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(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
Summary.
San Francisco's Sly and The Family Stone, led by black hippie Sylvester "Sly" Stewart, became a legend of black music with Dance To The Music (1967), a manifesto of funk music. Their bassist Larry Graham is credited with inventing the "funk" bass lines. That hit was
followed by the seminal album Stand (1969), with Everyday People and I Want To Take You Higher, Thank You (1970), the showcase for Graham's bass, Family Affair (1971), the first hit ever to use a drum-machine, and the sociological concept There's A Riot Going On (1971).
Full bio.
(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
The Family Stone, an eclectic and large ensemble (two guitars, rhythm section, horns, and two keyboards), emerged in 1968 as the rock messengers of
James Browns work.
The leader, Sly Stone (Sylvester Stewart), a native of Texas, had arrived in San Francisco during the acid era and, perhaps inspired by the general climate of subversion, decided to challenge the conventions of Black music on three fronts: racial and sexual integrationforming a band made up of three Black men, two Black women, and two white musicians (including women who played instruments rather than just singing, and Black freaks); collective soundrejecting the sweet soul of the Stax, Tamla, and Philly rhythm sections; and lyrical contentwriting manifestos, demands, and prophecies that fused the hippie utopias of Haight-Ashbury with the racial slogans of the ghetto. His psychedelic funk, which from time to time adopted jazz or electronic arrangements according to the fashion of the moment, was the perfect dance music for the age. The fragmented, distributed vocal harmonies (a modernization of doo-wop) and the frenzied, chaotic instrumental dynamics (inspired by the production styles of the beat era) won over the new alternative radio stations, which for years broadcast Dance To The Music (1968), Everyday People (1969), and I Want To Take You Higher (1969)the two hits from the album Stand (1969)as well as Hot Fun In The Summertime, Thank You (1970), and Family Affair (1971). The latter was also one of the first songs to use a drum machine. The albums were full of mediocre tracks and feeble covers that served mainly to publicize the scandalous persona of the leader. The sociological concept album There's A Riot Going On (1971) was their most accessible collection, despite its theme (the social decay of the United States). Ironically, they were swept away by the very explosion of funkthe genre they had practically invented. The Family Stone nonetheless left little of substance behind, always tied to the ambiguous image of a dance band entangled with drugs and the Black Panthers. Their main historical function was to bridge the gap between soul and rock, which until then had remained separate genres.
Sly Stone died in 2025.
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