Sly Stone Chronology #1

Sly Stone Chronology

Part I

From Church to Stand!

19YYMMDD *:audio #:video

430315 Sylvester Stewart a.k.a. Sly Stone was born in Denton, TX.

Growing up in Vallejo, CA, in the North Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Sylvester was the second of the family’s five children. [Loretta, Sylvester, Freddie, Rosa and Vaetta].

As part of the doctrines of the Church of God in Christ (COGIC), to which the Stewart family belonged, the parents – K.C. and Alpha Stewart – encouraged musical expression in the household.

Sylvester and his brother Freddie along with their sisters Rose and Vaetta formed “The Stewart Four” as children, performing gospel music in the Church of God in Christ and even recording a single local release 78 RPM single.

52XXXX The Stewart Four “On the Battlefield” b/w “Walking in Jesus’ Name” 10″ 78 RPM single was released (Church of God in Christ).

Sylvester was identified as a musical prodigy. By the time he was seven, Sylvester had already become proficient on the keyboards, and by the age of eleven, he had mastered the guitar, bass, and drums as well. While still in high school, Sylvester had settled primarily on the guitar and joined a number of high school bands. Sylvester formed Stewart Brothers with his brother Fred.

59XXXX Stewart Brothers “The Rat” b/w “Ra Ra Roo” 7″ was released (Ensign).

60XXXX Stewart Brothers “Sleep on the Porch” b/w “Yum Yum Yum” 7″ was released (Keen).

The Viscaynes, a doo-wop group in which Sylvester and his friend Frank Arellano, who was Filipino, were the only non-white members. Jerry Martini played saxophone as the member of the backing group, The Continentals. The Viscaynes released a few local singles.

61XXXX The Viscaynes “Yellow Moon” b/w “Heavenly Angel” 7″ was released (Tropo).

61XXXX The Viscaynes and The Continental Band “Uncle Sam Needs You” b/w “Yellow Moon” 7″ was released (VPM).

6106XX The Viscaynes “Stop What You Are” b/w “I Guess I’ll Be” 7″ was released (VPM).

During the same period, Sylvester also recorded a few solo singles under the name Danny Stewart.

6110XX Danny Stewart “A Long Time Alone” b/w “I’m Just a Fool” 7″ was released (Luke).

After high school Sly studied music at the Vallejo campus of Solano Community College. Sly learned from Prof. David Froehlich, a pianist, bassist and composer. Sly describes Froehlich’s theory classes as starting with the basics of chords and scales, then diving into higher-level ideas about counterpoint and orchestration.

Sly Stone: Prof. Froehlich… the first person who made me love music as a language. (“Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” by Sly Stone with Ben Greenman (Auwa Books 17 Oct. 2023))

In the mid-1960s, Sylvester worked as a disc jockey “Sly Stone” (The nickname “Sly” was a common one for Sylvester throughout his years in grade school. Early on, a classmate misspelled his name “Slyvester,” and ever since, the nickname followed him.) for San Francisco, California, soul radio station KSOL, where he included white performers such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones in his playlists. He was influential in guiding KSOL-AM into soul music and started calling the station K-SOUL. While still providing “music for your mind, body, and your soul” and “goodness for our mind, body and our soul” on KSOL, Sly played keyboard for dozens of major performers including Dionne Warwick, Righteous Brothers, Ronettes, Bobby Freeman, George & Teddy, Freddy Cannon, Marvin Gaye, Dick & Dee Dee, Jan & Dean, Gene Chandler, and many more.

620127, 62?63?XXXX & 63XXXX Chubby Checker’s Twist Party, Cow Palace, Daly City, CA [Sly played keyboard for at least one of the three Twist Party concerts by then chart topper Chubby Checker held at the Cow Palace in 1962 and 1963. The concerts were put together by “Big Daddy” Tom Donahue and Bobby Mitchell from the then infamous KYA 1260 AM radio station and largely choreographed by Jerry Marcellino and Mel Larson.]

6203XX Sylvester Stewart “Help Me with My Broken Heart” b/w “Long Time Alone” 7″ was released (G & P).

620421 Twist Party starring Dick Stewart, Ides Hall, Sausalito, CA [Talent Show Contest (11:00–12:00). Music: Joe Piazza & the Continentals. The Pyramids (new group). Sal Valentino (special guest stars). Twist Contest for Adults & Teenagers.]

641003 KYA’s Swim Party, Cow Palace, Daly City, CA [The Animals, The Beau Brummels, Chuck Berry, Chad & Jeremy, The Coasters, Bobby Freeman, The Hondells, Lou Johnson, Sonny Knight, The Olympics, Roy Orbison, The Shirelles and The Spearmints. Sly played keyboard.]

During the same period, Sly worked as a staff record producer for Autumn Records, producing for Bobby Freeman and white San Francisco-area bands such as The Beau Brummels, The Mojo Men and Grace Slick’s first band, The Great Society.

64XXXX Bobby Freeman’s “C’mon and Swim” (Produced by Sly for Autumn Records. Sly used Jerry Martini on sax.) went gold.

Sly moved his family from Vallejo into a huge house, 700 Urbano Drive, San Francisco, CA.

64?0000 Polytechnic High School, S.F., CA

64XXXX Sly Stewart “I Just Learned How to Swim” b/w “Scat Swim” 7″ was released (Autumn).

65XXXX Sly “Buttermilk pt.I/II” 7″ was released (Autumn).

