Sly & The Family Stone

[Lament]

Yeah, I heard about him being on that show. Very bizarre.

The more I think about it, the album being officially billed as "The debut album from 3rd Eye Girl" as opposed to "Prince's new album with 3rd Eye Girl" makes me think there's a significant chance he appears on it very little, if at all. He'll probably just produce it.


The first time I saw Prince, Sly's old bassist (Larry Graham) was in the NPG. Unfortunately though, Larry Graham is the one who convinced Prince to become a Jehovah's Witness and renounce a lot of his old material...

[MadTIGERmaN]

USAToday had an article about a funk documentary coming out soon with new interviews with Bootsy Collins, George Clinton, and Sly Stone... it mentioned in the article that Sly claims to have once jammed with Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix, and it was recorded!!!!!

Having listened to tons and tons of Hendrix jams and demos/instrumentals however, I could see this being a huge let down. On the other hand? it could be FUNKING AWESOME

[Lament]

The Sly facebook posted something about this earlier too (although it may have just been a link to the USA Today article). The blurb I read made it sound like this could be a pretty awesome documentary.

::fingers crossed::

[MadTIGERmaN]

Yeah the documentary should be good...

last week I heard Dee Lites "Groove Is In the Heart" on the radio... now that is one great funky bass line from Bootsy

[Lament]

Yeah, his work on that one is really out of this world.

[Lament]

I'm falling down the youtube wormhole tonight/this morning...



It's weird to hear Larry Graham talking about the song like he wrote it, but it's still a cool performance. I remember being pretty excited about it when I got home from partying the next day (this was New Year's Eve 1999/2000) and my brother telling me he had ordered the Pay Per View special and taped it.

[Lament]

If I had to pick a favorite Sly song, this would be it. So fucking beautiful.



Fuck, I love this band so much. Their music has gotten me through some of the darkest periods of my entire life. The most transcendent Sly songs (Everybody is a Star, Everyday People, Stand!, You Can Make It If You Try, etc.) almost feel like they're hymns that he just pulled from the ether, fully formed.

[Lament]

Fuck it, I'm gonna post this...



First concert I ever went to. This was a pretty awesome moment for me, though at the time this was probably one of only three Sly & the Family Stone songs I knew (and I still associated it more with Arrested Development's People Everyday). It's not a particularly great performance, and I'm pretty sure this is the only time they've ever played it, but whatever. Standing in Soldier Field on a blazing hot July night and singing the chorus on the top of my lungs was one of the greatest, most exciting moments in my fourteen years on the planet up to that point.

(And yep, that's Captain Brendan O'Brien on keys)

"A butcher, a baker, Jack Irons and then...it makes no difference what group I'm in..."

[Lament]

Smoking...



Hot Fun in the Summertime was the first Sly song I ever knew. When the movie My Girl came out at Thanksgiving of 91, I had the most insane crush on Anna Chlumsky. It was the first of what would end up being hundreds upon hundreds of ridiculous crushes I'd develop on terminally adorable actresses. Anyways, I was so enamored with her and that movie that I asked for the soundtrack for Christmas. It ended up under the tree for me, and that cassette was possibly the most played cassette in the history of my family's minivan. With good reason too; Looking back, it is borderline disgusting how many amazing classics are on that thing. My Girl, More Today Than Yesterday, Wedding Bell Blues, Do Wah Diddy, I Saw the Light, Good Lovin', Bad Moon Rising, If You Don't Know Me By Now, I Only Have Eyes For You, Saturday in the Park, and of course, Hot Fun in the Summertime. Seriously, look at that list. That a veritable murderer's row of stone-cold perfect pop songs. It felt like that tape stayed on heavy rotation everywhere we drove for years, and it never stopped being awesome. I fucking loved every single song on it, and possibly none more than Hot Fun in the Summertime (though More Today Than Yesterday, I Saw the Light, and Good Lovin' come close). This song brings back so many great memories, even if a lot of them are of a Freezing Minivan in the Wintertime.

[Lament]

TESTIFY.

[Lament]

A pissed off Muhammad Ali, a coked out Sly, and three white dudes in terrible suits makes for some pretty amazing television.



I love when Sly looks at Ali and asks "Yeah, where do you live though, brother?"

[harmless]

A friend dropped this on my Facebook page yesterday, did you see it?

[harmless]

A pissed off Muhammad Ali, a coked out Sly, and three white dudes in terrible suits makes for some pretty amazing television.



I love when Sly looks at Ali and asks "Yeah, where do you live though, brother?"

This is gold. Apart from being hilarious, it's a window into the political and social divides, opinions and prejudices of the Seventies. I was reading yesterday about Elijah Muhammed, leader of the Nation of Islam, the same group Malcolm X was an adherent of for most of his life. They believed in black power / black supremacy and didn't agree with the mainstream Civil Rights movement, led by MLK, which sought integration (and which it looks like Sly is all for). Fascinating to see Sly and Ali disagreeing but then laughing together as brothers every now and then, and also to see the smarmy rich politicians sneer at them both.

[harmless]

TESTIFY.

This is amazing. There's a real fierce breakbeat underpinning to this.

[harmless]

Smoking...



Hot Fun in the Summertime was the first Sly song I ever knew. When the movie My Girl came out at Thanksgiving of 91, I had the most insane crush on Anna Chlumsky. It was the first of what would end up being hundreds upon hundreds of ridiculous crushes I'd develop on terminally adorable actresses. Anyways, I was so enamored with her and that movie that I asked for the soundtrack for Christmas. It ended up under the tree for me, and that cassette was possibly the most played cassette in the history of my family's minivan. With good reason too; Looking back, it is borderline disgusting how many amazing classics are on that thing. My Girl, More Today Than Yesterday, Wedding Bell Blues, Do Wah Diddy, I Saw the Light, Good Lovin', Bad Moon Rising, If You Don't Know Me By Now, I Only Have Eyes For You, Saturday in the Park, and of course, Hot Fun in the Summertime. Seriously, look at that list. That a veritable murderer's row of stone-cold perfect pop songs. It felt like that tape stayed on heavy rotation everywhere we drove for years, and it never stopped being awesome. I fucking loved every single song on it, and possibly none more than Hot Fun in the Summertime (though More Today Than Yesterday, I Saw the Light, and Good Lovin' come close). This song brings back so many great memories, even if a lot of them are of a Freezing Minivan in the Wintertime.

And these songs are perfect together. White people can't dance!

Sly got high on coke. I get high on Sly. I drink Coke. It's all beginning to make so much sense!

[harmless]

If I had to pick a favorite Sly song, this would be it. So fucking beautiful.



Fuck, I love this band so much. Their music has gotten me through some of the darkest periods of my entire life. The most transcendent Sly songs (Everybody is a Star, Everyday People, Stand!, You Can Make It If You Try, etc.) almost feel like they're hymns that he just pulled from the ether, fully formed.

I concur with all of this.

I love the few seconds of ad-lib with the laugh in it.

[harmless]

Holy shit, today is all about the album Stand!

[Lament]

Sly got high on coke. I get high on Sly. I drink Coke. It's all beginning to make so much sense!

There is a very real chance that this may become my new signature quote.

[Lament]

A friend dropped this on my Facebook page yesterday, did you see it?

Yeah, this one is a classic. Why don't we have TV segments like this anymore?

[Lament]

Holy shit, today is all about the album Stand!

Stand! may be the greatest defiantly euphoric album ever made. In fact, I'm hard pressed to think of another.