The Pop Corporation

Its criminal that, broadly speaking, Sly Stone is not in all the conversations about living legends in music. It’s hard to understate the massive influence on pop music that Sly & The Family Stone had. Melting rock with soul, inventing slap bass, spearheading funk, fusing jazz with psychedelia – they’re one of the greatest bands to ever do it.

George Clinton said of Sly: “It was like seeing the Black version of The Beatles. He had the sensibility of the street, the church, and then, like, the qualities of a Motown, you know, Smokey Robinson – he was all of that in one person.”

The band appeared in Questlove’s ‘Summer of Soul’ and now, he’s publishing Sly’s memoir, which is called ‘Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again)’.

The publishers say: “[Sly] is ready to relate the ups and downs and ins and outs of his amazing life in his memoir, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin). The book moves from Sly’s early career as a radio DJ and record producer through the dizzying heights of the San Francisco music scene in the late 1960s and into the darker, denser life (and music) of 1970s and 1980s Los Angeles. Set on stages and in mansions, in the company of family and of other celebrities, it’s a story about flawed humanity and flawless artistry.”

From fuzz pop like ‘Dance To The Music’, to the darker masterpiece ‘There’s a Riot Goin’ On’, through to electrifying acid-funk, Stone’s group soundtracked the ’60s and ’70s, and now we get to hear his story, and his wild private life, his struggles and successes. It’s remarkable that we have a legend that’s still living, but seemingly so forgotten.

More recently, he was living in a camper van and now, maybe all that is set to change for the better.

Questlove says: “Sly is in a place right now which, as we say, let us give you your flowers while you’re still here. He’s 80 years old. A lot of his contemporaries died at 20, 30, 40.”

Written with Ben Greenman, who has also worked on memoirs with George Clinton and Brian Wilson, this book is said to be “a vivid, gripping, sometimes terrifying, and ultimately affirming tour through Sly’s life and career. Like Sly, it’s honest and playful, sharp and blunt, emotional and analytical, always moving and never standing still.”