65XXXX Sly “Temptation Walk pt.I/II” 7″ was released (Autumn).

65XXXX Sly co-wrote three songs (“Advice”, “It’s Got To Happen” and “Free Funk”) with Billy Preston and arranged for Billy’s album “Wildest Organ in Town” (Capitol, released in 1966).

66XXXX The Losers North, San Jose, CA

651002 1965 Fall Spectacular Cow Palace, Daly City, CA [Sonny & Cher, Bobby Freeman, The Lovin’ Spoonful, The Mojo Men, Charlie Rich, The Shangri Las, Little Anthony & the Imperials, The Beau Brummels, Glenn Campbell, The Castaways, The Sunrays, The Tikis, The Toys, The Vejtables and Roy Head. Master of Ceremonies–Johnny Holiday of KYA.]

660128, 0206, 0401, 0414 Frenchy’s, Hayward, CA [Gigs as The Mojo Men (Sly: producer, Greg Errico: drums)]

66XXXX fall Castlemont High School, Oakland, CA

66XXXX Sly formed Sly & the Stoners with acquaintance Cynthia Robinson on trumpet.

671100 At the suggestion of Jerry Martini, Sly and Freddie combined their bands, creating Sly Brothers and Sisters.

661216–670428 Rich Romanello’s Winchester Cathedral, S.F., CA [performed on a weekly basis]*, #(silent, w/Rose!)

After their first gig at the Winchester Cathedral, they changed the name from Sly Brothers and Sisters to Sly & the Family Stone [SATFS].

Sly & the Family Stone

Sly Stone – vocals, organ, guitar, piano, celeste, harmonica, and more

Freddie Stone – vocals, guitar (ex-Freddie & the Stone Souls)

Cynthia Robinson – trumpet, vocals

Larry Graham – vocals, bass guitar (Cynthia’s cousin)

Jerry Martini – saxophone (ex-The Continentals)

Greg Errico – drums (ex-Freddie & the Stone Souls, ex-The Mojo Men)

The Heavenly Tones: Vet Stone, Mary McCreary, Elva Mouton – background vocals (Little Sister (1970–))

67XXXX Sly and David Kapralik, Epic’s A&R man, founded the production company, Stone Flower Music, Inc..

670829 Electric Circus Sly and David Kapralik

67XXXX Sly rented an apartment on Haight Street, between Gough and Laguaba Streets, S.F., CA.

670212 Abe Lincoln’s Birthday Party, Fillmore Auditorium, S.F., CA [VDC Study Group Benefit for the Council for Civic Unity. With Grateful Dead, Moby Grape, New Salvation Army Band, Mystery Trend, Our Lost Souls and Notes from the Underground.]

Dennis Pierson: One night at the Fillmore West [Fillmore Auditorium then] in 1967 my sister, Denise, and myself along with a couple other Family Stone offspring were in the front row watching another phenomenal SATFS concert! In the middle of a song, Sly came down and lifted all 4 of us one at a time up on the stage. I was stiff and nervous for about 2 minutes and then I did the funky chicken! Sly gave me the nickname Foggy Dennis, I think bc I lived in Daly City, 😂 (https://www.facebook.com/groups/SlyFriends)

670302 Wayne Manor, S.F., CA

670312 Frenchy’s, Hayward, CA [Residency?]

Every weekend during this period Frenchy’s, Hayward, CA

Many journalists write about Sly & The Family Stone’s reign at Winchester Cathedral in San Jose, but we, the Kelly Hill bunch of Hayward, California, where Larry Graham’s mom lived, knew that the group also took over Frenchy’s nightclub in Hayward every weekend during that same celebrated period.

It was there that I first saw Cynthia Robinson with her trailblazing self. Frenchy’s was a spot that allowed teenagers 16 years of age and older to hang after hours, until 6 a.m. mind you, because they served free breakfast after 2 a.m. They tore the roof off continually. The group could hambone, change instruments without missing a beat, sing incredible harmonies and made us joyous participants of the funkification process.

I remember one night Sly introduced a jazz burnished version of Summertime. As I recall, the whole piece was devoted to Cynthia’s trumpet prowess with some keyboard chords to augment her magnificent solo effort. The young crowd though was rude and talkative through the delicate pianissimo part of her solo. Sly stopped the show and reamed the crowd a new one for being so rude. When the tune was restarted the crowd paid rapt attention as Cynthia played beautifully and received a great ovation. (“Cynthia on the Throne” by Thurman Watts https://www.teasefurorscribendi.com/tee-dot-journalism/cynthia-on-the-throne 2015)

670325 Oakland Coliseum [supporting Eric Burdon & the Animals and The Associations with Bola Sete Trio, The Harbinger Complex and The Baytovens]

670328–0401 Wayne Manor, S.F., CA

670502, 05–07, 09–14, 16–21, 23–28 Wayne Manor, S.F., CA

670529 Lighthouse Inn, San Pablo, CA

670530 ?, S.F., CA

670606 ?, S.F., CA

670600–0700 Pussycat a Go Go, Las Vegas, NV [supported by The Otis Hale Happening]

Otis Hale: I had a band called the Otis Hale Happening. We worked in Vegas and we opened for Sly Stone – before he had any hit records – at a place called The Pussycat A Go Go. Sly came up to me one night and said “I really love your arrangement of ‘Funky Broadway.’” I thought that was the greatest compliment I ever got.

