a more pop-friendly sound.  That song was full of energy and showcased each band member.  None of the band members particularly liked the new featured single, which was entitled "Dance to the Music".  However, after being released on November 17th, 1967, "Dance to the Music" became the band's first charting single.  It broke into the Top 10, reaching #8 on the Billboard Hot 100.  It was later ranked #223 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.  In 1998 "Dance to the Music" by Sly and the Family Stone was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.  The Dance to the Music album was bright, funky, and celebratory, and introduced their signature upbeat, funky style.  The Dance to the Music LP went on to decent sales, but it only reached #196 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.  The follow-up Life album, with songs that touched on topics of unity, individuality, and freedom, was more socially aware and lyrically ambitious.  However, Life was even less commercially successful than the Dance to the Music album.

Then in November 1968, Sly and the Family Stone released the single "Everyday People".  The song was an anthem of unity and tolerance and a protest against prejudice of all kinds.  It popularized the catchphrase "different strokes for different folks".  "Everyday People" became the first single by the band to go to #1 one on both the Soul singles chart and the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart.  It held that position on the Hot 100 for four weeks, from February 9th to March 8th, 1969, and is remembered as one of the most popular songs of the 1960's.  Billboard ranked it as the #5 song of 1969.

The band's fourth album, Stand!, was released by Epic Records on May 3rd, 1969.  Written and produced by Sly Stone, Stand! is considered one of the artistic high points of the band's career.   “Stand!” was a rousing call for self-empowerment and resilience, and the LP would be their masterpiece of the late 1960's.  It was socially conscious, musically diverse, and established Sly and the Family Stone as cultural leaders during the civil rights era.  It includes several well-known songs, among them hit singles such as "Sing a Simple Song", "I Want to Take You Higher", "Stand!", and "Everyday People".  In 1969 it peaked at #13 on the Billboard 200 and stayed on the chart for nearly two years.  The Stand! album went on to became the band's most commercially successful album to date, and eventually sold more than three million copies, becoming one of the most successful albums of the 1960's.  In 2003, the album was ranked #118 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and was ranked #119 in the magazine's 2020 list.  In 2015, the album was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for inclusion in the National Recording Registry.  In 2015, Stand! was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.  Its title track peaked as a single at #22 in the U.S.  

On June 29th, 1969 Sly and the Family Stone headlined and kicked off the Harlem Cultural Festival before tens of thousands of spectators in New York City's Mount Morris Park.  That concert series would become the subject of Questlove's excellent 2021 documentary film called Summer of Soul.  Less than two months later, Sly and the Family Stone performed at the Woodstock Music and Art Festival in upstate New York.  Their Woodstock performance in August 1969 is one of the great turning points in both Sly and the Family Stone’s career and in music festival history.  The band was scheduled late at night on August 17th, 1969, but actually went on stage early Sunday morning, August 18th.  The crowd had been awake for hours, tired and muddy from the long festival.  However, when Sly and the Family Stone hit the stage at 3:30am, everything came alive and the audience was reinvigorated.  As one of the few Black acts on the bill, their presence made a powerful statement about inclusion and the universality of their music.  Despite their late night appearance, Sly and The Family Stone were remarkably fresh and powerful, and the energy was electric.  Their set list included:  "M'Lady", "Sing a Simple Song", "You Can Make It If You Try", "Everyday People", "Dance to the Music", "Music Lover", "I Want to Take You Higher", "Love City", and "Stand!".  It is interesting to note that "Everyday People" was the only #1 US hit that anyone performed at Woodstock!   “I Want to Take You Higher” became a real show-stopper.  Sly was a master of showmanship, and he turned the song into a call and response chant, urging the crowd to clap, sing, and scream back at the band.  During “I Want to Take You Higher,” the audience of hundreds of thousands chanted “Higher! Higher!” in unison.  Sly and the Family Stone had transformed Woodstock from a tired crowd into a joyful, chanting congregation, proving that music could unite people in the most powerful way.  The sight of a racially mixed, men-and-women band leading a massive festival crowd in harmony symbolized Woodstock’s ideals.  Parts of their set were captured in the 1970 Woodstock documentary film, ensuring their performance reached millions worldwide.  Many critics and fans considered Sly and  the Family Stone's set as one of the highlights of the entire festival.  

After Woodstock, their fame skyrocketed.  The festival helped push songs like "I Want to Take You Higher" into cultural legend.  Their high-energy, participatory style became a model for funk and rock concerts in the 1970's.  Adding to their popularity, a new non-album single, "Hot Fun in the Summertime", had been released a month before Woodstock on July 21st.  A breezy, soulful song celebrating the joys of summer, by October it had shot up to #2 on the US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.  "Hot Fun in the Summertime" also peaked at #3 on the US Billboard Soul Singles chart and was ranked as the seventh biggest U.S. hit of 1969.  Rolling Stone ranked the song #247 on their list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".  It has also been named as an all-time summer anthem in lists by Yahoo! Music and AskMen .  

