Sly Stone Chronology

Part IV

Riot

19YYMMDD *:audio #:video

700719 Open Air Pop Festival, Parade Stadium, Minneapolis, MN [One hour late. 20 arrests for gate crashing. Supported by Johnny Winter, Richie Havens, White Lightning and Illinois Speed Express (subbing for The Amboy Dukes).]

An estimated 6,000 people gathered in Parade Stadium Sunday for the Open Air Rock Festival. That wasn’t enough to make it a financial success but artistically and socially, it was pretty good. The weather in which it openedーgray and blusteryーwas better suited to football than a music festival. Things warmed up in a hurry, though, as White Lightning, the only local band on the bill, did a hard-driving set that included “tributes” to Dicks Nixon and Daley and ended with a drum-punctuated version of the William Tell Overture. The second band, Sly and the Family Stone, were an hour late going on. When they finally made it, Sly spent too much time indulging in non sequiturs and curbstone philosophy. Except for several moments during “I Want Take You Higher” and a couple other of his songs, there was precious little of the funky, soulful rhythm-and-blues rock he produced at Woodstock and on record. Illinois Speed Press, which was excellent in recent concerts here and at St. Cloud, unveiled a new country-rock sound. “Railroad Days” from a forthcoming album was particularly good and lead guitarist Kal David put down some fine, hard blues throughout. (“16,000 Fans Attend Outdoor Rock Show” by Will Shapra Minneapolis Tribune 700720)

Sly and the Family Stone had committed to play this festival and also Randall’s Island rock festival in New York on the same day. Pat Raines got wind of the double booking and obtained an order in Manhattan Superior Court requiring Sly to appear in Minneapolis. “They were interested in both festivals and weren’t sure which they would make,” said Raines. We helped them make up their minds.” Another version of the story is that Sly had told Raines that he wanted out of his contract ahead of time, but after some jockeying of time spots, he agreed to appear. At any rate he was there, although he came on at least an hour late and reportedly drunk, starting with the words “Minneapolis stinks.” Sly supposedly called Minneapolis “worthless.” Doug Hoaglund remembered “Sly was very late and the emcee was making excuses like “traffic” or something. When Sly stumbled onstage he laughed about the excuses and said he was sitting in his Limo behind the stage. He sounded out of it. Dumb.” Reviewer Shapira complained that “Sly spent too much time indulging in non sequiturs and curbstone philosophy.” (http://twincitiesmusichighlights.net/events/ (source: Minneapolis Star 700716&20; Minneapolis Tribune 700720))

700719 New York Pop, Downing Stadium, Randall’s Island, NY [no show up]

700724 Memorial Auditorium, Canton, MI [Supported by The Seven Seas, The Jones and The Damnation of Adam Blessing. Sly appeared at 2 AM and broke up at 4.]

Canton CANTON ー Bill Steffey, Canton radio newscaster, was coming to work at 4 a.m. today. “Good Lord. I’m drunk.” he told himself as he became tangled in a web of early morning traffic. There were cars everywhere, youths mostly, moving from the downtown area. YOUTHS ー nearly 5,000 of them police said ー had shown up Friday evening at Memorial Auditorium to hear Sly And The Family Stone, a popular rock group. A warmup group began the show. And then the young people waited and waited and waited some more. There were promises, but Sly was nowhere to be seen. FINALLY, at 2 a.m. Sly And The Family Stone put in its appearance. While the rest of the city slept ー excepting a squad of Canton police ー the auditorium rumbled to the Sly sound. When it all ended about 3:45 a.m., the audience poured into the street and mostly headed for home. Another early-morning riser was on his way to work about 4 a.m. “I was wondering why kids were everywhere,” he said. “They were sitting on the sidewalks and sleeping in cars.” (“Sly’s’ Wee Hours Show Rocks” The Akron Beacon Journal l700725)

700725 Public Hall, Cleveland, OH [2 hours late. Supported by Savage Grace.]

CLEVELAND (AP) ー In Cleveland officials have decided not to lease municipal facilities to musical groups with a record of disturbances before, during or after their concerts. Properties Director Edward J. Baugh said he was banning the rock group of Sly and the Family Stone from Music Hall Public Hall and Municipal Stadium. LOOTING, purse snatchings, robberies and vandalism broke out in downtown Cleveland Saturday night after a Family Stone concert in Public Hall. Crowd violence which erupted in Chicago Monday night also centered around a Family Stone concert but the group denied it was to blame. Baugh said the Cleveland ban would also apply to groups such as the Doors, which have had problems in other cities. (“‘Disturbance’ Rock Groups Are Banned” The Akron Beacon Journal 700731)

700726 Summer Fest ’70 (700717–26), Lake Michigan Lakefront, Milwaukee, WI [Scheduled time: The Wrest, 7:30 p.m.; Yesterday’s Children, 8:10; SATFS, 9. Sly stayed in his hotel room an extra hour, having learned the mob tore down a barrier in front of the stage. He refused to appear until he got assurances that police would keep the throng under control. Other acts: James Brown Revue, Roland Kirk & the Vibration Society, Jose Feliciano, Ramsey Lewis, Cannonball Adderley, Sarah Vaughan, Rotary Connection, Ox, Esquires, Procol Harum, Chicago, Earl Scruggs Review, Buddy Guy Blues Band, The Cowsills, Bobby Sherman and many others.]

MILWAUKEE (AP) ー Police estimated rock music fans numbered 125,000 Sunday night for the conclusion of Milwaukee’s Summerfest week at a 15-acre park on the Lake Michigan waterfront. Sly and the Family Stone, a soul-rock group, was the chief attraction. Sly Stone, 25, a former San Francisco radio employe, held up the show for an hour, refusing to appear until he got assurances that police would keep the throng under control. After a 50-minute performance, Sly, his mink boots, bouffant hair-do and music group were escorted from the stage by helmeted police after lights turned out to conceal the getaway. Before appearing, Sly stayed in his hotel room an extra hour, having learned the mob tore down a barrier in front of the stage. Police crowd estimates soared to 175,000 for the day’s activities.” (“Sly Stone Gives Crowd Long Wait” Fond du Lac (Wisconsin) Commonwealth Reporter 700727)

“I was at Summerfest in Milwaukee when Sly was playing and a riot broke out.” (Pam Ullo) (https://www.facebook.com/groups/vanishedchicago/posts/23970064509300316/)

700727 Grant Park, Chicago, IL [Riot. Supported by Fat Water and Flying Burrito Brothers. Riot. No-show.]

Police arrested 165 persons on charges of mob action in the park and in the downtown district, where windows were smashed and stores looted. The total injured was 135, including 65 policemen. Three youths were wounded by gunfire.
The melee began shortly after the 4 p.m. starting time announced for a rock group called Sly and the Family Stone. The performers did not appear on stage, and unhappy youths waiting in the muggy, 90-degree heat pelted the stage with stones and bottles.
A spokesman for Sly and the Family Stone said the group was not scheduled to appear until 6:30 p.m. and this had been announced to the crowd. The spokesman also said that Sly was en route from Milwaukee by automobile and would have been at Grant Park earlier than the scheduled appearance except for the traffic jam created by the riot.
(“Rock Band Failed to Show; Crowd Goes on Rampage” Spokane Chronicle 700728)

In Milwaukee, a limousine driver, Michael Buchanan, 20, said Chicago police had intercepted the soul-rock musician’s hired limousine about an hour before the concert was to begin, and escorted Stone’s combo to Chicago Cily Hall instead.
“Sly wanted to go on,” Buchanan said, “but police reported violence had broken out, and Stone said that he wasn’t going to fight with 60,000 people.”
“Sly is getting blamed for all of the trouble, and he really wasn’t the case of it,” Buchanan said. “The police said there was no way to get in the park.”
(“Chicago ‘Rock’ Shows Canceled After Battle” The Daily Chronicle 700729)

“I was there too with friends … split as soon as we saw bottles fly thru the air.” (Nancy A. Smith)
“I was there. There was an opening act, if I remember correctly they were called “White Lightning” [700719 Minneapolis?] and their big number was a rock version of the “William Tell Overture” by Rossini. If I recall correctly they played their set, closed with the Overture, and then we waited and waited and Sly never played. During the wait, I think, the heat, the drugs, and alcohol in the hot sun proved to be a catalyst for the riot that followed. And if you say there were people there spoiling for a riot, they had many willing participants. I remember myself and my friends running like hell to get out of there with tear gas canisters flying over our heads! Quite a scene!” (Chip Degaard)
“Chris Hillman of the Burritos (original Byrds bass player) once told me that since Sly was very late. they thought that it might calm the crowd if the Burritos played, but as soon as they started a rumor swept the crow that Sly was no showing so beer bottles began flying past their heads. Their Viet Nam vet roady who was fearless told him that he would try to guard their equipment and they ran for their lives.” (Clay H. Phillips)
(https://www.facebook.com/groups/vanishedchicago/posts/23970064509300316/)

“I tried to see Sly summer of 1970 in Chicago’s Grant Park, a free daytime concert I believe. Very very hot that day, a lot of people show up, and the band didn’t show. Then the crowd turned into a riot. SDS versus the Police. Mayhem.” (DeeZee)(https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/did-you-ever-see-sly-and-the-family-stone.360991/)