6708XX Their first album “A Whole New Thing” was finished.

670829 1st gig at Electric Circus, NYC

6708XX Photoshoot at Central Park, NYC

670910?18? “Dance to the Music” was recorded.

670930&1001 Frenchy’s, Hayward, CA [supported by T-Bone Walker and The Casanova Two]

6710XX “A Whole New Thing” was released (Epic).

671111&12 Frenchy’s, Hayward, CA

671117 “Dance to the Music” b/w “Let Me Hear It from You” 7″ was released (Epic).

671XXX unidentified club [live footage: later used as the promo video for “Dance to the Music”]#

671XXX Photoshoot

671120–1210 Fireside Club, San Mateo, CA

6801XX Rose Stone joined.

680200–0300 “Dance to the Music” (single released on 671117) became a smash.

680210 Frenchy’s, Hayward, CA

680216–0314 Pussycat a Go Go, Las Vegas, NV

680318 Both/And Club, S.F., CA

680322&23 Action House, Island Park, Long Island, NY [with Beacon Street Union]

6803XX? 04XX? Crimson Afternoon, Downingtown, PA

“They were the first group I ever saw live! 1967 or 1968 [6803XX? 04XX?] in Downingtown PA at the Crimson Afternoon. This was a little tiny place…everywhere was front row.” (Debra Devaney Carey)(https://www.facebook.com/100044381051343/posts/10154494997977040/?rdid=yIccVU0m5GAOeIpN)

680323 CBS Studios, NYC “Dance to the Music” sessions

68XXXX Photoshoot

Disc & Music Echo 680824

680329 The French Fries “Danse A La Musique” b/w “Small Fries” 7″ was released (Epic).

680329–30 Grande Ballroom, Detroit, MI [supporting The Fugs, with MC5 (29th) and The Psychedelic Stooges (30th)]

“One of my all time favorite nights at the Grande! Sly and his family had the place rock’n!!!” (Linda Harwood)(https://www.facebook.com/groups/56160843006/)

“All I can say is I know about his [later] reputation but he was fantastic when he played the Grande.” (William Herrick)(https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10209711471980617&set=gm.10159884794623007)

680405 New Place, Algonquin, IL [with Wild Honet]

680406 Wild Goose, Waukegan, IL [with House of Black]

680407 “Dance to the Music” was released (Epic).

680412 Star Theater, Phoenix, AZ [with Pat Paulsen]

680415 KQV presents Easter Shower of Stars, Civic Arena, Pittsburgh, PA [with The Association, The Delfonics, Billy Very & Judy Clay, The Esquires and The Entertainers]

680416–21 Generation, NYC, NY [supporting The Youngbloods]

680424 Palisades Amusement Park, Cliffside Park-Fort Lee, NJ

680424 Spring Cavalcade of Stars, Hara Arena, Dayton, OH [with The Box Tops, John Fred & the Playboy Band, The 1910 Fruitgum Company and The Balloon Farm]

680425 Spring Cavalcade of Stars, ?, Owensboro, KY [with The Box Tops, John Fred & the Playboy Band, The 1910 Fruitgum Company and The Balloon Farm]

680426 Spring Cavalcade of Stars, MacArthur High School Gym, Decatur, IL [with The Box Tops, John Fred & the Playboy Band, The 1910 Fruitgum Company and The Balloon Farm]

680427 Spring Cavalcade of Stars, Anderson High School, Anderson, IN [with The Box Tops, John Fred & the Playboy Band, The 1910 Fruitgum Company and The Balloon Farm]

680428 Spring Cavalcade of Stars, Civic Center, Hammond, IN [with The Box Tops, John Fred & the Playboy Band, The 1910 Fruitgum Company and The Balloon Farm]

680510 Fillmore East, NYC, NY [2 shows 8:00 & 11:30, supporting The Jimi Hendrix Experience]

Photos by Steve Banks

“Sly was unbelievable as well. I was at the late show.” (Mitch Bailin)
“Fabulous – I broke the skin on my hand from pounding my seat – never heard them before that show.” (H Grape Minkoff)
(https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1818960521610797&set=gm.10158132080207341)

“Sly Stone at Fillmore East May 10, 1968
The Night Sly Stone Led the Fillmore East Audience Into the Streets”
by Frank Mastropolo

Sly and the Family Stone appeared at New York’s Fillmore East on three weekends in 1968 and 1969, appearing with bands that include the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Eric Burdon & the Animals.

One night Sly Stone, with guitarist Freddie Stone and bassist Larry Graham in tow, marched off the stage and led the audience out of the fire exits and into the rainy East Village streets. In this excerpt from the book Fillmore East: The Venue That Changed Rock Music Forever, lighting tech Allan Arkush declares, “Sly & the Family Stone was a band that was not welcome at Fillmore East.”

Family Stone drummer Greg Errico, who remained on stage with the horn section and kept the rhythm cooking, explains that Sly Stone’s performance was hardly unexpected.

Greg Errico: I remember one of those series of shows. I was late. And I remember getting out of the cab, and I’m on the side street there where the side door is to the stage. And they were waiting for me.

The band is on stage. And Sly’s playing some chords and improvising. I don’t know if he was talking about that I hadn’t shown up yet or what, but I could remember flying out of the cab door, through the open backstage door, and they’re just trying to hold the moment in anticipation of me coming. And I just landed on the seat, and we hit the downbeat and went. No discussion about anything.