After moving to the Los Angeles area in fall 1969, Sly Stone and his fellow band members had became heavy users of illegal drugs.  As the members became increasingly focused on drug use and partying, recording slowed significantly.  Between summer 1969 and fall 1971, the band released only one single.  However, that single, "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" backed with "Everybody Is a Star", was very successful.  Released in December 1969, by February 1970 it had reached #1 on Billboard's soul singles chart, where it stayed for five weeks.  It also hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, where it stayed for two weeks.  In 1970 "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" ranked #5 for the year on the soul chart and #19 for the year on the Hot 100 chart.  Larry Graham’s pioneering slap-bass technique on the song was very significant, as it is considered to be one of the first recorded examples of the use of slap-bass. 

Also in 1970, following the release of the Woodstock documentary, the single of "Stand!" and "I Want to Take You Higher" was reissued with the latter song now the A-side.  The revised single reached the Top 40.  However, with the band's new-found fame and success came numerous problems.  Relationships within the band were deteriorating.  There was friction in particular between the Stone brothers and Larry Graham.  Sly Stone's behavior was becoming increasingly erratic.  Epic Records was pushing the band to produce more marketable output.  The Black Panther Party, who had provided security for their Harlem Cultural Festival performance, demanded that Sly replace Errico and Martini with black instrumentalists and fire manager David Kapralik.  Despite the drug use, internal tensions, and pressures of fame eroding the group’s stability, they still managed to produce some of their most innovative work during this period.

To appease fan demand for new songs, Epic began re-releasing material.   A Whole New Thing was reissued with a new cover, and several of the Family Stone's most popular recordings were packaged into the band's first Greatest Hits album.  Greatest Hits reached #2 on the  Billboard 200 in 1970, and my future soulmate, Sally, was one of the purchasers of that vinyl LP.  Greatest Hits became one of the best-selling compilation albums of its era.

Discontent within the band continued, and in early 1971, drummer Errico became the first to leave the band for other ventures.  On November 6th, 1971 Sly and the Family Stone released a new single, "Family Affair".  Billy Preston played the electric piano on the recording.  It became their most successful single, reaching #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 chart for three weeks and the R&B Singles chart for five weeks.  The song is known for its unique sound that features Preston's electric piano and a heartbeat-like rhythm, and would be later hugely influential on funk, R&B, and even hip-hop production.  In 2021, Rolling Stone magazine ranked "Family Affair" 57th on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

"Family Affair" was the lead single from the band's long-awaited There's a Riot Goin' On LP.  Instead of the optimistic, rock-laced soul that had characterized the Family Stone's 1960's output, There's a Riot Goin' On was introspective urban blues, filled with dark instrumentation and filtered drum machine tracks.  The vocals seemed to represent the hopelessness that Sly and many other people were feeling in the early 1970's.  

Live bookings for Sly and the Family Stone had been steadily dropping since 1970, because promoters were afraid that Stone or one of the band members might miss the gig, refuse to play, or pass out from drug use.  These issues were regular occurrences for the band during the 1970's and had an adverse effect on their ability to demand money for live bookings.  Larry Graham was fired from the band in early 1972.  Nevertheless, Graham did play bass on a couple tunes in the band's 1973 released LP entitled Fresh.  Fresh was introspective, but more upbeat than Riot, with a return to tighter, funkier grooves.  In 1974 they released their last major album with the core band lineup.  That LP, Small Talk, was more mellow, featuring strings and softer production.  The Family Stone broke up in January 1975 after a disastrous booking at the Radio City Music Hall.  In 1975 Sly released a solo album entitled High on You, but the Family Stone’s classic era had ended.  Larry Graham would go on to major success with his Graham Central Station band.  Sly Stone would continue to record and perform, however, his numerous personal problems, his unpredictability, and his financial difficulties would be a challenge for him the rest of his life.  On June 9th, 2025, Sly Stone died at his home in Los Angeles at the age of 82.

Sly and the Family Stone's legacy is enormous.  The group synthesized a variety of musical genres to pioneer the emerging "psychedelic soul" sound.  They embodied the ideals of the counterculture—peace, unity, and equality—while pushing the boundaries of popular music with infectious grooves and socially conscious lyrics.  Sly’s integrated band, the first major American rock group to have a racially integrated, mixed-gender lineup, was radical in the 1960's and paved the way for other inclusive acts.  

Although the band officially dissolved in the mid-1970's, their impact has spread across funk, rock, soul, and pop.  Their music heavily influenced later artists like Prince, George Clinton and his Parliament-Funkadelic , and countless hip-hop producers who sampled their tracks.  Sly and the Family Stone's combination of funky rhythms, social commentary, and infectious hooks and grooves made them a go-to for early sampling.  Without Sly and the Family Stone, there may never have been a Prince, P-Funk, or modern funk-rock crossover.  Their message of unity and their raw funk power continue to ripple through music today.

Sly and the Family Stone were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. The group was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2007.  In 2010, they were ranked 43rd in Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.  Three of their albums are included on the most recent version of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

Thank you for listening to this episode, where I reviewed the highlights of the career of Sly and the Family Stone!  This influential band blended funk, soul, rock, and psychedelic music into a groundbreaking sound that helped shape modern pop, R&B, and hip-hop.  I'm Jumpin' John, and until next time...Rock On!