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RIP Sly Stone (1943-2025)

Pour one out for one of the greatest to EVER do it.

#sly stone #sly and the family stone #black genius #sly lives #Youtube

Sly Stone, the multitalented musician whose psychedelia-laced funk enraptured Woodstock Nation in the late '60s and early '70s, has died. He

Remembering Sly Stone 1943-2025

Sad news today that musical icon Sly Stone has died at 82. He had something of a resurgence in recent years acknowledging his musical genius, first with his autobiography in 2023 and earlier this year when the documentary Sly Lives (AKA The Burden of Black Genius), directed by Questlove, premiered. That doc was excellent and showed the influence he had on the likes of George Clinton, Prince, and Questlove's The Roots!

Stone with reel-to-reel

His group Sly and the Family Stone was groundbreaking in retrospect. In the 1960s, here was a band with men and women, black and white musicians all playing a mix of funk, rock, pop, and R&B. You can definitely see the influence it had on Prince who also played all types of music. Sly and the Family Stone performed at the 1969 Harlem Culture Festival in NYC, which was documented in Questlove's Summer of Soul. A few weeks later, they headlined at the legendary Woodstock Festival too. The Woodstock documentary and live album is where I first discovered them as a teen. In the years that followed, I picked up the vinyl Stand!, the band's magnum opus IMHO. What an album and also influence, i.e. Liquid Jesus covered "Stand!" on the Pump Up the Volume soundtrack, "Everyday People" covered by both Joan Jett and Aretha Franklin, and countless hip hop samples. Just a few weeks ago I picked up the group's 1970 Greatest Hits compilation. What a comp that is, all killer no filler! And "Hot Fun in the Summertime" is a Summertime standard!

They broke up around 1983, but they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.

The link above is the obit from Variety.