“The mob situation I experience showed me how much the media lies. They claim people started rioting in Grant Park because Sly Stone did not show up. THAT IS NOT TRUE, I WAS THERE. The reason anything started was there was an idiot on top of the band shell and he threw a beer bottle from atop the band shell. Of course some people threw things at him and the melee started! I hurried to get my cousin out of harms way.” (Geoff Watts) (Facebook)

“She [Gwen Johnson, aka Psyche, the midday DJ for WGLD] was there [Grant Park] to MC for a big show…a free show…starring Sly And The Family Stone. That summer of 1970, Sly was messing up. Major drug problem. That led to a well-earned reputation for being very late in taking the stage, and worse yet…many times a total no-show. Sly agreed to this free concert in the park to make up for past shows that never happened. The city was involved as well to make an attempt to relieve tensions between Mayor Daley (the first one) and the younger citizens. This is only two years after the riots at the Democratic Convention here in Chicago. This is only a couple of months after the fatal shootings at Kent State and Jackson State. 6 students murdered within two weeks. Things were tense. The Sly riot was not fatal but horrible. A lot of folks still think it happened because Sly was not there. Gwen was there. She was the MC. She told me that Sly and the band were on site. They showed up. First part of her job was to introduce the opening band. Can’t remember who that was but remember Gwen told me the place exploded when she introduced them. She felt it was an excuse to have a rumble. Who brings baseball bats and bricks to a concert? Even in 1970. Who expects to see the headliner open the show? It was an excuse. It was insane. Sly felt terrible and begged to come out on the stage to assure the crowd that they would be playing after the opening band. The authorities would not let Sly take the stage. They didn’t let Gwen try to calm them down. They had a point. There were too many people there that couldn’t care less. They were there to tear it down. These were tense times. So I got an eye-witness account that it was not Sly’s fault. The next year Sly and The Family Stone released a new album. The name…There’s a Riot Goin’ On. There was some talk of a photo of the Grant Park Music Shell with a police car turned upside down for the cover. They went with a flag and no print. No name. Nothing. Till they put a sticker on it to sell some records. The inner sleeve featured a photo collage with a pic of Marina Towers. I guess a tip of the hat to Chicago.” (Terri Hemmert) (https://www.facebook.com/terrihemmert/posts/pfbid0JiqRmzTtLD1Bmi3KMboMcUptatTiJh5VmFzgK4NHZE5eiHgnXaVh2cU1x3WHF7Ghl)

“I was there. I was twelve years old, and my brother and cousin and I took the bus to the Bandshell from Brighton Park. It seemed like we waited for hours before finally, we heard he was a no show. The crowd got restless, and the next thing you knew it, a riot ensued. Don’t remember who started it, but there was teargas and we ran across that rickety old bridge over the train tracks. It was so scary, and my eyes stung all the way home on the bus back. Disappointing as it was, we were just glad we didn’t get hurt, aside from the stinging in our eyes from the teargas. Loved his music and played and danced to his music all the time. Glad to know that he was there and sad that he had to live with the stigma of causing the riot. RIP Sly” (Virginia Casillas Crain)
“I was there. I took the train down with a bunch of kids. I was 13. I remember how hot it was, and everyone waiting around and thinking sly was a no show. When the rioting started, and bunch of us ran across the street to the lake and went swimming off the rocks. I remember cutting my leg open on an underwater rock and riding the train home with some boys t shirt tied around my leg to stop the blood. We had a blast. I was 13. Can you imagine parents letting kids that age do that now???” (Carla Strubbe Finno)
“I was there. I saw zero bricks. I saw zero baseball bats. That doesn’t mean some people didn’t bring those objects. I did see a bottle heading towards my melon. Thankfully, the trajectory was such that not only was I able to avoid it, I could have caught it had I been thinking of anything other than running…” (Scott Murray)
“I was at that concert. I had heard that Sly had a reputation for being late or not showing up. It’s good to know that he and the band were there and ready. I got my first (and only, so far) whiff of tear gas at that “show”. An unforgettable event!” (Don Elmore)
“I was there with 2 friends from Wheaton. Fat Water was the local band. I don’t think they ever got to finish a song. The Flying Burrito Brothers were also supposed to play, and who I was actually more interested in seeing that day. Turned into a giant bummer, ruined by a minority of jerks, as usual.” (Ted J Wagner)
“I was there, and the problem started with young thugs who went to the folks on blankets and started stealing whatever was grabable. That’s when the rocks and bottles were thrown, certainly not a good idea, as a lot of people sitting and minding their own business got pelted. And we all know what happened after that.” (Mark Mardell)
“I was there with my sister and my BFF. People were throwing rocks and bottles. Everyone started running. The cops showed up. They stopped us and told us to get on the bus and don’t come back. It was total chaos.” (Corinn Ebster)
“I was there. it has nothing to do with Sly…that riot was totally planned . I was…am…totally in agreement with the protest….not the riot…those people defeat our purpose.” (Diane Cores)
“I was in Grant Park that day. It was hard to get away from the madness once everything went crazy. I remember seeing the police lined up in formation, and the crowd charged them. The officers took out their guns pointed them towards the crowd, everybody stopped, then suddenly they pointed straight up and fired a warning shot. I got out of there over to Michigan Ave. They were tearing that up. I had to walk past Roosevelt to get clear and catch a bus.” (Kobi Michael Jones)
“I was walking to the park to see Sly & .. the band with a bunch of friends from work.. as we approached the park we saw tear gas being deployed & utter chaos.. fortunately we were on the edge of it and able to escape. The initial story was that sly and the family stone again didn’t show up because he was too stoned or some such story. Then I heard that it had been kind of sabotaged by people that intentionally wanted to cause a riot. People who were supposedly anti-hippie, etc., etc. So I’m not sure what the true story was, but I was very grateful that I hadn’t gotten there earlier and would have been in the middle of all that.” (Sharon Barrett-Shriver)
“I was there…at Grant park…to see the make up concert promised by Sly. I cannot pinpoint when things started going south…. We were all sitting on the grass and having a great time…. I do recall that there were some rumblings that Sly would pull another “no show”..but no one was doing anything weird…. Then, all of a sudden, people were scrambling to leave the park. I was separated from my friends in the ensuing chaos. I remember walking aimlessly away from the park..trying to figure out how to get back to our car. I watched a police car being turned by a group of people…. It was so surreal!” (Marge Burrows King Siegal)
“I was there in July, 1970 just 10 steps from the Bandshell stage. We waited for hours for Sly to show. The crowd grew tense and began chanting “We want Sly” throwing cans onto the stage, then glass bottles, then rocks. Police in riot gear were headed south on Michigan Ave surrounded by huge cloud of tear gas. I ran as fast as I could southward, then west across the IC tracks bridge all the way home to 20th and Michigan. My teenage friends and I were terrified and will never forget that day…EVER!” (Velda Bowman Sellers)(https://www.facebook.com/terrihemmert/posts/pfbid0JiqRmzTtLD1Bmi3KMboMcUptatTiJh5VmFzgK4NHZE5eiHgnXaVh2cU1x3WHF7Ghl)

“I was there and I remember laying over my one-year-old son in the bushes when it all happened.” (Jim Wolfe)
“Ditto. I stuck around out of 16 year old curiosity, then headed for the hills when bottles started flying overhead.” (Scott Murray)
“Bottles flying, tear gas cannisters exploding, and me at 14 y.o. running for the train station. Good times…” (Jack Cieslak)
“I was there. Came a little late. Walked in as police were coming out of patty wagons with night sticks up. Tear gas started flying. Got out of there fast. People smashing store front windows. Turning cars over. Eye opener for a young high school girl.” (Kate Charles)
“Memories- we got tied up in a LSD traffic jam heading to the concert and then had car trouble- overheating radiator. Parked in the loop and saw mayhem. Cops in riot gear, kids running. A group of guys were trying to tip over a car. I was told to leave because it was my friends car, not mine by one of Chicago’s finest. Was happy to hop on a bus and get out of there.” (Michael Mark)
“My friends and I retreated to the southwest corner of Balbo and Columbus when the rocks and tear gas started flying, looking back to the south over the scene. As we stood there, there was a group of about ten others across the street, standing on the southeast corner, doing the same thing as we were: watching from a safe distance. An unmarked car pulled up behind them and out jumped about five plain clothes cops, black pants, white shirts, with truncheons who went up behind those kids and without any warning began beating them over the heads with the truncheons. I can still hear the crack of truncheon on skull to this day. I was a pretty straight kid and this was my first experience with unprovoked police violence. It put the whole “1968” thing into a different perspective for me as a result – maybe the police weren’t automatically always the good guys. Valuable lesson. I have tried to weigh both sides since.” (Bob Graham)
(https://www.facebook.com/groups/forgottenchicago/posts/10156989773379520/)

