Sly Stone S/D

"if i didn't love you, i wouldn't like your ass at all..."

i dig it

"Family Stone" are touring here in a month or two* - anyone know who's in this apart from Vet Stone (og backing singer) and Cynthia Robinson (og horn/backing singer)?

*on a festival with Flaming Lips, Mogwai, Portishead, Death In Vegas, Holy Fuck and Mercury Rev

I hear what you're saying about it containing some of his readily identifiable stylistic tics but still

I would buy a record of songs like that. It's really not bad.

Esp if they were hazy weirdly recorded demos like that.

yeah. i don't know whether there would be an inevitable 'let's get these into a studio & do them justice!' phase, at which the guy from the behind the scenes seinfeld segments who explains the various keyboard motifs used in the show suddenly pops up. but i would buy a record of those demos, word.

Autotune or not, it's more interesting from a stylistic standpoint than I'd expect from a guy who hasn't made a record in 30 years.

yeah it is just- like i would have expected some kind of watered down 'take' on the group's bigger/more out there in your face stuff rather than something that sits comfortably in the parameters of sloochy-solo-weird-keyboard jams

yeah. i don't know whether there would be an inevitable 'let's get these into a studio & do them justice!' phase, at which the guy from the behind the scenes seinfeld segments who explains the various keyboard motifs used in the show suddenly pops up. but i would buy a record of those demos, word.

Autotune or not, it's more interesting from a stylistic standpoint than I'd expect from a guy who hasn't made a record in 30 years.

yeah it is just- like i would have expected some kind of watered down 'take' on the group's bigger/more out there in your face stuff rather than something that sits comfortably in the parameters of sloochy-solo-weird-keyboard jams

the winding, kinda bluesy vocal melody & the keyboard part that comes in half way through are both great, i really love this

& the keyboards/organs sound great, the underlying organ part is like a robert lippok record or something

jeeeezus this is grim

have not watched, but assuming that tmz just zipped over to the guy's trailer to dig some dirt, maybe the documentary guy shouldn't have written a story about how sly lives in a van, included its permanent address & sold it to the post

I don't think TMZ did the interview, it was originally posted here...?

http://www.5min.com/Video/Exclusive---Homeless-Music-Legend-Sly-Stone-Admits-To-Recent-Drug-Use-517169072

that was so sad I had to stop watching. One thing's clear, though--Sly's voice is gone...hell Sly himself seems nearly gone. I'd rather see that dude get healthy than hear any new music.

can barely bring myself to contemplate what's happened to the guy, 'riot' is sometimes my favorite album ever and 'stand' ain't far behind. just terrible to think about.

This vintage clip is wonderful. Check out the face of the girl at 0:27. As a friend on Twitter pointed out, it reminds you what it was like before everybody became conscious of being on camera. It's pure, unselfconscious joy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWdVClbOYwI&feature=related

It was also before they invented being jaded. Also, crossing your arms and frowning.

HE SHOULD HAVE STUCK WITH BUTTERMILK!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_Ll2AleUY0

Sly's voice is gone...hell Sly himself seems nearly gone. I'd rather see that dude get healthy than hear any new music.

^^^

decades of crack/cocaine is really hard on the vocal chords

Speaking of funk, isn't George Clinton allegedly a longtime functioning crack/cocaine addict?

yeah - GC's last arrest for cocaine/crack was in the parking lot of 7/11 in Ohio somewhere iirc...? That Clinton is even still alive and performing is a small miracle. (His voice, which was never all that melodious to begin with, is completely shot too btw). I'm not aure how Clinton has managed to keep going while someone like Sly falls by the wayside. Part of it may just be that Clinton has a much bigger support network/organization, I dunno...

What Sly needs is a Phil intervention:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLH32F6Xvkw

Clinton kinda tight with the old purse strings... according to various ex P-Funkers

yeah there's that

Clinton also seems willing/eager to work though - tours constantly, guest appearances, albums, etc.

He's been a businessman since he ran the barbershop back in Plainfield

Parliafunkadelicment never had the massive hits that Sly did, so their commercial troughs wouldn't have been very deep (and therefore, disillusioning/disheartening/demoralizing), compared to Sly's. But yeah, Clinton never stopped touring (and he generally tended to show up to his shows).

Mind you, think he's been bankrupt at least once

huh had no idea clinton was still a drug abuser -- he just played in my neck of the woods. interviews i've read with him actually seem pretty together. guess he's figured out how to function for the most part.

Sly Stone's problem is not lack of money. It's lack of touring to make money, like GC does. But again, if Gil-Scott wasn't living in a van. there's no reason Sly should be.

I mean, how much did Sly make off Janet Jackson?

Thinking that, whatever his ups and downs, Clinton's a much less troubled individual than Sly (or Gil Scott-Heron)

I guess? Implication is that Sly would be a mess even without drugs, which I guess is possible.

Anyway, someone get this guy an ambulance chaser so that he can get paid!

http://www.whosampled.com/producer-sampled/Sly%20Stone/?sp=4

Sly was very together in the early days, but I think the success got to him (just) before the drugs

Clinton's last arrest in 2003

dude in P-Funk's road crew told me Clinton tours with a defibrillator.

it sounds more like Sly just manages his money badly/gives shit away/loses track of it etc

surely the dude should be living off of royalties alone

Yes, he must earn enough money a year not to have to live in van

Clinton must have made a load of dough from licensing his work for samples. I'm sure Sly must have been sampled extensively but nowhere near as much or as lucratively as GC.

Nonetheless he shouldn't be in the state he's in.

I have a source inside the P-Funk camp that says GC finally got off drugs earlier this year after a health scare. If so, good for him. Unfortunately, Sly's never had that kinda willpower when it comes to cleaning up, and those years of isolation must've done some damage. I mean, with or without drugs, Clinton's been more "together" than Sly since about 1973. That's more than half both their lives.

^^^wouldn't be so sure about that re: GC and sampling royalties - Clinton gave away a lot of stuff, and ownership of his publishing rights went back and forth a lot (so many lawsuits, I can't keep track)

IIRC, Clinton has been/is being royally screwed by Westbound Records, and not in the normal ways labels screw artists: his signature was forged on a re-up of a contract.

Actually, he's devoted a whole blog to that subject: http://www.funkprobosci.com/

wow

'Coming to you from George Clinton better known as lethal lip the linguistic full metal jacket of vernacular ballistic shooting off at the mouth without chapped lips, hairs on my funk while others flunk diaper rash.’

love

the article above suggested sly had been screwed over by the label, etc, and that his publishing had been sold off back in the 80s, so that, combined w/his legendary untogetherness, means this sad situ shouldn't be too much of a surprise.

seriously, after reading that 'in their own words' book a few years back, i'm amazed sly made it to the 80s.

that book is so good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5vu9eNMKgQ

I think Sly played on that Material/Maceo EP back in ... 1990? With Bootsy, Bobby Byrd and Bernie Worrell, among the Laswell ringers.

i've always wondered if george and sly had any memory of making this. i just imagine everyone waking up on the floor of the studio at 4 in the afternoon trying to remember what happened the night before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kef7gR6bhUA

Sly shows up on the Axiom Funk comp with that crew...on the worst track of the bunch unfortunately. xp