ROCK Sex: "If You Want Me To Stay" - Sly Stone > Bootsy Collins > Red Hot Chili Peppers > Prince > Nikka Costa

ROCK Sex wants to get the message over to you now.

Sly Stone influenced everybody and here's more specific proof.

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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)



Seems like everybody wants the song to stay because it has been covered by
MERCURY REV
KOBAYASHI KAORI
MICA PARIS
FANTASIA
SOULIVE
and grand dame ETTA JAMES.


Here it is interpolated as the basis for this conscious HipHop song.

GIFT OF GAB -"Up" (2004)



And this one, too.

DA DYSFUNKSHUNAL FAMILEE ft. Finsta Bundy -"Keep Me High" (2009)



Everybody is a star, one big circle going round and round, so let's finish with the song in Finnish.

SAMI SAARI -"Jos Sä Tahdot Mä Jään (If You Want Me To Stay)" (2012)




© Tym Stevens

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See Also:

• SLICE TONES: Sly Stone & His Infinite Influence!, with 5 Music Players


• "Everyday People" - Sly Stone > Joan Jett > Arrested Development

• "Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego!" - Funkadelic > Sly Stone > Beastie Boys

• "Sing A Simple Song" - Sly Stone > Jimi Hendrix > James Gang > P-Funk > Chili Peppers > Public Enemy

• "The Same Love That Made Me Laugh" - Bill Withers > Diana Ross > Sly Stone > Zapp

• "If You Want Me To Stay" - Sly Stone > Bootsy Collins > Red Hot Chili Peppers > Prince > Nikka Costa

• Sly Stone's "I Want To Take You Higher" And Its Unending Influence!, with Music Player!

• Sly Stone > Prince
, with Music Player!

• The Real History of Rock and Soul!: The Music Player Checklist

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Say What?!: "Funky Stuff", Kool & The Gang

ROCK Sex answers the lyrical question, "Wait, what did they just say?"

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Nobody can get enough of that "Funky Stuff" by Kool & The Gang. (We've tried, we've tried!)

Everyone's yelling out ad libs during this party pumper. At one point someone shouts "Keep on truckin'" (1:35). Then five seconds later someone blurts "Keep on Funkin'" ...orrrr maybe it's "Keep on F#*@%ing". You listen and decide for yourself.

KOOL AND THE GANG -"Funky Stuff" (1973)



© Tym Stevens

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See Also:

• FUNK, The True History: 1970-1974, with 3 Music Players!

• ROCK Orgy: "F.U.N.K." by Betty Davis


• SAY WHAT?!: "Touch Me", The Doors

• SAY WHAT?!: "The Cisco Kid", WAR

• SAY WHAT?!: "Good Girls Don't", THE KNACK


• The Real History of Rock and Soul!: The Music Player Checklist

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ROCK Sex: "Sing A Simple Song" - Sly Stone > Jimi Hendrix > James Gang > P-Funk > Chili Peppers > Public Enemy

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.

> -SLICE TONES: Sly Stone & His Infinite Influence!,
with 5 Music Players

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!"



© Tym Stevens

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See Also:

• FUNK, The True History: The 1960s, with 3 Music Players!

• SLICE TONES: Sly Stone & His Infinite Influence!, with 5 Music Players

• Sly Stone's "I Want To Take You Higher" And Its Unending Influence!, with Music Player!

• "If You Want Me To Stay" - Sly Stone > Bootsy Collins > Red Hot Chili Peppers > Prince > Nikka Costa


• The Real History of Rock and Soul!: A Music Player Checklist

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