“My husband and I were there. Total failure of crowd management and control. Free admission; hot humid day; Sly was known to be unreliable. Lots of beer everywhere (for hours). We got there after work, but there were folks who had been there for 5 -7 hours. When they announced the prolonged “delay” had turned into a “no-show”, all hell broke loose. The police dispatched helicopters to make the “scary noise” and announce loudly and repeatedly, “In the name of the State of Illinois, I order you to disperse”. It would have helped if they had specified just where the heck we were supposed to disperse to. My first experience of “riot thinking” – OMG something happened let’s run away…OMG they’re coming toward us turn around…” repeat indefinitely. Chunks of public toilets thrown at police; in at least a couple of cases, we saw the police throw them back. One or more cars overturned and in flames. Passed a teenager passed out under a tree, bleeding from the ear, with his girlfriend trying to help him. Made it to Wabash and passed Goldblatt’s window, where their security guard was standing on display behind the broken glass, aiming a shotgun at the crowd on the sidewalk. To emphasize: when you read about a riot, remember that most of the participants have NO idea what’s happening – the madness of crowds, for sure. (Maybe cellphones would have helped…could have used input from somebody with a bird’s eye view!)” (Betsy Ray)
“I remember the people, both white and black, pushed the cops to Buckingham Fountain. The cops regrouped and charged. I’ll never forget this guy stopped and put up his fists and got Billy clubbed right under his chin his feet went up to head as he crashed. Heard shots. Exit stage right. The crowd was estimated at 70,000. The biggest traffic jam in Chicago history at the time. Downtown was looted and vandalized. It was an event I’ll never forget and makes for good story telling.” (John Palka)
(https://www.facebook.com/groups/vanishedchicago/posts/5110908922309159/)

700731 Powder Ridge Festival, Powder Ridge Ski Area, Middlefield, CT [Scheduled to be held during 700731–0802. This event had a legal injunction that forced the event to be canceled just days before, keeping the musicians away; but a crowd of 30,000 attendees arrived anyway, to find no food, no entertainment, no adequate plumbing, and at least seventy drug dealers. William Manchester wrote: “Powder Ridge was an accident waiting to happen, and it happened.” Volunteer doctor William Abruzzi declared a drug “crisis” on 1 August and said “Woodstock was a pale pot scene. This is a heavy hallucinogens scene.” Melanie Safka was the only artist ignoring the court injunction banning of the festival, she performed on an improvised stage powered by Mister Softee trucks. Tickets were sold by mail at a price of $20 for the whole weekend. The announced line-up of musicians included: 

Day 1: Eric Burdon & War, Sly and the Family Stone, Delaney & Bonnie, Fleetwood Mac, Melanie, Mountain, J.F. Murphy and Free Flowing Salt, Allan Nichols and James Taylor; 

Day 2: Joe Cocker, Allman Brothers, Cactus, Little Richard, Van Morrison, Rhinoceros, Ten Wheel Drive, Jethro Tull, Tony Williams Lifetime and Zephyr; 

Day 3: Janis Joplin, Chuck Berry, Bloodrock, Savoy Brown, Chicken Shack, Grand Funk Railroad, Richie Havens, John B. Sebastian, Spirit, Ten Years After and Led Zeppelin (?).]

700801 Mountaindale Festival, Sullivan County, NY [The festival was canceled on 700708. Announced acts: 0711: The Band, Kinks, Blodwyn Pig, Richie Havens, Cathy Smith, Voices of East Harlem, Grateful Dead, Van Morrison, John Sebastian and Biff Rose M.C.. 0725: Film Festivals. 0801: Janis Joplin, SATFS, Blues Image, Big Brother & the Holding Company, Ten Years After, Chicago, Paul Butterfield, Melanie and James Taylor. 0808: Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Roland Kirk and Mongo Santamaria. 0815: Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna, The Chambers Brothers, Great Jones and Crabby Appleton.]

700802 Wentworth Curling Club, Hamilton, ON, Canada [supported by Bush and Crowbar]

“The openers – Bush – and no, obviously not that band. This was a short lived group that was an offshoot of Mandela.Consisting of Domenic Triano (Mandela, Bush, James Gang, Guess Who among others), Prakash John (Mandela, Bush, Alice Cooper, Lou Reed, Parliament/Funkadelic and currently with his son Jordan John), Roy Kenner, Pentti ‘Whitey’ Glan and Hugh Sullivan, this band only had one album which is a collector’s item today.
The legendary Crowbar was up next and the place was absolutely packed and they put on their usual rollicking show.
And now we wait. For a long time. I can’t remember how long the show was delayed but at this point in Sly’s career, he was more concerned with getting high backstage than actually appearing in front of a crowd. As I said, the place was packed since we rarely got this caliber of band in the area – especially in a small venue like a curling club. And the place was extremely hot. Pass out, Africa desert hot.
I swear (and this was backed up in a conversation a couple of years ago with Prakash) there was at least a half inch of sweat on the floor. Little to no kind of refreshments available. Security finally had to open some doors for a little relief.
Finally, the band came on, played a couple of songs, the drummer passed out from the heat and the band packed it in. Fortunately, There Was no Riot Goin’ On (see what I did there you Sly fans?) and I think people were kind of relieved so they could finally get outside and dry off their sweat soaked clothes.” (Tim Mahoney) (Facebook)

“I was at Wentworth. Bush and Crowbar opened and by the time Sly took the stage it was so hot inside it was raining for the cooling pipes in the ceiling. Two numbers and they called it quits.” (Eric Posner) (Facebook)

?700804-09 Harmonyville Festival, Sussex County across the Delaware from Bushkill, NY [The announced line-up includes: Joe Cocker, Richie Havens, Jethro Tull, SATFS and Ten Years After.]

700806 Yankee Stadium, NYC, NY 

700810 Strawberry Fields Festival 1970, Mosport Park Raceway, Bowmanville, ON, Canada [700807-09. Other acts: Delaney & Bonnie & Friends with Jose Feliciano, Cactus, John Mills Cockell & Syrinx (Magic Moog Synthesizer), Leonard Cohen, Eric Burdon & War, Grand Funk Railroad, Fat, Hog Heaven, Jethro Tull, King Biscuit Boy & Crowbar, Led Zeppelin, Luke & Apostles, Melanie, Mountain, Procol Harum, Ten Years After, The Youngbloods and more. After TYA, SATFS closed the festival from 3 a.m. to the dawn on August 10th.]

“Yes I was there 15 years old and hitchhiked all the way from Ocean City Maryland to Canada hard part was getting across the border with no ID woke up in a flower bed in Canada the front page on the news paper Robert F Kennedy Jr arrested for marijuana go figure? Without a doubt the best performance was Sly and the Family Stone.” (Peter Sulewski)

“When Sly took the stage, he was barely coherent…Clearly on something that affected his performance.” (David Anderson)

“The hash story is correct. I witnessed it and he ate it so fast in two bites no one could stop him, it was gone in a flash.” (Johnny Brower, promoter of the festival)

“Funny Sly story. When he got to the site and was in his trailer we joined him to “hang” since I had done several shows with him and David Kaprilik his manager was a friend. He had never had “hash” and wanted some. One of my guys pulls out a chunk the size of a golf ball and hands it to Sly, who looks at it, and promptly bites a big piece out, chews a bit and swallows it whole. We all gasped and started telling him “no, you’re supposed to smoke it”….a few hours later when he is set to go on stage, many hours behind schedule, as it took this long to get him “down”, he usually went out on stage as the band was playing an opening riff and sort of danced across to the microphone which he would take in one hand, twirl and start the song..this time he danced right past the microphone and didn’t realize it until he was standing side stage with us and looked back out to see he had missed the mic entirely…about the first few thousand people up front saw this and a a collective moan went up as they realized, ‘Sly’s out of it’…he still played great once he got his bearings…oh well..only rock and roll” (Johnny Brower)

“Sly wanted to “try some hash” when he got backstage and one of the crew pulled out a chunk and handed it to him. It was about the size of a golf ball. Sly promptly bit into it and swallowed a piece about the size of a cherry…everyone gasped and the roadie grabbed the chunk back before he could eat anymore. We told him, man you SMOKE it…he just laughed and smoked a bunch and we left the trailer. A couple hours later they were due yto go on and as was his routine the band would come out and start a driving groove and he would walk out from side stage and kind of dance across the stage and catch the microphone in his hand, spin and go into the first song. This time he came out and danced across the stage, missed the microphone and didn’t top until he was in the midst of the people standing on the side of the stage. He turned and looked back and ran out to the mic but the first five thousand people who were up front let out a collective sigh of, “Oh No.” as they anticipated a Sly out of it, but he recovered and played one of the best sets by him I ever saw and I was on stage at Woodstock when he played…that was number ONE…xo” (Johnny Brower)

“Great story! I definitely remember waiting forever for them to start and then thinking he looked like he was going to fall over any time. No wonder!” (Don Swanson)

“I wondered why it took them until something like 3 am to start!” (Bronnie Davis)

“The main things I remember about the concert was the huge thermos in the middle of where everyone was sitting that we were all invited by the MC to come up and drop our hits of acid into. I also remember a lot of nudity and some creek nearby where everyone was bathing. And I woke up to Sly and the Family Stone playing, I think on a Sunday? [Monday] So hard to remember!” (Nancy DaRocha)

“I do remember Sly bringing in the Monday morning dawn.” (Peter Cullen)

“I think Sly came on at 5am the last day, if I remember correctly. Could be a little fuzzy.. ha.” (Robert Fowler)

“Robert Fowler, I think it was more like 2 or 3. I will never forget waking up to that distinctive wah wah sound.” (Peter Natalie)