Allan Arkush: Sly & the Family Stone was a band that was not welcome at Fillmore East. Not the first show; that one wasn’t so bad. But when he became a headliner, he was always, always late. And when I say late, I mean forty-five minutes to an hour. And we did two shows a night, which meant that kids were standing outside waiting for an hour to get into the later show.

One night when he was playing, it was pouring rain, and he was late, and he kept everyone outside in the rain until midnight. And the late show is supposed to start at 11:30, and he was still on the stage at 11:45. And I remember the stage manager got his attention, he said, “Look, Sly, there’s people outside in the rain, could you kind of wrap it up?”

And Sly got on the mic and said, “The Man is trying to shut me down.” And he goes, “Let’s take it to the streets!” And he marched out the doors.

Greg Errico: It was just a bug that he had. It was just the moment. It wasn’t like, here, you guys, somewhere in the middle of the set we’re going to march outside and take everybody out. They just did it. You feel it at the moment, and you do it. Because you can, I guess. And that’s all it was.

If there was a mistake, something happens, something went wrong, the band would just immediately respond and turn it into something. So a lot of times, there were really cool things that happened, but the thing that spawned it might have been a mistake. Or something went wrong. Whatever. And that’s how it went.

So when he got up and started to leave the stage, maybe Freddie and Larry looked at each other, and they go “All right,” and they were just there. Like this was what was supposed to happen. Which wasn’t necessarily the case.

We used to have fun with just what would happen and what you did with it. That’s what made the band so much fun and interesting.

(Excerpt from “Fillmore East: The Venue That Changed Rock Music Forever“ by Frank Mastropolo)

“sly and the family stone” by David Henderson (*Crawdaddy* 680901)

I first saw Sly and the Family Stone at the Electric Circus in the fall of 1967. At that time they were fairly much unknown. I was surprised to find them singing some of the hippest music around. They were from San Francisco and came to New York on the tail end of the San Francisco folk-rock renaissance in the East.

The first night I came into the automatic Electric Circus I heard this very funky bass as I was walking up the stairs. Then as I got to the opening to the dance floor I saw couples dancing in the black light of the rear in a confusion of luminous white shirts and flowered dresses. The scene reminded me of my San Francisco days and the dances at the Fillmore, the Avalon Ballroom, and the Steam Beer Factory. I miss that whole scene; here in New York, dancing is all but outlawed. As I moved onto the dance floor, I saw a huge circle of people surrounding the podium and a solid line of six dancing people on the stage. On the far right was Sly at the organ swaying and weaving and getting up to buck dance with his two brothers on guitar: Larry, who plays the bottom (the bass), and Freddy, SIy’s blood brother and lead guitarist and singer. The stage was solid motion. Heading the woodwinds was Cynthia Robinson, a saucy tomato from Sacramento with thick red hair and a sensual bougaloo. She blows a hot lip trumpet (the only female player of trumpet l’ve seen in any group) and comes forth with a sensual gutsy blues wail as well. Sly, Freddy, and Larry do some fantastic rhythm steps. They wave their long black locks and kick their dogs high doing the pony while never missing a note by voice or axe. I could not tell whether the brothers wore marcels or wigs but the effects were strikingly strange.

The Family Stone with Sly at the helm plays minor concerts. Each tune connected by organ interludes is a cog in a larger wheel of tunes that swell a spectrum from blues ballad to bip-bop jass rock back to hard-up-against-the-wall rhythm ‘n’ blues. All include organ solos, intricate Bantu voice harmonics, and holy roller incantations and exhortations. Sly and the Family Stone provide a happy jumping chorus with their voices as well as instruments welded in spirit nommo as one. They explode the energy of an orchestra. The trumpet and saxophone combinations enable them to capture the dramatic flailing woodwind rhythm ‘n’ blues changes.

The second time I saw them was at the Fillmore East on Second Avenue. Sly plays a Beulah Baptist organ. His white Gabriel cape gleams like the full moon. He riffs Egyptian chromatics with the ease of a jacklegged preacher. You begin to think he can heal people right onstage. He throws fire and he holds it back—all under control—behind the urban Baptist beat. He rides along solidly. Larry on the bottom with the bass sometimes gets into out of sight interplays with Sly’s organ.

In Sly’s tunes I hear James P. Johnson, Jelly Roll Morton, and some James Cleveland too. Rural black lands and the southern crossings of freight trains, the transcended peoples of Africa tuning their symphony banjos of Euro-America to the pitch of their voice, their rap. Voices like instruments, instruments like voices.

The seven members of Sly and the Family Stone fill the stage. Their movements cinemascope human harmonics in dance and jig. The three brothers pony and hucklebuck in popeye-leg motions, shake down and ball the jack. Sly, Freddy, and Larry get into some fantastic harmony and rhythm things with their voices. Like for instance their boom-boom vocal harmonics which made “Dance to the Music” an instantly recognizable hit.

Their boom harmonies are but part of their arsenal of innovative effects that seriously challenge the traditional rhythm ‘n’ blues establishment of New York City and Detroit: the East. Sly’s songs say something more than “I love you, baby, and you do/or you don’t love me.” Take, for instance, his “Don’t Burn Baby Burn,” where he turns a popular saying among black militants into a moving ballad. Or “Jane ls a Groupie,” which is blessed with a Lambert, Hendricks and Ross virtuosity. He also has a song on his latest album (which as of this writing is not out yet) where he talks of the city of the future: “Where everybody will be able to groove with everybody else.” “City of Love” is the name, I think.

