I found these two short pieces/blurbs about Sly Stone and thought I'd post it. I think it puts Sly in a more appropriate perspective than the drugged out/tragic story we are always given.-DPWC


Better thee than me, if you won't respect me ...
http://www.sundownlady.co...ink14.html

Call me cliché... an old romantic... or just simply silly, but there are lyrics I live by. Don't get me wrong... lyrics about the beauty and sweetness of love are, at best, half-truths (I'm so diplomatic!), but there are those lyrics which ring so true you just can't ignore its profound absoluteness. The lyric quoted above is one such truth, and it's author is none other than the profoundly absolute poet/songwriter Sly Stone!

Looking back... we all reveled in the acknowledgment of "Underdog", and it was definitely "Hot Fun In The Summertime" while we "Dance To The Music". "Stand" was the ultimate "four corners" (it was a dance, okay? ) tune. Sly and the Family Stone kept us on the dance floor well into the early seventies, and the masses loved it. Then one day I heard the lyric "I'm never lost cause I know I will be found" from "Luv N Haight", and from that moment on I recognized the lyrical genius of this brother!

For those of us who didn't get the clue, he spelled it all out for us in "Poet". Alas, it was a time when the lyrics started getting "too deep" and people wrote the message off to Sly being an egomaniac or some sh*t. The album "There's a Riot Going On" was much more than the jammin' "Family Affair", the riot was going on in Sly's heart, mind, and soul and he had the genius and talent to write about it. The masses just didn't have the savvy to see the brilliance or the truth and wanted the old Sly to make us dance.

Sly continued to express and expand his brilliance with the albums "Fresh" and "Small Talk". These masterpieces were far too deep for the masses to get the message. Most critics attributed his "new style" (they missed the revolution and evolution and called it new) to drugs and mourned the loss of a musical genius gone mad by way of chemicals... THEY JUST DIDN'T GET IT! When you're as brilliant as Sly, one may need drugs to keep grounded... perhaps to maintain the level of insanity to deal with this madness called life.

"High On You" got us back on the dance floor for a reprieve of "the way things used to be", but when Sly failed to make the comeback to the good ol' days complete, the critics and masses fell into mournfulness once again. Damit! They STILL don't get it!


Oh well... I got it and several people I know got it, so I am thankful... I just want MORE Sly !

Needless to say, I absolutely love the genius and brilliance of Sly Stone! And here's a few more lyrics to live by ...

The following is from From Soul-patrol.com
HEY BROTHA, HOW COME YOU DON'T HAVE ANYTHING UP IN THIS FUNKY JOINT ABOUT SLY STONE?
http://www.soul-patrol.com/funk/sly.htm

This is a question that I get at least once/month from someone who has visited the P*Funk Review website.

I'd like to share with you my (thus far) unwritten response to that question...

BECAUSE IT HURTS TOO MUCH TO WRITE ABOUT SLY....
This is the man who wished for us all to be "Everyday People", for "Everybody To Be a Star" and for all of us to take a "Stand".



BECAUSE IT HURTS TOO MUCH TO WRITE ABOUT SLY...
The man "came, saw and conquered" he found a way, then tried to show us all the way. Not just his way, but the RIGHT WAY....

He challenged "Whitey's" to stop calling people "N**gers" and at the same time challenged "N**gers" to stop calling people "Whitey's".



BECAUSE IT HURTS TOO MUCH TO WRITE ABOUT SLY...
I guess in retrospect, Sly Stone could have ONLY happened in the late 1960's-early 1970's. At what other time in American History would anybody have even bothered to listen to his message? Certainly nobody is paying attention nowadays...



BECAUSE IT HURTS TOO MUCH TO WRITE ABOUT SLY...
Sly took chances, he stood right out in front, didn't pretend to be "color blind", the interracial makeup of his band and the unifying FUNK of his music said what he wanted to say. And he said it with passion and conviction. Whenever you listened to, or saw Sly and the Family Stone, you knew that the message was REAL....



BECAUSE IT HURTS TOO MUCH TO WRITE ABOUT SLY...
Sly had the ability to be BOTH "mainstream and underground" at the same time.....he was a "crossover artist", but unlike the man with whom he will forever be compared to (Jimi Hendrix) he was able to "crossover", without losing the Black audience. Through his music he had the power to unify Black and White. Sly said that it would be a cool thing for the races to unite. And guess what, maybe the time was right because people believed him. And believed in his message of "empowerment thru unity".



BECAUSE IT HURTS TOO MUCH TO WRITE ABOUT SLY...
It's a difficult thing to try and read anything into the psyche of a person that you don't know on a personal level, but i would surmise that when Sly changed the nature of the conversation, ever so slightly towards what some of his inner feelings as a Black man might be (on the album "There's a Riot Going On") and his white audience REJECTED him, it must have been devastating for him.



BECAUSE IT HURTS TOO MUCH TO WRITE ABOUT SLY...
I believe that not only did Sly preach a message of unity, but that he also believed it it himself!! He had to wonder why his fans didn't seem to understand that just because he also needed to talk about the Black experience was, and how it impacted him, that it didn't mean that he had changed his message. He had only expanded upon it. You see, Sly knew what all of us know and that is you have to first "know thy self", before you can reach out to others.

BECAUSE IT HURTS TOO MUCH TO WRITE ABOUT SLY...
So why does it hurt?....Look at where we are now, here in 1999?.....How far have we come from those ideals that Sly was talking about?.....Are we any closer to the implementation of those ideas?



So why does IT HURT TOO MUCH TO WRITE ABOUT SLY...?
Because it ALL really could have happened, just like Sly said it could, instead WE PHUCKED IT UP.....and somewhere someplace he is out there .....in tears thinking about what could have been!!
And EACH DAY, all of the rest of us "Everyday People", should shed a tear for the same reason he does.


--Bob Davis


"Heard Ya Missed me, Well now I'm BACK...."
--Sylvester Stewart

***Thank You SLY ....For Being YOURSELF***
[Edited 5/2/05 0:46am]

These are SO on point!!!!! ... and heartbreaking at the same time

psykosoul said:

I agree...I'm surprised no one else has commented on this piece.

Very interesting articles. I can never get enough Sly. Keep an eye on Slystone.com. The website is supposed to go live this month. Hopefully, it will have some more interesting Sly info.