“Hahaha . … I woke up to Sly as well, after dozing off to (maybe) Grand Funk and Ten Years After . . . it was great waking up to Sly!” (Peter Cullen)

“I was completely blown away by Sly. As he started singing “I Want to Take You Higher” the sun started rising over the hill. It was an ending I’ll never forget.” (Joe Buchel)

“I was tripping dancing to Sly when someone threw a bottle..hit me in the head…tripping and blood not so good together.” (SJ Missionary)

“It was Monday at dawn, when Sly ended the festival.” (James McBay)

“Sly and his mob at dawn was awesome.” (Regi Korbe)

“Sly was definitely the last act of the fest. Night, just before sunrise.” (Robert Holbrook)

“Just remember lots of mud and Sly and The Family Stone coming on at about 3 or 4:am.” (Steve Lethbridge)

“I recall Sly ending the festival with “I Want to Take You Higher” as the sun came up. It was incredible.” (John Buchel)

“My buddy Wayne got backstage & partied with SLY of SLY & THE FAMILY STONE!” (Dale Martin Howe Caragata)

“You should have seen Sly after his set-in a trailer jumping up and down for HOURS like a madman-maybe he was getting some but the trailer was a rocking!” (Nick Gencarelle)

“Sly went to his RV trailer and either he was jumping around or humping someone for hours after the show that thing was rocking!” (Nick Gencarelle)

“Sly was nuts in his trailer bouncing like a madman for hours in there. I remember rolling with American flag papers-ha. Swimming in a lake nude-sliding down a slippery cement slide to another lake. The rest is foggy except that I was totally wowed by the music!” (Nick Gencarelle)

(https://www.facebook.com/groups/5539821579)

?700811 broadcast TV The Tonight Show on NBC [other guests: Carrie Snodgress, Danielle Darrieux, Sen. Charles Pearcy and R-III]

CHICAGO – Sly & the Family Stone concert dates are not being canceled as a result of the act’s involvement here July 27 in a concert-turned-riot, according to people close to the group.
An indoor Hamilton, Ont., Canada, concert Aug. 2 was “sold out” and concerts in St. Louis and Cincinnati prior to a European trip in mid-August are still solid (though festivals where the act was to have appeared in Connecticut and New York have been called off).
Mrs. Neal Ames, wife of the act’s road manager, reached by phone in Los Angeles, said Sly and the group were “dumb-founded” when they arrived there. “There have been bad vibrations that some people blame Sly for what happened which just isn’t the case.” She confirmed that four members of the group were inside Grant Park and that police stopped Sly and two other members a few blocks from the concert where he would otherwise have arrived 30 minutes early.
Murphy Dunne, local coordinator of other festivals that were held here without incident, agrees that the riot was triggered intentionally. He was bringing Sly and the two other members to the event. “One woman showed up with a battery-powered hedge trimmer wrapped in a Wiebolts’ shopping bag.” He said, “The rioters went for the PA system right away. There must have been some organized effort.” At press time, officials here were studying the possibility of a Grand Jury investigation as the first of 165 persons arrested appeared in courts. (“Sly & Family Stone Move ‘Right On’ With Concerts” Billboard 700815)

700821 Gardens, Cincinnati, OH [special guest: Gentle Reign]

from an unidentified underground
newspaper in Cincinnati

Despite the shitty acoustics, rotten lighting, and an ego-tripping group of pricks who blocked the view of the floor section, Sly and the Family Stone pulled through and gave a really great concert.
Sly and the Family Stone generate the kind of excitement that WWII could not hammer. The high point of the concert was the famous Sly medley of “Dance to the Music,” “Music Lover”, and “Higher”. This brought the crowd to its feet dancing and screaming higher. One by one the membera of the group danced off the stage leaving Sly with a tambourine leading the crowd in the higher cheer. He danced off stage leaving a happy crowd (a miracle because of the conditions)… [from an unidentified underground newspaper in Cincinnati]

700822 Kiel Municipal Auditorium, St. Louis, MO [special guest: Gentle Reign]

70XXXX Warner Brothers back lot, Burbank, CA [photo shooting by Stephen Paley] 

Stephen Paley: I shot the photo at the Warner Bros. back lot in Burbank CA! If you look at the movie “Streetcar Named Desire”, there is a famous set with a curved staircase, the one where Marlon Brando yells “Stella!”… and that is where this photo was shot. The group was standing on that staircase in the photo in the “Greatest Hits” package. (Facebook)

Europe tour: Vet Stone replaced Rose for this tour.

700829 Isle of Wight Festival 1970, Afton Down, Freshwater, England [Setlist: “Stand!”, “You Can Make It If You Try” & “Dance to the Music > Music Lover > Higher > Music Lover”]*#(silent)

700905 Isle of Fehmarn Open Air Love & Peace Festival, Flügger Strand, Fehmarn, West Germany

700907 L’Olympia, Paris, France

700910 Kasteel Groeneveld, Baarn, Netherlands [Broadcasted on VPRO FM Piknik. Setlist: “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)”, “M’Lady”, “Sing a Simple Song”, “Stand!”, “Dance to the Music” & “I Want to Take You Higher”]*

700911 Amsterdam, Netherlands 

?700915 City Hall, New Castle, England

?700916 De Montfort Hall, Leicester, England

700916 Lyceum, London, England [Setlist: “M’Lady”, “Sing a Simple Song”, “Stand!”, “You Can Make It If You Try” (fragment), “Everyday People”, “Dance to the Music > Music Lover” & “I Want to Take You Higher”. Supported by Roy Young Band. Initially scheduled on 700913.]#

?700917 City Hall, Sheffield, England

700917–18 midnight Speakeasy, London
Sly and Mitch Mitchell (The Jimi Hendrix Experience) were waiting for Jimi Hendrix to jam with, but Jimi never appeared. Jimi Hendrix died in London in the morning 700918.

?700919 The Venice Festival, Venice, Italy

700920 Piper Music Hall, Rome, Italy 

Phill Brown (the recording engineer at Island Studios, London) on Sly Stone Island Studio 2 tracks for “There’s a Riot Goin’ On” 1970 [“Family Affair” and ?]: In November [?] 1970 Sly turned up with a batch of 24 tracks tapes recorded in Germany… just early drum machine rhythms. We spent a week overdubbing and trying out – Bass and Organ ideas. That’s me on the left in the picture…he came with his sister who took the Polaroids. He then went to the states where over the next 18 months or so finished… “There’s a Riot Goin’ On”. I only realised later when I heard “Family Affair” that these were the drums from those Island sessions…. (http://www.tape.demon.co.uk/sly_stone1r.jpg [no more existed])

Greg Errico: He was one of the first to take the drum machine and make it be an instrument. The machine, as opposed to what it is now, was a lounge instrument that the guy at the bar at the Holiday Inn might have used. Sly took the tickytacky, which started on the ‘tick’, and he inverted it, turned it inside out, into something the ear wasn’t used to. He took the texture and created a rhythm with it that made it very interesting. (From the man-versus-machine perspective,) I don’t think the trade-off was good. (“I Want to Take You Higher – The Life and Times of Sly & the Family Stone” by Jeff Kaliss) 

70092X? 10XX? backstage, ?, ?

70092X? 10XX? Coldwater Canyon, L.A., CA?
Interviews and photoshoot for Rock and Soul

Soul 710111

Sly’s own goals are simple
“I’d like to record anything I want to record, sing anything I want to sing, say just what I want to say and stay out of everybody’s way.”

701003 Civic Centre, Lansdowne Park, ON, Canada [supported by Leather and Ottawa’s Five Man Electrical Band]

701004 Maple Leaf Garden, Toronto, ON, Canada [supported by Crowbar]

701009 Frost Amphitheater, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA

Stanford University Yearbook 1971

“I saw sly and the family stone at Stanford Frost amphitheater on a Thursday [Friday?] night 1971 [1970?] leaning on the left center stage edge. I have seen tons and tons of amazing music in the last 46 years including my first concert Jimi Hendrix Northern California rock festival May 1969. But Sly and the Family Stone might be quite possibly the most electrifying set of music I’ve ever seen!!!!!” (Mike Busbin) (source?)

