Biography of Sly & the Family Stone

Sly Stone was the new face of crossover in the late '60s and early '70s. He introduced funk to pop radio (three #1 pop hits and fifteen other chart entries proved he was no flash-in-the-pan). The extent of his achievement can be gauged by the fact that the record that supplanted Sly's "Everyday People" at #1 was Tommy Roe's "Dizzy." He was a shrewd operator who used electric keyboards and rock guitars to ease his music onto pop radio. His experience as a producer (the Beau Brummels were among his clients) gave him an awareness of Top 40, as did the musical climate in his adopted hometown of San Francisco. The high watermark in his career came in 1970 with the release of the double-gold "Thank You (Fallettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" and his appearance at Woodstock. From there, it was a downward path, exacerbated by what the publicity machine euphemistically calls "personal problems." His achievement in bringing more-or-less undiluted funk to a broad audience cannot be shortchanged, though; neither can the music. ~ Colin Escott