Sly Stone S/D

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

^^^^

Xpost- the audio on that YouTube clip ain't the 12 inch version of "Hydraulic Pump," which has verses and is 12 minutes long. It beats the shit out of the version above, which was on the otherwise excellent Urban Dancefloor Guerillas. And yeah, they musta been high as kites.

long version is on Spotify btw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkPci47b2EQ

missing a minute and a half tho

You pump up and down, you pump up and down, you pump up and down and then you break it down!

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

probably fuck all since Michael Jackson owned Sly's publishing by then

yep. sold 'em to MJ some time in the early 80s iirc

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

exactly!!!

I know!!! ARRRGHHHHH SLY

wtf is Sly doin on this 1974 Elvin Bishop album...?

All of the box set was good wasn't it? The early lesser known psychedelic funk stuff included. Pretty weird in places.
Was surprised to find out that the last lp in there was still pretty good, just maybe not in comparison to other stuff by the same band. I think that's Small talk

hadn't realised that box 'a Collection' was a limited edition though. Or maybe had forgotten

Small Talk is totally a good album. dunno what else is in the box

small talk is great!!

there's a couple half-assed tracks on it imho but all the weird string stuff makes it stand out in his catalog and is really quite lovely

a Collection was all the lps up to Small Talk remastered and expanded. So all the discs that appeared separately in around 2009.