701017 Football ’70 Memorial Concert, Henry Levitt Arena, Wichita, KS 

701018 Freedom Palace, Kansas City, MO [Two shows (2 & 7 p.m.). 50 min. late. Supported by Bloodrock.]

?701024 Boston Garden, Boston, MA [supported by Allman Bros. and Ruth Copeland]

701024 University of Maine Gym, Portland-Gorham, Portland, ME [Afternoon show was cenceled for unknown reasons. Supported by Twelve 76. SATFS came on stage 1 hour and 15-minute late. Evening show setlist: “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)”, “M’Lady”, “Sing a Simple Song”, “Stand!”, “You Can Make It If You Try”, “Dance to the Music > Music Lover > Higher”, “Hot Fun in The Summertime” & “I Want to Take You Higher”.]*

“I had been a fan of the band since 1968 when they appeared on the Lloyd Thaxton Show, an “American Idol” type talent competition series that was on NBC-TV during the Summer. They won the viewer vote week after week and eventually won the top prize. Their peak came when the “Woodstock” movie was released in the Summer of 1970 and people all over the world got to see how great they were. Originally, Sly and the Family Stone had scheduled afternoon and evening performances for this date, but the afternoon show was canceled, for unknown reasons.
A local band, called Twelve 76, opened the show, and a selection from their set is included on this recording.
The Detroit band Rare Earth had a hit with a cover of the Temptations’ “Get Ready” that had steady airplay, so when Twelve 76 announced that they were doing it, I decided to record it. After their set, we were ready for a Woodstock-style performance from Sly and the Family Stone. We waited and waited and waited some more, but no Sly.
Now, we start remembering the recent stories about Sly being late, or not showing up at all. It got to be 45 minutes, then an hour and no Sly. Finally, after an hour and 15-minute wait, Sly and the band come onstage, without an introduction, and spend the next 7 minutes tuning up, while Sly speaks a little with the audience. He seemed a bit “out of it”, so we didn’t know quite what to expect. We were not disappointed! As soon as the music started, it was like a switch had been flipped and Sly and the band came to life, turning in a performance that I still consider one of the ten best shows I’ve ever seen.
It was a setlist of “Greatest Hits” that ended with an unbelievable “Dance To The Music/Music Lover/Higher” medley that was equal in energy to the Woodstock performance.
The encore of “Hot Fun In The Summertime/ “(I Want To Take You) Higher” brought the evening to a close and sent everyone home happy.” (Joe Maloney, the original recorder and photographer)

701031?,1101&02 Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV 

701111 Coliseum, Lubbock, TX [3 hours late]

“Yes indeed, I was there. I am happy that I got to see Sly in Lubbock, but as other people have commented (and as was his tendency in those days), Sly was and the concert started EXTREMELY late.” (Bob Goodwin)

“(note: I remember this concert, as it was my first in Lubbock. I didn’t have any friends yet, so went by myself. After the opening act, there was about a 3-hour wait till Sly arrived. I’m pretty sure he was in his suite, waiting until his drugs “kicked in” properly. At the time, there was a curfew on Tech campus, the concert was in the Coliseum, on campus, and the kids were getting restless. They announced that they were pushing back curfew that night, for the concert, and everyone seemed relieved. I have to admit, the band did kick butt when they finally got on stage.” (Ralph DeWitt)

(https://www.facebook.com/groups/708546534557759/permalink/1184082933670781)

701112 Tri-State Fair Park Coliseum, Amarillo, TX [Supported by Bloodrock, Baby and 6IX. Late.]

“I photographed that concert. Also, I remember the group coming on really really late.” (Ralph Duke) (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1784294158550093/posts/4337893716523445/)

70XXXX Civic Center, Amarillo, TX [Late]

“I remember when he FINALLY came out he said HELLO PIG FARMERS…😂 at the Civic Center..He didn’t last long at all.” (Debbie Davis) (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1784294158550093/posts/4337893716523445/)

“My sis and I went. Sly was very late and high. I couldn’t understand one word he tried to sing.” (Priscilla McFarlin)
“Saw 1970 concert, he was great but auditorium was filled with marijuana, had to leave.” (Marcia Barnette)
(https://www.facebook.com/groups/381851215339659/posts/2759532694238154/)

701113 Olympia Stadium, Detroit, MI [supported by Ruth Copeland]

701114 Eastern Illinois University Lantz Gym, Charleston, IL

“Eastern Illinois University—I saw sly play to a full house. I didn’t know how much weed existed down there in outstate Illinois. The band started the show with “Thank You……and it was thunder and lightning for the next hour or so.” (Tom Dorich) (https://www.facebook.com/groups/vanishedchicago/posts/5110908922309159/)

701115 Cobo Arena, Detroit, MI [Supported by Ruth Copeland. The promoter canceled Sly’s show before they arrived. They had not contact anyone in Detroit and arrived at Cobo Hall with their equipment 10 minutes before 9:30 p.m. they were to go on.] 

“Where’s Sly?”

Sly and the Family Stone didn’t show up at Cobo Hall for their scheduled performanceーthe group’s third Detroit no-show in a row.
The only information available at Cobo Hall Sunday night was that the group hadn’t appeared. Radio advertisements had continued until a couple of hours before showtime.
Sly and his entourage cancelled two previous concerts at the Olympia on short notice. He has become notorious in other cities too for missing concerts or arriving late. Promoters have grown wary of booking the act for fear of losing advertising costs and advance expenses in a no-show. (The Windsor Star 701116)

701116 St. Regis Hotel, Detroit, MI Press conference of David Kapralik and Sly

Detroit Free Press 701117

“Far-Out Sly Apologizes for Show Mix-Up”
by TOM DeLISLE
Free Press Staff Writer

Different strokes for, as Sly says, different folks. 
And the strokes of Sylvester Stewart ー Mr. Sly of the rock world ー are hip, black, cocky, cool and loose… very, very loose.
Sly and the Family Stone made rock history in Detroit Sunday night by failing, for what seemed like the umpteenth time, to appear for a sold-out performance.
The group did not show here in February and has missed other performances elsewhere. It looked like a repeat performance when promoters sent more than 10,000 fans home Sunday at Cobo Arena.
Not so, Sly explained Monday.
What happened was that Sly and his entourage ー aides and his seven-member group ー motored into town without calling ahead to confirm their appearance.
“It was a lack of communication between Sly’s people and myself,” said promotor Bob Bageris Monday. “They were there on time (9:30 p.m.) to play after the first acts, but we had sent the people home.
THE PROMOTERS feared that Sly wouldn’t show, per his reputation, and emptied Cobo Arena before show time.
Sly, in heavy shades, a wild knit hat, green leather outfit and sheepskin vest and boots, didn’t sweat the mix-up.
“We were ready to play. I know that I was on time and ready to play,” Sly said.
His group will perform Friday night at Cobo Arena to make up for Sunday’s mistake. Sunday’s tickets will be valid. Refunds can be had at the box office this week.
“Tell the people, fans I love ‘em and I feel bad about it,” said Sly.
“I’ll let my head rest; I’ll get it together and write a song about Detroit and the gigs we missed. We’re gonna keep telling the truth and playing as funkyyyyyyyy as we can.”
At the start of the conference a television cameraman announced “rolling.”
“Rolling?” said Sly. “I’ve been rolling for years, man.” (Detroit Free Press 701117)

701120 Cobo Arena, Detroit, MI [announced on 1116]

Detroit Free Press 701206

“SOUL ON THE SLY:”
by John Laycock

Incredible as it may seem, Sylvester Stewart finally shepherded his stone psychedelic soul circus into Detroit Friday night.
Knowing Sly and the Family Stone’s habits, I arrived at Cobo Hall an hour late. The show was just about to star. First came Ruth Copeland who shrilled. I wished I’d been even later.
Then, after a half-hour equipment set-up, Sly arrived, not just an hour but three whole shows late.
That’s how many concerts in Detroit’s largest halls they’ve missed in a year.
Apparently they haven’t used all that spare time for practice. Sly and the group were sloppy.
His unique sound ー the grinding heat, the psychedelic flashes, the blues ー cracked voices, the melodic playfulness ー wasn’t sticking together the way it should (and can). Bare spots had worn through the texture of the music, leaving big sags in the songs.
The audience wanted very much to clap, to grin, to be excited. Just like in the Woodstock movie they bounced up and down and waved peace signs on Higher, the Sly signature that has few rivals since the Nazis Nurenburg rallies for audience arousal. The excitement was there, all right, but it came from the near-capacity audience. They, not Sly, took the show higher. (The Windsor Star 701121)

“Hot Group Gets the Cold Shoulders at Home”
by Mike Gormley
Free Press Staff Writer

YOU HATE to admit that a man who put you off three times and thus openly displayed his lack of interest in you, turned out to be worth waiting for, but Sly, and his Family Stone, turned out that way. Early in the show, after receiving a very large round of applause Sly said, “I’m glad you feel that way, rather than the other wayーif you know what I mean?”
Sly definitely was forgiven by the approximately 10,000 people who attended the Friday night show after promoters canceled the original performance the previous Sunday. At that time Sly, who had a reputation of not showing up at scheduled performances, didn’t contact anyone in Detroit and arrived at Cobo Hall with his equipment 10 minutes before he was to go on.
Two songs into Friday’s show. Sly called for the people to gather around him. Within seconds freaks, straights, white and blacks streamed down the aisles and around the stage. They stayed there the rest of the show. Cobo ushers and police had no choice but to let it happen and at Sly’s request the people stayed off the stage.
Pointing to the police on the side of the stage, Sly said, “That man has a job to do. Make it easy on him and stay off the stage and you’ll make it easy on yourself.” Eventually Sly the star became secondary as his music had people dancing, laughing and kissing.
Even the Cobo ushers, who had been trying to stop the crowd from throwing Frisbees earlier in the evening, removed their ties and started dancing with people from the audience.
When a big-name performer cancels out of his obligations three times we’re apt to wonder why he is asked to come into the city again. Now we know why. (Detroit Free Press 701124)

“Two Slys Visit Us: Hey, Are You a Fad, a Man, What?”
by TOM DeLISLE
Free Press Stall Writer

