Sly & The Family Stone: An Oral History by Joel Selvin (Permuted Press, 1998/2022)

Sylvester Stewart (Sly Stone) performed, produced, and wrote a slew of great songs that were hits but also a soundtrack to what was happening in the United States in the mid and late 1960s. It captured both the Hippie and Black culture world in equal fractions. A perfect pot-pourri of strong, catchy melodies and funk, with a thoughtful approach to arrangements. Although I haven’t heard every Sly recording, is it possible he ever made a bad record? On the other hand, reading Joel Selvin’s Sly & The Family Stone: An Oral History, the reader is exposed to Sly/Sylvester as indeed a horrible person. If I had the power and worked for him, I would have slapped him silly, and I’m not a physical throw-a-punch guy. For one, the clock is very much eliminated from Sly’s surroundings. There is only one time, and Sly owns that time. For him to go from there to here would more likely not happen. Besides the drug-taking, there are no clues why he behaved the way he did. He sort of willed himself to become a bad character.

I believe he has the number one record for either missing or not showing up for his live appearances. He also treated his brother and other bandmates in the Family Stone poorly, if not criminally insane. Yet, his recordings and songs are brilliant to the maximum. Even when he was the most fucked-up guy on this planet, he made the masterpiece album. There’s a Riot Goin’ On. Selvin did a great job getting the voices of his band, managers, and bodyguards to talk about Sly and his (and it’s always his) world. Of course, Sly is not in the book himself, which leaves him as a ghost figure in his narrative. It’s a sad tale but an important one because of the importance of Sly Stone’s presence in California pop and worldwide attention to his genius. The book itself goes from the beginning of his career but stops when the original band breaks up, which is fine because those were the years of his brilliance and horrific behavior. Joel Selvin is a superb music historian and biographer. A must-read for Sly fans and anyone interested in the San Francisco 1960s music world.

My fave Sly songs are down below: