Share thanks and gratitude
with a feast of friends!
Ella Fitzgerald, Elvis, Nina Simone,
The Beatles, Otis Redding, Stevie Wonder,
Sam and Dave, Led Zeppelin,
Sly And The Family Stone, Nick Drake,
Bob Dylan, Big Star,
Earth Wind and Fire, Isley Brothers,
Talking Heads, Bob Marley, The Damned,
The Flaming Lips, Jane's Addiction,
Beastie Boys, Neil Young,
Gal Costa, Bad Brains, Mavis Staples,
Bjork, Kelis, Dengue Fever,
and many more guests!
To celebrate, here are Music Players with 4 decades of his disciples!
A music critic once said Soul should be divided into Before Sly and After Sly. In truth, all modern music since 1970 has been influenced by his group.
Here's a music player of The Family Stone's greatest works, followed by 4 Music Players* of 500 artists from all over the spectrum. All are in chronological order.
Sly Stone produced the first records of upcoming garage and psychedelic bands in San Francisco, before joining his peers with the spectacular success of his group, Sly & The Family Stone.
The two architects of Funk are James Brown and Sly Stone. While they shared a tight propulsive rhythm, they were different in every other way.
• James kept a tight groove with Jazz touches, centered on rhythm and horns. Sly brought a freewheeling looseness that included wild Rock and avant Jazz.
• James was perfect process, sharp suits, and lock precision. Sly was power afro, brash bohemia, and happy chaos.
• James was backed by soul brothers. The Family Stone was male and female, maple and peach.
• James had national hits but was strongest within the circuit of black radio and clubs. Sly had international success while playing big festivals, including his legendary triumph at Woodstock.
• James was about the community. Sly was about a family of humanity.
Most Funk bands that followed assimilated James' tight groove with Sly's flair and philosophy.
The Family Stone has two phases: STAND and RIOT. All the music from 1967 leading into 1969's STAND album is sunny, fast, optimistic, inclusive. From 1971's THERE'S A RIOT GOIN' ON onward, the sound turns bluesy, staggered, critical, insular.
They are the two first and most essential Funk albums ever made.
★ Special spotlight should shine on Larry Graham. His invention of 'pluck-n-thump' bass-playing transformed modern music.
First heard on "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" (1970), it turned funky Soul into The Funk, and influenced Yes, Fela, Jaco Pastorius, Bootsy Collins, Gang Of Four, Bill Laswell, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Living Colour, Primus, Antibalas, the "Seinfeld" theme song, and scores more.
S L Y
S T O N E ' S
I N F L U E N C E
Sly & The Family Stone opened up a world of possibilities that everyone explored.
Whenever you enjoy thump-ass bass, drum machines, vocoders and pitch shifters, funkadelic guitar, stabbing brass, strutting dance, political soul, empowerment anthems, and diversity bands...
say "Thank You" to The Family Stone!
Listen to the following acts and enjoy their influence in rhythm, sounds, philosophy, and fashion.
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S L I C E T O N E S /
SLY STONE's
I N F L U E N C E :
1 9 6 7 - 1 9 7 9
Stevie Wonder; Betty Davis;
David Bowie; Parliament
*(This Player is limited to the first 200 songs.
Hear the unlimited Playlist here.)
Guests include:
Tony Joe White, James Brown, James Gang, Yes, Funkadelic, Chicago, Traffic, Stevie Wonder, The Rolling Stones, Rita Lee, Deep Purple, Miles Davis, Betty Davis, Frank Zappa, War, Roxy Music, Fat Albert, KC & The Sunshine Band, Mother's Finest, Steely Dan!
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S L I C E T O N E S /
SLY STONE's
I N F L U E N C E :
1 9 8 0 - 1 9 8 9
Grace Jones; Tom Tom Club;
Prince; Red Hot Chili Peppers
Magazine, Gang of Four, Zapp, Material, David Bowie, Grace Jones, Tom Tom Club, Prince, INXS, Trouble Funk, fireHOSE, Sly & Robbie, R.E.M., Tackhead, Public Enemy, Beastie Boys, Lenny Kravitz!
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S L I C E T O N E S /
SLY STONE's
I N F L U E N C E :
1 9 9 0 - 1 9 9 9
Lenny Kravitz; Beastie Boys;
Public Enemy; Meshell Ndegeocello
Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Family Stand, Jane's Addiction, Living Colour, Arrested Development, Primal Scream, Joi, Primus, D'Angelo, Mercury Rev, Dag, Meshell Ndegeocello, Los Lobos, Fatboy Slim, OutKast, Ozomatli, Macy Gray, Beck!
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S L I C E T O N E S /
SLY STONE's
I N F L U E N C E :
2 0 0 0 - T o d a y
Nikka Costa; Fatboy Slim;
Alice Smith; Cody ChesnuTT
Nikka Costa, Gorillaz, Barry Adamson, Robert Randolph & The Family Band, Gnarls Barkley, The Budos Band, Rhythm King & Her Friends, John Legend, The Roots, Susan Tedeschi, Jill Scott, Jurassic 5, Alice Smith, Cody ChesnuTT, Galactic, Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings!
"Everybody is a star
One big circle going round and round!"
Listen for its direct influence on this song by Jeff Lynne's group.
THE IDLE RACE -"Alcatraz" (1971)
The ever-great Fanny do a fine take in Apple Studios, while throwing in a new verse of their own.
Drummer Alice de Buhr says that Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick "used the same overhead microphone set-up that he'd used for Ringo Starr" on the original.
FANNY -"Hey Bulldog" (1972)
It inspired the rhythm of this House club track.
BLACK BOX -"Hold On" (1992)
From betwixt and between comes Ween.
WEEN -"Hey Bulldog" (live)
And 'the Osaka Ramones' slice out another mirror universe take on it.
SHONEN KNIFE -"Magic Joe" (1997)
Here's a Turntablist mash-up with Parliament's "Mr. Wiggles" and some Sly from "Sing A Simple Song".
"I Want To Take You Higher" just may be the Big Bang of Funk-Rock.
It drove half-a-million people to their feet in dancing ecstasy at Woodstock, and helped turn Funk music into the soundtrack of the '70s. From HipHop to Mixology, from Manchester to Iran to Japan, it continues to lift the world.
"I Want To Take You Higher/ Stand" 45rpm
Sly actually did it before and after he did it.
The central chant has been a work in progress across records and time. The trial run was an album track called "Higher" in 1968, and again on another epic track called "Dance To The Medley". (The Psychedelic Soul of the latter is virtually the template for Funkadelic.)
SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE -"Higher" (1968)
SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE -"Dance To The Medley" (1968) ("Higher" comes in at 7:45)
Those joyful Gospel choral chants of "Higher" finally reached fruition when the ultimate song "I Want To Take You Higher" ascended in 1969 on the essential album, STAND.
SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE -"I Want To Take You Higher" (studio version, 1969)
The roaring live performance of the song galvanized the Woodstock nation, and Sly And The Family Stone are still considered one of the crucial highlights of the Festival and the Documentary film.
SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE -"I Want To Take You Higher" (live at Woodstock, 1969)
Later he did the wry rewrite "I Get High On You" in 1975, and a playful bounce of it as "High, Y'all" in 1983.
SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE -"I Get High On You" (1975)
As the Music Player above reveals, the song became an instant classic and was either covered by everyone or referenced lyrically for years to come. The core of it is the "Higher!" chant. It summed up the utopian hopes of the progressive counterculture generation, while also winking about getting high.
If it wasn't being covered by Brian Auger, Tina Turner, or Googoosh (Iran), then the "Higher" chant was popping up in originals from The Temptations, The Chambers Brothers, War, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, and beyond.
It gets a shout-out in the rapidfire pop history novelty "Life Is A Rock", gets quoted on the trail-out of "Play That Funky Music", and may be referenced sideways in Paul McCartney's banned single "Hi Hi Hi".
Into the '80s and '90s, it rises up in Grandmaster Flash's "White Lines", an unreleased song with the same name by Roger Taylor (Queen), a Curtis Mayfield homage by Lenny Kravitz, a Madchester trip-out by raving Moonflowers, a namecheck by Public Enemy, a pot anthem by Cypress Hill, and an electro resurge from Future Funk.
"I Want to Take You Higher: The Psychedelic Era 1965-1969",
The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Museum (1997)
B O O M
S H A C K A
L A C K A
L A C K A
B O O M
As also heard on the Music Player, another key ingredient of the song that keeps coming back up is the lyric "Boom shacka lacka lacka, boom shacka lacka lacka, boom shacka lacka lacka boom". Everybody uses it, even if by now they don't know where it came from.
This chant has become a classic Reggae song, a Reggae band, and a Reggae magazine.
It jumps up in HipHop songs like "Whoomp! There It is!" and Pop hits like Was (Not Was)' "Walk The Dinosaur" and Brianna's "Boom Shaka Laka".
It's become slang in Basketball and in HipHop.
It's even been the name of a Bollywood film and an Indian fantasy TV series for kids!
Today's relay baton is "If You Want Me To Stay". Besides its pulsing bassline, this Funk classic is known for the sped-up pitch of its vocal.
SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE -"If You Want Me To Stay" (1973)
Here's New Wave cabaret chanteuse RONNY putting her own bend to it.
RONNY -"If You Want Me To Stay" (1981)
George Clinton obviously loves Sly and has done the song a couple different ways. In this song he produced for Bass Monster Bootsy, the melody comes into the finale with a vocal chant of "doot-doot-da-doot-doo"s (at 6:35).
BOOTSY'S RUBBER BAND -"Under The Influence (Of A Groove)" (1979)
A few years later that same chorale was used again when George produced an actual cover by Red Hot Chili Peppers, which featured Maceo Parker himself on sax.
RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS -"If You Want Me To Stay" (1985)
Sly, 1973; Prince, 1986
At the same time, Prince was alluding to Sly a lot in various songs and fashions, and on this B-side he used the sped-up pitch trick.
PRINCE -"Love Or Money?" (1985)
The 45rpm song was designed so that you could play it 'normal' on the 45rpm, but it also worked slowed down at 33 1/3 to a slunky Funk mode.
(Ahhh, turntables. Let's see your MP3 player do that!)
NIKKA COSTA grew up at Sly's knee, literally. As a child she remembers Sly visiting her father, famed producer Don Costa, and sitting with her at the piano playing away. This breakthrough song of hers is a clear homage of love to "If You Want Me To Stay".
NIKKA COSTA -"Everybody Got Their Something" (2000)
Let's do both singing along with "The Same Love That Made Me Laugh".
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We humans are crazy so relationships tend to go up and down with our emotions. Bill Withers captures the silly seesaw of our lives with this lesser-known Funk classic.
BILL WITHERS -"The Same Love That Made Me Laugh" (1974)
I tend to favor DIANA ROSS's funkier, sexier solo songs (e.g., "Love Hangover", "Upside Down"), and here she sways back and forth to Bill's song on the Disco floor.
DIANA ROSS -"The Same Love That Made Me Laugh" (1977)
Sly Stone basically invented the entire '70s Funk sound, and everyone followed in his tread. But he often winked at his peers with nods to their songs. Here's an original of his own that bounced off of Bill's song.
SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE -"The Same Thing That Makes You Laugh" (1979)
Sly used voice distortion tricks from 1969 on up, and there's another version of this song with a vocoder vocal that paves the way for Zapp (and the autotune singers of now).
SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE -"The Same Thing That Makes You Laugh" (vocoder version) (1979)
Bootsy Collins introduced the vocoder device to Roger while producing this dance floor smash.
Today is SLY STONE's birthday. I love him like the sun in the sky.
If I said what I really feel about this guy, we'd be here all year. So let's keep it simple. SLY & THE FAMILY STONE invented Funk as you know it, and rewrote Rock, Jazz, Dance, and Rap forever afterward.
But today, let's follow how one single tune -"Sing A Simple Song"- relays that sonic baton beyond all boundaries to this very day.
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S I N G
A
S I M P L E
S O N G
"Sing A Simple Song", and the album STAND after it, defined the new super heavy Funk that superceded Soul. The trademark descending "yeah yeah yeahs..." are sung by sister Rose Stone.
SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE -"Sing A Simple Song" (1968)
Here's New Orlean's finest to extend the funky vamp.
THE METERS -"Sing A Simple Song" (1969)
Here's they are again to extend the same song again into a new song with a winking title.
THE METERS -"Same Old Thing" (1969)
Now welcome the Dutch Indo sisters Bianca, Stella and Patricia Maessen, putting some sitar sting in it.
THE HEARTS OF SOUL -"Sing A Simple Song" (1969)
After having a hit covering Sly's "I Want To Take You Higher", Ike And Tina give the funky women some with this wholecloth rewrite.
IKE AND TINA TURNER -"Bold Soul Sister" (1970)
The guitar rhythm of "Sing A Simple Song" gets abstracted by JIMI HENDRIX here, and then played explicitly at the 0:30 minute mark.
BAND OF GYPSIES -"We Got To Live Together" (1970)
Here's Joe Walsh getting some more power strut out of that guitar riff (0:27).
THE JAMES GANG -"Funk #49" (1970)
Here's an ultra-Funky Reggae gloss on it.
THE MEGATONS -"Funk The Beat" (1970)
Sly's longtime running partner Billy Preston takes the title of the song and cheekily crosses it with the sentiment of Melanie's "What Have They Done To My Song, Ma".
BILLY PRESTON -"I Wrote A Simple Song" (1971)
It is the framework of this production by Sly-acolyte Norman Whitfield, a cover of Motown label-mate Edwin Starr.