Sly Stone… wild outfit… four-color shades… different stroke… Woodstock… no-shows… take it higher… loose, cool, black, hip… everybody’s a star… a Family Stone… arrogance… thank you fallettinme… stand… everyday people:
It is already 10:30 p.m., Nov. 20, and people are beating the floor of Cobo Arena. Sly, Sly, Sly. The delay has been a half hour. Sly’s promotion man stands outside the dressing room. “He’s coming, man. He’s coming.”
It is 1:30 p.m. on Nov. 16, a cold Monday. The St. Regis Hotel. Sly Stone, Sylvester Stewart, (“Syl” to himself) has no-showed at a Detroit concert. It is one of many in the past year. A 1 p.m. press conference has been callf to explain. It is 1:30 p.m.
“Let’s go,” somebody says, and out troops the seven-member Family Stone. Sly is dressed in his usual style ー Early Outrageous. He is loose, cool, black, hip. There is a group of black women standing near a backstage phone. Sly stops and plays the clown for them. Cobo Arena pounds Sly, Sly, Sly.
For some reason there are two press conferences. One at 12:30 and one at 1 p.m. Sly’s manager, David Kaprilak, is still apologizing for Sly’s treatment of the press at the first as he comes into the second. One of Sly’s aides, a heavy black dude, is there too, explaining that Sly, like you know, will be here soon, he’s like, you know, cooling it and, well, you know, man, he’s coming.
Sly takes the stage. Cool, nonchalant. Like he owns it. Cobo Arena erupts. Sly, Sly, Sly. Grabs the guitar. The funky guitar. Sly in outrageous orange. Hat so huge you can’t even see him from the $6 seats. Facial antics from under the hat. The crowd waits expectantly. It’s “Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again.”
Kaprilak explains why Sly missed Sunday’s show: Lack of communicatin between group and promotersーSly was in town ready to playーthe promoters didn’t know, panicked and sent the kids home. The promoters agree. He will perform Friday at Cobo. Sly walkes in. Loose, cool, black, hip. And arrogant.
Sly is warming up. The people are waiting for him to explode. He bounces around, cooly closing the first number. He starts his vocal games. Thank you, thank you. One of his many voices. A bit slurred and lazy sounding. He sits down to the piano. The Family Stone rev up. People start dancing in the aisles.
Sly eyes the press. The shades are blue, green, purple and yellow. His dress is outrageous. Leather shirt and pantsーgreen leatherーand sheepskin vest and boots. Wild boots. His hat, a huge knit one, is red, orange, green, blue, yellow, gold, purple, pink, black, white, gray and some colors yet unnamed. The cameras roll Sly starts the games.
Sly is having a ball on stage. The excitement is picking up. Sly is at home. “The police officers are to protect us,” he says. “But I want to ask them to stay out of our way.” The crowd cheers. Sly adds, “I don’t mean that to put ‘em down.”
Sly is going through his repertoire of facial antics. He speaks into the mikeーvocal games. The promoter and manager speak. Sly is distracting everyone. Mocking the speakers, talking while they do. Mumbling, laughing, posing, staring. A lot of staring.
The Family Stone jumps into “Stand,” one of Sly’s national anthems, and the whole arena stands in obedient homage, singing the words, dancing on the stairways. Others rush the stage. It’s getting hairy now.
“Are you a racist, man? Is that your problem? Why don’t you admit it?” Sly has, without verbal provocation, turned on a television newsman. The newsman is understandably flustered. “No,” he says. The damage has been done.
Sly’s aidesーfriends?ーare in the room. So are young, long-haired, sympathetic reporters. They chuckle and nod their heads knowingly at Sly’s attack. If Sly were to jump out the fifth floor window they would chuckle and nod their heads knowingly at his wisdom.
Cobo is up for grabs. “Just don’t get on the stage,” Sly admonishes the crowd, “Make it easy on this cat, man,” Sly says to kids pressing into a cop.
In that weird hunger, the need for group identification or whatever it is, the kids chant, raise their arms at the right times, sing every song together. Do they think they’re different from the palterned older generation in this unity? They all do the same things at the same time.
But the vibes are goodーlove, peace and a heavy beat. Is it for real?
The press splits. Most are disgusted. Sly is a bad guy. Sly turns to one who stays, staring back. “Hey, what’s the matter with you. What’s your problem, man. You look unhappy, dig?”
“I’m just watching you. I don’t like the way you act. I don’t like the way you embarrassed that guy.”
“Hey, stay there, don’t go away. I want to talk to you,” Sly says. “I’m getting good vibes from you.”
Cobo has turned into a huge dance, a gigantic sock hop. They jump into “Everyday People” ー a modern rock classic.
“Different strokes for different folks.” Everybody’s groovin’ now. Grass in the air. “We got to live together,” say the Family Stone, and Sly is doing the neat little bumps and bounces that are his, The small stage hampers his style. He doesn’t have the room to really kick ‘em out.
“Man, if you don’t like your job, quit man, get out,”Sly says. “Find what you dig. Do something that makes you happy.”
“That’s easy for you to say. Everybody’s not a star. People are suffering, the everyday people, and it just doesn’t happen like that. I gotta eat and buy clothes.”
“The everyday people are being themselves, man, having a good time,” Sly says. “You’ve got to feel… you’ve got to loosen up and feel. You’ve got to communicate.”
“Everyday People” turns into “Dance to the Music.” Cobo is one huge, pounding, surging beat. Sly plays the harmonica. He prances around the stage. The excitement is incredible. 10,000 people clapping, pounding, pounding, pounding.
Sly, Sly, Sly
Sly, Sly, Sly, Sly,
Sly, Sly…
“Feel? That’s my problem. I feel too much, man. I absorb all the hurt I see. It gets me down and I can’t escape it. In my own way I’m as arrogant and cocky as you are. But I’m not a star, man. I can’t just be me all the time and do what I want.
“Yes you can,” says Sly. “Find something you dig. Open up. You can’t feel too much. You’ve got to feel everything.”
“Well, how about the way you treated that TV guy? That was mean. It was unfair. You took advantage of him. It was a cruest thing to do. You made him feel bad and you didn’t have to do that.”
“I was telling the truth,” says Sly. “I got bad vibes from him. I’m just making him try to see himself, to tell the truth to himself. You got to be what you are. Maybe he’ll think about it and he’ll change.”
“We’d like to play for free,” Sly tells the audience. “We’d like to go on forever.” But Sly’s gotta go. Time for the clincher. The audience knows what it is before he gets started.
“I’m the same way I was when I was a deejay in San Francisco,” says Sly. “Me. I’ve been telling the truth my whole life. I’m gonna go on telling the truth. You can do that in your newspaper. That’s what writers should do.”
“Most newspapermen are idiots. Half of them can’t figure out the truth. And how can I know you, what you really are, in an hour or a day or even a week? But I gotta go back and tell people in the paper who you are. I gotta know your 26 years in an hour.”
“Tell them I love ‘em,” says Sly. “Tell them I’m gonna keep on telling the truth.”
Time for the fake exit. The excitement is incredible. 20,000 hands reaching, “higher” every time Sly screams it out. 20,000 feet pounding, pounding, pounding. Sly’s down to the drummer now, just the two of them. Suddenly he jumps to the back, bouncing, bouncing. “I dig you,” Sly says. “You’re an honest man. I dig that.”
“I respect you because I feel, in the one hour I get to find out who you really are, that you’re the same way. Maybe we’re a lot alike. Except you’re the star.”
“Everybody’s a star,” says Sly.
“I really hate to leave man, but I gotta go. See, that’s it. Two more
jobs today. Not enough time to grab anything: Not enough time to find out who you are.”
Like he knew they would, the audience pleads for Sly to come back. Bouncing, bouncing, bouncing, he jumps back into view. Again they take it “higher.” Sly the preacher, Sly the black god whipping the universe into a frenzy, Sly as Hiller, Sly as Billy Graham… Sly as Sly.
“This is the best talk I’ve had on a job, not an interview, a talk. That’s one of the good things about the job, meeting heavy people.”
“Well, you oughta stay, man, we’re just getting started,” Sly says. “But before you go, I wanna tell you one thing. You and me… and I want you to know this and believe it, man… are friends. You got that?”
“Cool. I’m glad I stuck around.”
They turn the lights up on Sly and he finally bounces off stage, taking the Stone with him. Sly the funny man, Sly the intimidator, Sly the incredible music maker, Sly the egotist hiding under an outrageous hat, Sly the truth-teller.
Sly the everyday star. (Detroit Free Press 701206)

70112X Sly was interviewed by Mike Jahn at Hilton, NYC. (“An Obnoxious Great Musician” by Mike Jahn The Baltimore Sun, MD 701220)

