Sly and the Family Stone didn't have to say, "Why can't we all just get along?" Looking at the band members and listening to their shared sound made the statement. On the early Sly and the Family Stone records, there was just no acknowledgment of race; they're truly utopian. A real idealism comes across loud and clear on songs like "Everyday People" and "Hot Fun in the Summertime," and people need messages like that. Those albums have tremendous optimism and real conviction. The band itself was like Noah's ark: They had blacks and whites, men and women. Seeing this group that was blind to ethnicity and that embraced so many elements of society sort of drew you in as an extended family member. This was a joyous noise and a joyful vision.

On musical terms, the Family Stone was an amazing band, but there was no doubt Sly Stone was the leader. He is a singular funk orchestrator; Duke Ellington is probably the best reference point. No one had taken elements of funk and combined them the way Sly did. Sly orchestrated those early records in very advanced ways -- a little guitar thing here that would trigger the next part that would trigger the next part. Then, as time went on, Sly started using some more dissonant colors; he became like the Cézanne of funk. It's like he took these traditional James Brown groove elements and started putting orange into the picture.

Somewhere along the way, around the time of There's a Riot Goin' On, Sly got disillusioned. I think he discovered that the utopian worldview worked in his band, but when he got out in everybody else's world, he still couldn't walk into a bar in Mobile, Alabama, without getting into a fight. That will change you. Fresh is from a guy who realizes that nobody -- not Sly Stone, not the Rothschilds -- nobody can mess with the forces of history. Que será sera.

Fresh is a very deep piece of work. It's the sound of a guy who has hit the pinnacle and is free-falling in the realization that he's not really in charge. Why is Sly singing "Que Sera Sera" on the album? Because he's got no fucking control. The understanding that when the magic hits, it's a gift that can go away just as quickly as it came is a hard thing to carry around. This is a guy who is facing some hard truths and finding his solace by chemically drowning out reality.

Without Sly, the world would be very different. Without him, there's no George Clinton, there's no Prince. Every R&B thing that came after him was influenced by this guy.

The so-called revolution that was coming at the end of the Sixties: We might have lost that one, but Sly won his own personal revolution, musically and in the minds of the audience. I just hope he knows that, and maybe he's OK with it. I hope he's not sitting around with any kind of remorse. Because by any real criteria that you measure success, this guy is a titan.

[From Issue 946 — April 15, 2004]

Next: Public Enemy by Adam Yauch