Sly & The Family Stone

By the time Sly Stone, former producer/talent scout for Tom Donahue's Autumn records, decided to step out front and form his own band in 1967, he knew exactly what the music business needed: a multi-racial, boy-girl outfit that skillfully blended elements of soul, rock, jazz and funk. Sly & the Family Stone's debut, A Whole New Thing, didn't completely tip Sly's hand, but it got the ball rolling in the right direction by adding fuzzed-up guitar to soulful vocals, a tasty horn section,...

When the irresistible sound of "Dance To The Music" lit up the nation's airwaves in early 1968, it was obvious that Sly Stone's "whole new thing" was about to blow everyone's mind sky-high. This live-wire chart smash used the time-tested "introduce the band" technique to showcase trumpeter Cynthia Robinson, Sly's brother/guitarist Freddie Stone, saxman Jerry Martini, Sly's sister/pianist Rosie Stone, bassist Larry Graham and drummer Greg Errico—all from...

Stripped down and funky beyond words, 1973's Fresh is quite simply the last great album by Sly & the Family Stone. Funkadelic guru George Clinton, a man who knows something about genre cross-wiring, tabbed Fresh as one of his all-time favorites and convinced the Red Hot Chili Peppers to cut "If It Were Left Up To Me" for their 1985 Clinton-produced LP Freaky Styley. Jazz icon Miles Davis reportedly sat his band down to soak up inspiration from multiple playings of Fresh, a work ranked #186 in...

By late 1968, the third album by Sly & the Family Stone absolutely blew the roof off the building. Life sounded so tangibly real it almost seemed like it was cut live. The title track, along with "Love City," "Plastic Jim," "Into My Own Thing" and especially "Dynamite!" signaled a perfect alliance between Sly's multi-influence, far-reaching musical vision and the burgeoning hippie ballroom community, already spreading like lawn daisies throughout the land. Never before had juicily syncopated...

Stand!, the fourth album from Sly & the Family Stone, could have almost pulled double-duty as a greatest hits package for the band. Laced with sure-fire winners, this 1969 LP put Sly and Co. firmly on the road to super-stardom. Four of the album’s seven songs, including the Hall of Fame tracks “Everyday People” and “I Want To Take You Higher,” shot straight into the national charts. This visionary work also introduced far-sighted FM radio stations to the...

Since it took almost two years to make, the fifth album by now bonafide superstars Sly & the Family Stone had everyone salivating in anticipation. Needless to say, Sly did not disappoint! 1971's There's A Riot Goin' On finds the Bay Area-based genius getting funkier than before, even as his artistic vision becomes darker. Some may have been disappointed that Sly didn't simply re-create the chart successes of earlier singles, but who can argue with the flat-out brilliance of turning recent big...