Sly Stone mumbles. This is not unusual since many big-name rock stars mumble and are incoherent.
But Sly Stone (Sylvester Stewart, of Sly and the Family Stone) is causing particular problems because he is sitting in a soft chair in the New York Hilton muttering down into his lap. He is wearing suede gaucho pants laced with a great many ostrich feathers. The feathers play havoc with the mumbles.
In addition to mumbling, he is not in a good mood. Our conversation begins.
“WANT TO match wits?” he asks. I am caught off guard. As far as I am concerned, I am there to interview a rock and roll star, someone I assumed to be friendly and fluent.
“Match wits?”
“That’s one of my favorite games.”
“Well, maybe after another cup of coffee.
“I guess I’m supposed to cater to you.
“Are you? Why do you say that?”
“Cause I’m told that you’re from The New York Times (for which I also write.)
“Why does that mean you have to cater to me?”
“Because you’re supposed to be more important than some other people.”
“Oh, really.”
“I ain’t gonna. You know what I mean?”
“It looks like we’re matching wits whether we want to or not.”
“We ain’t matching nothing. There ain’t no match.”
“WHY DO you feel like you have to cater to me?”
“I just talked because it was boring and so I said that.”
Thank God for tape recorders. Sly Stone, the Prince of rock brotherhood, is being what the psychiatrists call hostile. What you and I call a pain in the neck.
Consider his songs:
“I Am Everyday People;” 
“Everybody is a Star;” 
“You Can Make It If You Try;”
“Stand! (you’ve been sitting far too long).” 
All oriented toward the thought that all people are the same, all are brothers and we should be kind and understanding and try to communicate.
Sly has made a small fortune pedding this philosophy and now I finally get to meet him, expecting an articulate brotherhood-proponent, and I get another hostile, stoned star. His mumbles are absorbed by the ostrich feathers, even the recorder doesn’t pick them up, and when I ask him to repeat he sings what apparently is a song lyric: “I can’t say it more than once,” waves his arms, and refuses to repeat the line he has muttered. 
HE TURNS to his public relations man. “Hey, stiff, want to turn the light off? I can see better in the dark.” He pauses while the light goes off.  “You’re really a stiff.” 
“I’m sorry I can’t relax for you,” the PR man says.
We spend some time trying to talk, and it gets increasingly cumbersome. “I’m proud of the fact that I can do what I want to do,” he says, then turns incoherent. Out of the mumbles emerge the words, ‘we’re here for’.
“Here for what?”
“Listen closer! I know you interviewed all these big stars! I don’t give a damn. Listen closer! And if you talk bad about me in The Times I’m going to tear that paper up! (He laughs) I never read the thing anyway.”
“I’m not going to talk bad about you. I just sit here and listen. After living in New York and going through all the things I’ve gone through, I’m going to get mad at you for sitting there and mumbling so I can’t hear you.”
I HAD arrived at three. A news agency reporter was there at one for an appointment. Sly showed up at two. He talked for 15 minutes, during which the news agency reporter says, Sly almost fell asleep. Then Sly turned on the TV and disappeared for 45 minutes. I finally met him at three-thirty.
Sly has now gotten the idea that I am offended at his behavior and might take it out on him in print, which, as it turns out, may have been one of the few accurate judgments he made that day. He begins to ask if I plan to write something nasty. He asks at least five times in a half-hour.
“Do what you want with (the interview),” he says. “Go back and tell them I start riots. You’d be a liar.”
“I don’t think you start riots.”
“Right on, brother. (Long pause) You guys are weird.”
I lose my cool. I want to have a nice, stable talk and go home. I say to him: “You sit there wearing 400 pounds of feathers and you have the nerve to say that I’m weird?” I was wearing a yellow oxford shirt, tweed sports jacket and lightstriped Levi’s.
“Why do these feathers make me weird?”
“In the New York Hilton, feathers make you weird.”
“You consider my feathers, my boots, whatever else, weird?”
“I think they’re fine just that in the general context of New York City, 90 per cent of the people would find you weird.”
“Have you read anything of Mike’s,” the PR man says, apparently meaning to work in my fondness for weird behavior.
“I don’t read anything, man.”
He digresses, then returns to the feathers, into which his words tumble like drunken children.
“You have to interview different types of people. Feathers don’t necessarily cater to every type of person.” He mumbles again, and I can’t understand except for the words “There’s nothing wrong with it.”
I haven’t learned. “Nothing wrong with what? Wearing feathers?”
“You’re too late.” He sings again, “I can’t say it more than once…”
“Okay, we got that settled.” I reach to pack up the tape machine. Sly looks at me. 
“Hey, do you like me man?” 
I like Sly a great deal. I like his music. Sly and the Family Stone is perhaps the most innovative soul band of our time. I like his music a great deal.
In the time since that interview I have gone through many thoughts, pondering whether the fact that Sly Stone has turned out to be just another stoned star playing the star game (make fun of all those around you) should color my feelings about his music. I have decided that it shouldn’t. Sly is a great musician.
The next day his PR man calls me. “He has been doing that all week,” the man said. The Prince of Rock Brotherhood takes on all comers.
“A reporter from Newsdayーthis man has interviewed Presidentsーhe talked to Sly, and nearly left in tears.
A week later Sly and the Family Stone are playing Madison Square Garden. They arrive onstage three hours after the start of the show. All 20,000 people are standing, dancing, singing along with Sly’s music, waving their arms in the air. My friend Richard, who was with me, spoke of this frenzy.
“If you had that happen to you, you’d be obnoxious too,” he said.
(“An Obnoxious Great Musician” by Mike Jahn. The Baltimore Sun, MD 701220)

701121 “Greatest Hits” was released (Epic). 

?701124 TV broadcast The Dick Cavett Show [other guests: Jack Jones (singer), Pearl Bailey (songstress), Chill Wills (actor), Tom Wicker (journalist)]

701126&27 MSG, NYC, NY [Initially scheduled as a single concert on 701128. With Gladys Knight & the Pips, Rare Earth and 6IX.]

From L to R: Newsday 701202 Photo by George Argeroplos, same, Rock 710100

“Sly on the Run” by Peter Knobler. Crawdaddy 710606
https://babylonfalling.tumblr.com/post/100831737345/sly-on-the-run-crawdaddy-1971-1-2-3-4

“I was there Thanksgiving night. My buddy’s dad invited me, which is why I was allowed to skip Thanksgiving with the family. What a show! Gladys Knight and the Pips were great, Rare Earth did “Get Ready” for, like, 25 minutes. Sly was 45 minutes late and blamed traffic from JFK. Then they proceeded to bring the house down for over 2 hours. I remember seeing the 2nd level of MSG visibly moving from people dancing to “You Can Make It If You Try”. That was the only time I ever saw Sly & the Family Stone, but I’m still thankful…” (Marcello Amari)(https://www.facebook.com/groups/SlyFriends)

“That Sly, Ain’t He A Real Vision? Right.”
By Dave Hamilton

Sly swings to the stage with all fringe flying, security guards, managers and friends in his wake.
‘All we need is a drummer, for people who only need a beat.’ー’Dance to the Music!’
Ruminations on “The Death of Rock” and related topics following encounters with Sly, of Sly & The Family Stone, other members of his entourage, and assorted fans of the popular music:

＊＊＊

There is some question as the evening begins whether Sly will show.
He has this reputation, see, for either canceling at the last minute or showing late. Like an hour or two or so.
There is some nervous rustling in the audience between sets by Rare Earth, Gladys Knight and the Pips, and 6ix.
Rare Earth really gets into “Get Ready,” but nobody seems to notice.
Gladys Knight runs through some really ordinary stuff, but nobody seems to notice. 6ix, a new group that Sly has put together, gets run off the stage after two numbers (“We’ll have to meet you later, people, they cut our throats”), but nobody seems to notice.

＊＊＊

Oh, and ain’t he a vision?
That’s Sly, and anyone who’s seen “Woodstock” knows it. From 400 yards you can’t see the plastic-bead vest, red, orange, yellow and blue, or tell whether the white jump suit is leather or vinyl, but ain’t no one else wears rags like that and ain’t no one else this night can have 22,342, ummmm, pop music fans, ummmm, on their feet in the Madison Square Garden screaming just because he walked on stage.
There is this leather fringe, white, see, 18 inches at least, hanging down from Sly’s shoulders and down from Sly’s elbows and down from Sly’s knees, and every time Sly moves once the leather moves twice, see, and Sly is moving a lot, and don’t it remind you of “Woodstock,” with its twin-screen, slow motion, stop-action of that fringe, dancing in the air?
“You,” says Sly to his audience, slowly, “you, you, you, you’re a real wig.”
Right.

＊＊＊

Sly & the Family Stone swings into a number. Is it “Thank You (Faletinme Be Mice Elf Agin)”? “You Can Make It if You Try”? Who knows? Who cares? Everyone is up, dancing. In the aisles, on the seats, dancing.
And aren’t they looking around to see if everyone else is in the aisles and on the seats, dancing?
Yes.
The secret, for the uninitiated, is this: Pop music, uh, rock ‘n roll if you must, is based mostly on four beats to the measure.
That is what the drummer is for. You clap your hands and move your feet, or whatever other parts of your anatomy feel like moving, on the second and the fourth beats. Or on the first and the third if you are either weird or creative.
But dig, nobody notices. Sure, everyone looks around to see who else is feelin’ groovy, but it is not so much an act of assurance as an act of affirmation.
And there is help. ‘Way up there on the ceiling of Madison Square (Get it?) Garden are these recessed booths, see, and the lighting technicians have these spots trained right on Sly, see, and the Family Stone. Now red, now yellow, now blue, now white, right?
And now swing ‘em out over the audience. Hey, kids, dance in the spotlight, right? Right. Ooops, run ‘er back up to the cheap seats, Ernie.
Chickie in a low-cut gown.

