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I saw Sly & The Family Stone perform for the first time at the Texas Pop Festival on September 1, 1969. I saw them once after that.
Sly was incredible. What a shame that drugs ruined them as a group. Next to Creedence, they were the biggest group from the US at the time. They were bigger than both Janis, JIMI, and CSNY.
The only groups bigger than Sly & Creedence in 1969 were The Rolling Stones and The Beatles. Sly and Creedence were bigger than The Who who had released the fantastic Tommy album.
After 1969 Sly &... recorded output never came close to their 1968/1969 greatness. Drug useage and huge success and money related to this allowed them to stay on a money is no object for endless supply of related grade A world's best pharaceuticals. They stayed so high that nothing got done.....their record label issued Greatest Hits...as they likely never came down enough to focus enough to record quality compositions as their '68/'69 material. They ticked off their fan base as well as major concert promoters, as they got so high many times and blew off concerts (didn't show up for scheduled sold-out concerts).
Sly was amazing in concert. It's a shame that they never issued a live record. They appear on the Woodstock album.
People think that James Brown modernized funky music but that is not exactly true. James did define funky but you'll notice that James Brown's post 1968 material follows Sly & The Family Stone's lead and not the other way around. JB's post 1968 stuff was hugely influenced by what Sly & The Family Stone did. You'll note that JB's 1970 stuff is more like Sly's 1968/69 stuff than anything JB did from 1968 , going back to the mid fifties.
Sly himself was incredibly talented and had a great feel for great music and he was a tremendous producer and musician when he was sober/unmedicated(not 8miles high).
I think he may have produced Billy Preston's 1966 album "Greatest Organ in West"
He was talented and smart and it was a shame that he let drugs do what they did.
You had to be there to hear what a tremendous sound that Sly & The Family Stone made live in concert. One of the best live in concert acts that I've ever witnessed and I've seen plenty.
The energy and electricity was amazing.
^^^^Wasn't he friends with Doris Day's son, Terry Melcher? btw, Manson auditioned for Melcher but decided against
signing up a deal with him. Melcher moved from his home and director Roman Polanski moved in.
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