Sly definitely has something to say. He stands strong among the young innovators of today, the young revolutionaries. But Sly’s revolution is more towards Marshall McLuhan than, say, Rap Brown. His field is communication, the electromagnetic bands, a plethora of electronic instruments, amplifiers, between microphones, headphones, dance hall or audience or recording studio, where he stands with the engineer mixing his tapes at the Columbia Studios in New York. He puts the record together, mixing, listening, talking. He sits as long as the engineer does and is in on whatever goes down. While we were talking late one night at the studio he perked up at a remark passed between the engineers. “What do you mean ‘make it louder for the commercial stations’? Like ‘Mrs. Robinson,’ huh?”

Some believe a huge monster of electrical energy threatens to take over music. (Read Harvey Swados’s novel, False Coin, or go to a John Cage concert.) As Sly says, “Some groups just play loud.” They are absorbed into the living organism of electricity. Sly stands strong against the giant amplifiers of the Fillmore East or CBS’s voltage stockpile on East 52nd. His music is basically earth-oriented—in the Pentecostal tradition, the imparting of spirit of life, of vitality, the voice as a vessel of nommo, the body expressive of the spirit to even be played upon as a drum. Sly makes you feel the music groundswelling under you, throbbing in your backbone, making you tap your foot and bounce up and down. On the other hand, like at the concert where Sly and Jimi Hendrix performed on the same bill, Hendrix’s music assaulted the brain. Not in a harmful way like the noise of the city, which is the worst possible noise for our organism to endure, according to our scientists. Hendrix sublimates these horrible sounds of subways and exploding Mack trucks, jet exhaust buses and “dig we must” (“exploitation of energy for profit”) fascist sounds into a beautiful music with a pyramid base of urban blues guitar, like B. B. King’s looney obbligato screams, Blind Lemon’s Justice of Country Space, Jimmy Reed’s urban diddy bop beats, and exalts them all beyond our imagination. We hear spaceships landing, changing gears and turbines, factories, Frankenstein static blasts, jets taking off and exploding into melody. Ethereal melodies of the cosmos—Atomic Warfare, Volton Shagno, and Shiva. Like much of what Sun Ra does on organ, though not nearly as far out. Sun Ra says he has reached Jupiter. I would put Hendrix closer to the moon with a great deal of lunar intensity. I place Sly along with Hendrix, Havens, and the Chambers Brothers as the avant-garde of rhythm ‘n’ blues. And Nashville is also feeling some of the waves. Newark is strong in itself, taking the traditional to a genius extreme in the personages of Shorty Long and J. J. Jackson. But Hendrix, Sly, Havens, and to a lesser extent the Chambers Brothers have done for the black soul stations what in part black deejay Del Shields of WLIB has been screaming his head off for some time now at NARA conventions. And that is to bring some black intelligence and variance to the dilemma in programming that the black stations have fallen into under white ivy league management. A sign of the changing times is also evidenced by folksinger-poet-composer-troubadour Len Chandler’s gig with KRLA in L.A., in which he writes songs as part of the daily news commentary. Len Chandler’s mini-operas on his two Columbia LPs have had an underground effect on eastern black music.

Sly possesses a strong stooping pride and strangely Piscean face—rather strikingly close to Martin Luther King’s sargasso geechie lips and glinting barracuda eyes. Otis Redding is also a Pisces. Sly has Redding’s awareness of elemental melody. If there be a universal spectrum of sound, then I would place Redding and Sly into that continuum. Like the Yogis believe that sound has a deep effect on the physical body—that certain notes caress certain organs and glands (they call them chakras), that these glands and organs differently affect our sensibilities and emotions and that therefore music can affect the body in different ways—making one feel good or bad (to be simplistic). Many cultures (mainly outside the USA) consider music sacred, especially some of the ancient cultures like Egypt where the musicians gigged in the temples. Music can make you feel good. Norman Mailer attests to how he went to a Sun Ra concert in Chicago and got cured of a nasty cold. Sly makes me feel good. His music throbs an earthly loving movement. Sly has an elemental dedication which shines forth from his face. There is also the driving force and stubbornness of the bull. I remember the first time I saw him at the Electric Circus. Between the fortunately frequent appearances of the group, they would quietly play cards and receive visitors. They vivify a family unity and dedication that comes across as a devotional ceremony when they play.

Indeed it was like a devotional ritual, a jass funeral to Shango (the African god of life and death) when the Family Stone sang Otis Redding’s classic “Try a Little Tenderness.” Sly did not sing it exactly like Redding, nor did he sing it exactly like himself. He moved in between Redding, his own here and remaining true to the original there. Towards the crucial climax of tenderness, that beautiful building up Redding did which made us burst in anticipation of the clashing woodwinds and Otis’s plea, a screaming “got to got to try and please her.” When Sly gets to this point, he suspends tenderness in a heartsinking abyss. Sly holds the “got to got to,” slowly begins to repeat it, and then staggers the phrase; his brothers join; the pendulum swings wider and wider and pretty soon the three brothers are into a time-suspending chant: “got to got to now now now, got to got to now now now got to got to now now now.” They chant it for a while, and pretty soon we have ceased to hear the original words. We’re hearing something else, something closer to the utter archetypal root of the words in the melody, something out of the forests of Germany and those Anglo-Saxon crags off mainland Europe, with the backbone base of African drum chant in body ruba. And then after what seems like an eternity, a trip at the speed of light over continents and centuries, they end “Tenderness” in the resounding glory of Otis. The light show screen shows purple orbs merging and exploding into an immense twilight blue. Then they break into a fire and brimstone rhythm, and then as quickly into the hambone. We wanted the audience to quit the freak applause, so we could hear the three brothers’ hambones individually (the thump of hand on chest and the slap of palm on thigh dual rhythm in hump position) to discover if they were into anything. They were together. Then they jump into traditional proscenium Apollo steps, and the freight train is off once more.

Even in the timelessness the Family Stone can get us into, Sly has the power to rock the joint at any given moment. Each tune is irrevocably interwoven. We can dance for the duration. Then Sly is into a pure blind blending of the rock and rhythm beat with jass improvisations on guitar, organ, trumpet, and saxophone. The jass is reminiscent of Lester Young, Charlie Parker, and Clark Terry in the bip bop and cool periods of the late forties and early fifties. Sly reveals, as Sun Ra says, “an infinity in music that includes the past, the present, and the future.”

One Saturday we conducted a mock interview which really consisted of going around to the Lower East Side Village head shops, and shopping on St. Marks Place for a dress for his old lady. They were to go to the Americana that night to hear the Fifth Dimension. We drove around and got back to the hotel. After a series of changes in which we had to get a friend who was taking us to a kamikaze oriental sword-fighting ?ick, we grouped at his hotel for a hot hour concentrated talk before dashing to Chinatown.

In the ensuing hour, Sly filled us in on some of the questions and assumptions we posed. Sly could be called a musical prodigy, inasmuch as he started singing and playing at the age of four as part of a church group at the All Nation Church of God and Christ. All of four years old, he sang in a family group which included his brothers and sisters, called the Stewart Four. His sister and brother sing with him now not many years later. He is a neighbor of Little Dion the five-year-old (Jackie Wilson) musical talent on the Coast. Sly’s father and mother sang together as a duo when they were young. Now Sly’s father is their road manager. Sly made a recording with the Stewart Four backing him up called “On the Battlefield for My Lord.” When we asked Sly who was his chief musical mentor, he answered after a long pause, “a fellow named Blind Daniel. He was a man of the Lord who used to visit our church and sing and play.”

Sly has two albums (A Whole New Thing and Dance to the Music) out on Epic, as is his latest, of which I don’t know the name. Dance to the Music takes off from the hit 45 of the same title. A whole side is devoted to the exploration of that tune and, as Sly says, basic message of frivolity of dance and rhythm. “Dance to the Music”—a simple sentiment holding together a welter of thought. If only the population could indeed dance to the music, the music of life, instead of, as England’s Anthony Powell says, the music of time. Fuck time. I recommend both albums—especially if you dance, they are indispensable. Both of the albums have a myriad of beautiful and surprising effects, and they are good to make love to as well. A Whole New Thing blends the ballad and the jump tune with fineness. We found especially pleasing a tune called “If This Room Could Talk.” It’s a ballad about, as you guessed, a cat in a room thinking about his old lady. It has beautiful Indian (American) effects. The theme is transmuted from the western movies, but their harmonies vocally transform the wary cry into a modulating tour de force. “Let Me Hear It from You” is a beautiful ballad from baritone-bass Larry. He tells his girl that if she wants to break up with him he wants to hear it from her. I remember in the fifties when groups like the Dells, the Spaniels, and the Velours, up at the Apollo, all had fantastic deep basses. Larry qualifies as a boss bass. He covers the bottom instrumentally and vocally. On Dance to the Music, I recommend the entire album, especially “Higher” and the “Dance to the Music” medley. On the other side, “Color Me True” and the boss ballad “Don’t Burn Baby Burn” and “Never Will I Fall in Love Again.” I guess the total message of this long-winded piece is to strongly pull your coat to the Family Stone. They provide in their music a sure and avant-garde direction to where the rhythm and race music is going. Goodbye.

(“Sly and the Family Stone” by David Henderson Crawdaddy 680901)

680516&17 Lighthouse Carnival, Montreal, QC, Canada

680518 Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH

680524&25 Staples High School Auditorium, Westport, CT [with Soul Purpose (24th) and Sock-Hop (25th)]

6805XX? 06XX? 07XX? 08XX?

680607&08 Cheetah, L.A., CA

680613–16 Whisky A Go Go, West Hollywood, CA [canceled appearance]

680619 Epic National Sales Convention, ?, Las Vegas, NV

680621–23 Fillmore Auditorium, S.F., CA [supporting Quicksilver Messenger Service]

680625 unknown studio, NYC, NY [recording for Spaulding Wood Affair]

Photos by Don Paulsen

680625 Longshore Country Club Ballroom, Westport, CT [supported by Ruffignao Electric Light Harmony]

680626 Staples High School, Westport, CT

680627 Kraft Music Hall on NBC [TV broadcast 680821. Setlist: “Life” & “Dance to the Music > Music Lover”. Other guests: The Four Tops, Joan Rivers (comedian), Tim Hardin and Rita Gardner.]#

68XXXX Photoshoot

6806XX “M’Lady”/”Life” 7″ was released, as a double A-side single (Epic).

6806XX unknown studio [promo video for “Life”]#

680701 “Life” was released (Epic).

680702 Showcase ’68, ?, New Orleans, LA

680704&05 Kaleidoscope, L.A., CA [2 shows 9:00 & 11:00, with Canned Heat]

680706 Kaleidoscope, L.A., CA [with The Doors]

680709,10,11(?)&19(?) Kaleidoscope, L.A., CA [with Sons of Champlin, The Doors (?) and Canned Heat (a cameo appearence with a song or two on 680709&10)]

“I can still remember the first time I saw this group. It was at the Kelidiscope [Kaleidoscope] in LA. Changed my RnB perception. The band never stopped moving. It was incredible.” (Brent Block)

680712&13 Shrine Exposition Hall, L.A., CA [supporting Butterfield Blues Band, with Velvet Underground and Rockets]

680719–21 Fillmore West, S.F., CA [supported by The Jeff Beck Group and Siegal Schwall]

680722 Circle Star Theatre, San Carlos, CA [Replacing Martha & the Vandellas. With Richie Havens.]

680723 Melodyland, Anaheim, CA [supporting The Turtles, who canceled]

680726 Philadelphia Music Festival, John F. Kennedy Stadium, Philadelphia, PA [supporting Wilson Pickett × Mitch Ryder Show, with The Magnificent Men, John Hammond and Friends of the Family]

680801 CBS Studios, NYC, NY

Photos by Don Paulsen

680810 WABX Presents Underground Sounds, Ford Auditorium, Detroit, MI [Iron Butterfly > SATFS > Chambers Brothers]

“At Ford Auditorium when they first released an album, great show. They were the opener, then Iron Butterfly with The Chambers Brothers as the headliner.” (Louis Carpinelli)(https://www.facebook.com/100044381051343/posts/10154494997977040/?rdid=yIccVU0m5GAOeIpN)

Dennis Pierson: The year was 1968 and at the time my mom, Annie Martini was married to Jerry Martini and my sister Denise, my little brother, Jerry Jr. and myself all lived in Daly City, Ca. So I came home from school one day and mom tells me start packing your bags were moving to New York City in one week! I didn’t have alot of time to think about it but I do know that I was excited and scared at the same time. So it turns out that Sly and CBS had both agreed it was better for the band in regards to recording as well as performing, to move the 7 piece band and all their families to New York!!! After all if you make it there you’ll make it anywhere! So after goodbyes to friends and family we jumped on United and we were on our way to the big Apple. After a long 6 hour flight we arrived on the East coast for the first time and it was different. A limo took us from the airport to the hotel on West 55th St.. The Gorham Hotel would be our residency for the next year and since there was around 40 of us we had the whole 2nd floor. I was in the second grade and when we changed schools in New York I was amazed at how behind the East coast was from West coast education! No wonder we were so hip! So Sly and band would play on a regular basis at the Fillmore East and my siblings and I got to see the band there a lot and they were young, raw and hungry. Sly got the band a gig down in Greenwich village at a farout place called the Electric Circus. Black lights and fluorescent everything was the Norm of the day and when you went up the winding staircase of the Circus it was like another world. (https://www.facebook.com/groups/SlyFriends)

680820–25 Electric Circus, NYC, NY [2 shows each night 9:30 & 11:30]

Gigs at Electric Circus, NYC, staying at Albert Hotel, NYC rats… murder… for 1 or 2 days > Park Sheraton Hotel, NYC right around the corner from The Scene Club. Starving winter… Staying at Gorham Hotel, NYC for 6 months in 1968.

680903 Summer Showcase ’68, Ohio State Fair, Columbus, OH [NBC TV Summer Showcase ’68 finale, performing “Music Lover” & “M’Lady”. Winning the $10,000 prize competing against American Breed, Chambers Brothers, Julie Budd and Andrea Marcovicci. Summer Showcase ’68 was a traveling TV talent show similar to American Idol. The show was the summer replacement for The Jerry Lewis Show on NBC, and it visited ten cities searching for and presenting new young professional talent. The Chambers Brothers were in the lead throughout the show, until SATFS beat them at the finals in Columbus, Ohio.]#

The first British tour of SATFS

680911 Larry was busted at London Airport for possession of cannabis.

680912 Larry was charged £200.

680912 BBC UK TV Top of the Pops [Recording of “Are You Ready”, “M’Lady” & “Life”, plus Sly Stone interview. But the broadcast was banned because Larry was charged the previous day with possessing cannabis and remanded on bail until later that month.]*

680912 Hachett’s Club, Picadilly, London, England

680913 Roundhouse, London, England [canceled, supporting The Small Faces]

680913 Royal Tottenham, London, England

680913 White Lion Edgware, London, England

680914 UK TV Dee Time

680914 Plaza, Oldhill, England

680914 Plaza, Handsworth, England

680915 Blaises, London, England

680915 Douglas House, London, England

680916 Orchid Ballroom, Purley, England

680917 The rest of the tour was canceled.

680918 Sherwood Rooms, Nottingham, England [canceled]

680920 Mardi Gras, Liverpool, England [canceled]

680920 Victoriana, Liverpool, England [canceled]

680921 California Ballroom, Dunstable, England [canceled]

680921 Twisted Wheel Club, Manchester, England [canceled]

680922 Hampstead Country Club, London, England [canceled]

680923 Golden Torch, Tungstall, England [canceled]

680924 Kursaal, Southend, England [canceled]

680924 Revolution, London, England [canceled]

680926 Mayfair Ballroom, Newcastle, England [canceled]

680927 Top Rank, Swansea, Wales [canceled]

680928 Seagull Ballroom, Isle Of Wight, England [canceled]

680928 Kimble’s, Portsmouth, England [canceled]

680929 Tabernacle, Stockport, England [canceled]

680930 City Hall, Sheffield, England [canceled]

680930 Co-Operative Hall, Doncaster, England [canceled]

68XXXX Electric Ballroom, London, England [canceled]

6810XX ?

6810XX Photoshoot

681004&05 Fillmore East, NYC, NY

The live photos from these four shows were to be used for the cover of *“Stand!”*.

[Supporting Eric Burdon & the Animals.

Songlist:

681004 1st show: “Are You Ready”, “Color Me True”, “Won’t Be Long”, “We Love All (Freedom)”, “Turn Me Loose > I Can’t Turn You Loose”, “Chicken” & “Love City”

681004 2nd show: “M’Lady”, “Don’t Burn Baby”, “Color Me True”, “Won’t Be Long”, “St. James Infirmary”, “Turn Me Loose > I Can’t Turn You Loose”, “Are You Ready”, “Dance to the Music”, “Music Lover” & “Life > Music Lover”

681005 1st show: “Life”, “Color Me True”, “Won’t Be Long”, “Are You Ready”, “Dance to the Music”, “Music Lover” & “M’Lady”

681005 2nd show: “M’Lady”, “Life”, “Are You Ready”, “Won’t Be Long”, “Color Me True”, “Dance to the Music”, “Music Lover”, “Love City”, “Turn Me Loose > I Can’t Turn You Loose” & “The Riffs”]*

Greg Errico: These sets are the epitome of what Sly & the Family Stone was about. When we lift off, we’re like a 747 and you ain’t pulling us down. That’s what I remember. (source?)

“The Fillmore East” by Richard Kostelanetz
4 October 1968
This was the great group of the evening, really like nothing else aroundーhard to classify, as they have a lot of rhythmic savvy but little soul (except for a broadly built lead trumpeter, Cynthia Robinson, who does a moving rendition of “St. James Infirmary” and on whom I have a crush, my distaste for horns in rock notwithstanding). Their at is truly frenetic. The star is Sly (Stone), an inordinately skinny little black guy with sunken cheeks, protuberant teeth, and a great head of hair, wearing white knickers, white stockings, and only a vest over his bare chest. Then there are two band members, who might be Sly’s “family”, playing bass and guitar (not particularly well), another black woman with a blonde wig and a stiff manner of playing a keyboard and occasionally singing, a bearded white on saxophone which he plays into the same microphone as the lady trumpeter, and a bearded skinny white drummer who looks as though he comes from another world but actually blends quite well musically. (Stone’s actual relatives in the group were brother Freddie n guitar and sister Rosie on keyboards; Larry Graham played bass, Jerry Martini sax, and Greg Errico was the drummer.) Their masterpiece is the song popular a short while ago, “Dance to the Music” but their theatrical abandon makes them one of the very finest performing groups I’ve seen.

681011 American University, Washington, DC [supported by The New York Rock & Roll Ensemble]

681012 Fillmore East, NYC, NY [supported by Hollies]

681013 Cobo Arena, Detroit, MI [2 shows 4:00 & 8:30, supporting The Fifth Dimension with Carla Thomas, Artistics and Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers.]#(b/w, silent)

Al Kooper digging Sly.

“He was a very nice guy. I got to spend a few hours with him backstage at Cobo Hall, when the band was in the Stax-Volt Review lineup. I was pretty young, but he didn’t treat me like a kid at all. No matter how bad his situation became, the Sly I hung out with that day is the Sly I keep in my mind.” (Perry Dror)(https://www.facebook.com/groups/56160843006/)

681018 Patrick Gym, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT

681019 Sargent Gym, Boston University, Boston, MA [supported by The Grenadiers]

681020 Erlton Lounge, Cherry Hill, NJ

681029–1103 Grandmother’s, Lansing, MI

681107 Leo’s Casino, Cleveland, OH

681115&16 Psychedelic Supermarket, Boston, MA

681120 Onondaga County War Memorial, Syracuse, NY [supporting Steppenwolf]

681121 Newburgh Free Academy, Newburgh, NY [Warren on stage]

681123 St. Vincent College, Latrobe, PA [supported by The Mind Garage]

6811XX “Everyday People” b/w “Sing a Simple Song” 7″ was released (Epic).

6811XX Croton-on-Hudson, NY [promo video shooting for “Everyday People”]#

6811XX TV Upbeat [rip-sync video for “Everyday People” & “Sing a Simple Song”]#

6811XX Photoshoot by Ron Raffaelli (The Visual Thing, INC.)

681206 2nd Quaker City Rock Festival, Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA [with Grateful Dead, Steppenwolf, Iron Butterfly and Creedence Clearwater Revival]

681207 Electric Factory, Philadelphia, PA [supported by Shep & American Dream]

681209–18 Flamingo Hotel Lounge Casino Theatre, Las Vegas, NV

681226–29 Fillmore West, S.F., CA [with Steve Miller Band & Pogo]

Photos by Tom Copi

681229 TV broadcast Ed Sullivan Show, NYC, NY on ABC [performing “Everyday People > Dance to the Music > Sing a Simple Song > M’Lady > Music Lover”]#