THE TEMPTATIONS -"Funky Music Sho Nuff Turns Me On" (1972)
HERBIE HANCOCK takes the guitar vamp and flies into the future of Jazz Fusion with it.
HERBIE HANCOCK + HEADHUNTERS -"Sly" (1973)
Kerrie kicks it out like the whole Family all by herself on this rockin' cover.
KERRIE BIDDELL -""Sing A Simple Song"" (1973)
George Clinton and the P-Funk mob borrow the descending "yeah yeah yeahs" for the chorus of this interstellar groover.
PARLIAMENT -"Unfunky UFO" (1975)
That Space Funk approach permeates this first HipHop cover of the original, including some uncanny impersonations of bassist Larry Graham.
WEST STREET MOB -"Sing A Simple Song" (1982)
P-Funk's Punk/Funk proteges borrow the "yeah yeah yeahs" for their chorus, too.
RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS -"Behind the Sun" (1986)
Another P-Funk disciple, PUBLIC ENEMY collages parts of it all the way through this protest jam. ("Sing A Simple Song" is also central to their "Party For Your Right To Fight", and is used again in several other songs.)
PUBLIC ENEMY -"Brothers Gonna Work It Out" (1990)
"Sing A Simple Song" has been sampled by over 400 artists, including Grandmaster Flash, Big Lady K, Stetsasonic, Digital Underground, De La Soul, Jungle Brothers, Mellow Man Ace, Kool Moe Dee, LL Cool J, Stereo MC's, TLC, Prince, A Tribe Called Quest, Ice-T, EPMD, Arrested Development, The Pharcyde, Common, Cypress Hill, Me Phi Me, Paris, Run-DMC, Del the Funky Homosapien, Erick Sermon, KRS-One, 2Pac, MC Solaar, Soul II Soul, Björk, Michael Jackson, Lenny Kravitz, Alanis Morissette, Barry Adamson, Masaki Sakamoto, DJ Shadow, The Beatnuts, Musiq Soulchild, and Snoop Dogg.
Bringing the familial full circle, here's D'Angelo, Chuck D, and Isaac Hayers covering the song with the original remixed in.
D'ANGELO, with Chuck D and Isaac Hayes -"Sing A Simple Song" (2005)
Here's Staten Island's THE BUDOS BAND with a killer remake of the song channeling Fela along the way!
THE BUDOS BAND -"Sing A Simple Song" (2005)
"I'm livin' livin' livin' life with all its ups and downs
I'm givin' givin' givin' love and smilin' at the frowns
You're in trouble when you find it's hard for you to smile
A simple song might make it better for a little while!"
ROCK Orgies are songs that call out a lot of other artists and songs.
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Here's the queen of Funk Rock, badder than bad BETTY DAVIS, giving us a crash course in "F.U.N.K."!
BETTY DAVIS -"F.U.N.K." 2.0* (1975)
*This is the second, better version of a video for the same song
Party guests (in order):
The Funk Brothers (Motown house band), Booker T & the MGs (Stax house band), James Brown; Fred Wesley, Maceo Parker (The JBs, P-Funk) The Meters (New Orleans), Sly And The Family Stone, Stevie Wonder, Tina Turner, Al Green, Ann Peebles, Miles Davis, Billy Preston, Carlos Santana, Curtis Mayfield, Barry White, Larry Graham, Isaac Hayes; The O'Jays, Betty Davis, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Rare Earth, Herbie Hancock and Headhunters, Aretha Franklin (seen with Ahmet Ertegun), Rufus with Chaka Khan, Parliament/Funkadelic, The Ohio Players, Marvin Gaye, WAR, Earth Wind & Fire, Bootsy Collins, and -the Man- Sly Stone now.
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BONUS: Here's the sequel video, which expands out with more stellar stalwarts of 1970s Funk.
YVONNE FAIR -"Funky Music Sho' Nuff Turns Me On" (1975)
"Liberation for all. Everything must be rethought." ______________
Two great things hybrid a third great thing. ROCK SEX is a metaphor for the creative connections that link our shared culture together. This Pop Culture hub explores the roots and branches of Music, Film, Art, Comics, and more. _______________
Rock'n'Soul music is a baton relayed by everyone. Learn the holistic history with the most advanced Music Playlists online!:
BLUES, MAMBO, JAZZ, ROCKABILLY, SURF, BEAT, SOUL, GARAGE, PSYCHEDELIA, FUNK, GLAM, PUNK, NEW WAVE, HIPHOP, POSTPUNK, GRUNGE, RIOT GRRRL, ELECTRO, next! _______________
This is our party and everyone is invited!
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