Heard tonight’s Tune Damage number on the car radio the other day. I’d forgotten how much I loved it, and have been singing it to (okay, at) the young ‘un ever since. She thinks Daddy is just too, too funny.
Joan Jett had a hit herself with a perfectly creditable cover of this one years ago, which I have no gripe at all with. But for me, there just ain’t no substitute for the original, baby.
Sly and the Family Stone was one of those genuinely innovative American outfits whose influence was wide, deep, and lasting. Wiki backgrounder:
Sly and the Family Stone was an American band from San Francisco. Active from 1966 to 1983, it was pivotal in the development of funk, soul, rock, and psychedelic music. Its core line-up was led by singer-songwriter, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist Sly Stone, and included Stone’s brother and singer/guitarist Freddie Stone, sister and singer/keyboardist Rose Stone, trumpeter Cynthia Robinson, drummer Greg Errico, saxophonist Jerry Martini, and bassist Larry Graham. It was the first major American rock group to have a racially integrated, male and female lineup.
Formed in 1966, the group’s music synthesized a variety of disparate musical genres to help pioneer the emerging “psychedelic soul” sound. They released a series of Top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hits such as “Dance to the Music” (1968), “Everyday People” (1968), and “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” (1969), as well as critically acclaimed albums such as Stand! (1969), which combined pop sensibility with social commentary. In the 1970s, it transitioned into a darker and less commercial funk sound on releases such as There’s a Riot Goin’ On (1971) and Fresh (1973), proving as influential as their early work. By 1975, drug problems and interpersonal clashes led to dissolution, though Sly continued to record and tour with a new rotating lineup under the name “Sly and the Family Stone” until drug problems forced his effective retirement in 1987.
The work of Sly and the Family Stone greatly influenced the sound of subsequent American funk, pop, soul, R&B, and hip hop music. Music critic Joel Selvin wrote, “there are two types of black music: black music before Sly Stone, and black music after Sly Stone”. In 2010, they were ranked 43rd in Rolling Stone‘s 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, and three of their albums are included on Rolling Stone‘s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.
…On August 16, 2011, the album I’m Back! Family & Friends was released. The album features re-recorded versions of Sly and the Family Stone’s greatest hits with guest appearances from Jeff Beck, Ray Manzarek, Bootsy Collins, Ann Wilson, Carmine Appice, and Johnny Winter, as well as three previously unreleased songs.
One month later, on September 25, 2011, the New York Post reported that Sly Stone was now homeless and living out of a white camper-van in Los Angeles: “The van is parked on a residential street in Crenshaw, the rough Los Angeles neighborhood where ‘Boyz n the Hood’ was set. A retired couple makes sure he eats once a day, and Stone showers at their house.”
Sad for sure, but again, hardly unheard of in the biz. As with pretty much every young American band from the hippie-dippie 70s era, their music suffered somewhat from the intrusion of politics and Leftist ideology. Nonetheless, they did some remarkable work, uncorking a long string of solid hits until Sly’s dismal crash-n-burn, dragging a stellar career into a depressing trainwreck. Frankly, I was kinda surprised to learn that he hadn’t died years ago.
Chances are that he got screwed out of his royalties by creative accounting at the record company. I knew one band on Warner Brothers, did a US tour, each member got $10 per day for expenses – and the band *owed* $10,000 to the record company at the end of the tour. If a musician makes money, they’ve either got a hell of a lawyer, they’re much more rapacious than the company, or both.
Now there was a Band. On record or live they were exciting.
Alas before my time from anything but a top forty WABC AM perspective.
Only time I ever saw them was at the Shrine Pinnacle in L. A. as the second band that opened for Cream, bout 1970 or ‘71.
They knew their stuff, but even then I disliked black music of ALL sorts (cept for certain jazz musicians)
BUT, the opening act was the ORIGINAL Fleetwood Mac! now they were hot as hell!
So, all in all, a great concert, even if I did use the men’s room when Sly came on (heh…)
One of the few acts at Woodstock that turned in a above average performance.
As good as James Brown was, SATFS infectious funk and soul actually got me where music hits ya much more than JB.
I can still remember hearing Thankyoufalletinmebemicelf on the Top 40 WABC back in the day. Loved it! Followed a few years later by Play That Funky Music White Boy.