＊＊＊

About 100 yards from the stage, on the aisle, sits a kid with his chin on his chest. Two seats away, standing, clapping on two and four, a girl friend looks at him from time to time, anxiously. Maybe twice in the hour he sits up, excitedly, nods his head three or four times up and down, then drops his chin again.
From somewhere way far away in Madison Square Garden comes the faint smell of grass. But pieing the Square, or vice versa, you would guess that maybe 100 of these 22,342 are indulging. Maybe 100 more had aspirin before they left home.
Don’t let them fool youーthey may be taking drugs to get through the school day, but tonight it is holiday time (Thanksgiving) and they’re stoned on the music, apple-cheeked, bright-eyed kids from Long Island and New Jersey and maybe Queens.

＊＊＊

Down the aisle, near the stage, are two cops. They keep the kids in the cheap seats from storming the stage.
The kids come down the aisle, dancing, clapping on two and four, trying to fool the cops by, you know, dancing right past them. They come back up the aisle, dancing, and hustle over to the next aisle, you know. The cops are not clapping on two and four.
Once, when Sly stops to adjust some equipment, there is a pause.
Some kid sits down in the aisle.
Maybe 50 yards ahead, the cop sees him and turns his flashlight directly into the kid’s face. One, maybe two minutes he holds it. “Don’t move,” the kid’s friends advise. That has nothing to do with music, just cops and kids.

＊＊＊

Sly has struck it up again. “Everyday People.” “Stand.” “Fun.” “You Can Make It if You Try.” And, didn’t you know it would be last? “I Want to Take You Higher.” He sits at his little organ stand, pounding away, and his knees are waving back and forth, knocking on two and four, and he is leaning into the microphone to, sing the lyrics. “I want to, I want to, I want to take you higher!”

And he stands up. And he walksーwell, that is not exactly a walk and not exactly not ー he sashays, you know, over to Little Sister, stage left, and he is carrying the microphone and he is singing, “I want to, I want to, I want to take you higher!”
And the Family Stone is wailing, you know, and if you really try you can hear the bass, but what you mostly hear is the drum. Thump, thump, thump, thump. You know, one, two, three, four. At the end of an hour, it’s like a freight train. Try saying it over fast: Onetwothreefour… For an hour. And the Family Stone comes to a screaming, magnificant crescendo. And then…
Then there is just Sly singing and those 22,342 kids, apple cheeks, blistered hands, bright eyes.
Clapping. Sly is sashaying back and forth on the stage, and everytime the beat comes back around to “HIGHER!” he jumps, both hands in the air, the first two fingers of each hand extended in the familiar sign. And yes! They have seen the split-screen, slow motion, stop-action film. Every time the music comes around to “HIGHER!” they jump, both hands in the air, the first two fingers of each hand extended.
Some of those dancing on their beats don’t jump every time.

＊＊＊

Those who don’t quite get next to what it’s all about might try doing all that without playing “Sly & The Family Stone Greatest Hits,” a popular album containing the 12 greatest hits of Sly & The Family Stone.
＊＊＊
She has been saying for two weeks that Sly is her favorite singer. Why? She says, with the look on her face first, “I don’t know.” When it is over, she says, “Let’s go back in there and do it again.”

＊＊＊

Sly’s name is Sylvester Stewart and he is from San Francisco. If you take the first three letters of “Sylvester” and reverse the second and the third, you have… Right. And if you count the number of musicians in 6ix, the group Sly has put together, you get… Right. That explains a lot about Sylvester Stewart. But if you pick up records by groups called the Beau Brummels or the Great Society (featuring Gracie Slick, now of the Jefferson Airplane) or Bobby Freemanーhits a few years ago on the Autumn labelーyou’ll see that the writer of the songs was Sylvester Stewart. That the producer of the songs was Sylvester Stewart.
That the studio musician(s) was Sylvester Stewart. That the engineer was… That explains a lot about Sly, too.

＊＊＊

It is a week or so before the two Thanksgiving holiday concerts and Sly is about an hour late for his afternoon appointment, which is not unusual for a man whose business keeps him up at night. He has been sleeping. And he takes another half an hour funnin’ in the next room with some friends. Carl, partly a road manager and partly a handyman, is not allowed to join the fun, even though he tries twice to shoulder his way in.
Sly emerges, finally, and he is a vision. On top is a red knit (“My top!”) that is shaped much like the knit pullover used to disguise the extra roll of toilet tissue on the backs of polite toilets. He is wearing a red leather jump suit with a many-beaded and fringed vest. The vest has ties at the breastplate and Sly tries to tie it. One, two, maybe three minutes he tries to tie it.
Fun.

＊＊＊

That Sly is late is no surprise. It is a characterization. His manager, Dave Kapralik, has taken much of an hour trying to destroy what he calls the “myth” of Sly’s lateness:
• Chicago, where a civil disturbance that put the Weatherman’s Seven Days of Rage to shame broke out when Sly was late for an engagement last summer at Grant Park.
“The police turned back Sly’s limousine,” Kapralik says. “He was on his way to the stage when he was stopped by a riot that was already started. You could read about it: both Mayor DaleyーGod forbid that I should have to name him in Sly’s defenseーbut both Mayor Daley and the parks commissioner said the next day that Sly had been stopped by the cops.
But THAT story only made Page 62 of the Tribune.” That’s the old news game, folks.
• Boston, where the “myth” has Sly canceling. “Well, there had been a mini-riot after a Jackson Five concert, and Mayor White canceled Sly because he believed the Chicago story.”
That’s the old government game, folks.
• Detroit, where Sly was canceled three hours before he was to go on stage.
“The promoter canceled it.
See, Sly was to have taken a plane, but he drove a limousine from Charleston, Ill., where he played the night before, so he could sleep. The promoter canceled at 7:10 and Sly wasn’t due to go on until 10 PM. And he got there at 9:15.” That’s the old promoter game.
• Toronto, where Sly was a couple of hours late. “There the limo broke down on the way from Montreal to Toronto. We called the promoter and he gave the audience bulletins every half hour on Sly’s progress.” That’s the old broken car game.
• Washington, where Sly canceled on the evening of the concert. “That was both sickness and the weather. Sly got sick in Newark and by the time we decided something that young man doesn’t wholly subscribe to yetーthat the show must go on, it was raining and we couldn’t get a flight.” That’s too much.
Sly, on his lateness: “I’ve been late for concerts for numerous reasons… bad weather, uh, bad organizing, uh, sleeping too late (pause) that I was very sorry for, I didn’t mean to do, but (pause) hangups, you know, (pause) I didn’t do that a lot of times. (Pause) I try to be, uh, engrossed in the situation where people… try to get me out of bed. Uh, you know there are all kinds of reasons, uh, you know, uh, like those funny lookin’ cats there, (pause) or no reason.”
That’s a myth, all right.
＊＊＊
Tickets for Sly’s two nights at the Garden ($7.50 top) sold out in two days. Rock is dead, right? A group called Grand Funk Railroad, which has one good, solid piece of music (“Captain, My Captain”) and lots and lots of mediocre music to its credit, sold out in three hours.
Some say that Grand Funk appeals to speed freaks. That suggests a poser: If Led Zeppelin, another group with supposedly good speed credentials, sells out an 8 PM performance at the Garden, but fills only half the house for an extra 4 PM show, does that mean rock is dead? Or that there are fewer speed freaks in New York than suspected? Or that most people recognize a good old-fashioned box-office rip-off when they see one?

＊＊＊

Kapralik suggests that with the split and subsequent fade of the Beatles (therein the kernel of the “rock is dead” nut), that Sly will emerge as the new, driving force of popular music. At another point, he cautions that the Rolling Stones are still around and the Jackson Five is still catching fire. As might be expected, he does not mention Mungo Jerry.
There is a point, though.
Something in Sly’s delivery is appealing to one whole lot of people. He has been asking top price for concerts (Kapralik won’t talk figures, but The Band draws down $25,000) for two years. A part of it is the big beat.
Kids used to get up and dance to the music a long time ago, before the head shop opened up. Sly has them at it again. Another reason, for those who have to see a white for every black, is that Sly’s audience is bi-racial. He is a walking advertisement for the coming together.
“Remember those who have stood,” Sly tells his audience in a serious introduction to “Stand.” “The Kennedys,” he says.’ “Martin Luther King. Malcolm X. Bozo. Bozo. He’s still a clown, ain’t he?”

＊＊＊

Sly on race: “We tell the truth, (pause) and it’s obvious. I talk to everyone same as I’m talkin’ to you.”

＊＊＊

Here is a question for Sly: As a master musician/engineer, what does he think of, say, the difference in quality of voicings by Joe Cocker and Leon Russell on “Delta Lady”? Sly: “I think Cocker’s outasight.” He is holding his head in his hands. Russell? “Far out, baby.” Kapralik has pointed out that Sly does not like to talk about other musicians. “He’s creative, not derivative.”
If rock is dead, there must be whole bundles of people who don’t know that Rita
Coolidge is Russell’s “Delta Lady.”

＊＊＊

Sly’s songs suggest a strong humanistic trait. Sylvester Stewart came up from the streets, a gang leader, and dropped pop music at the age of 19 after his success with the Autumn label. He regained interest as a student of music theory at San Francisco State Junior College. As part of the ballyhoo for his appearance, Sly’s press agents put out a puff calling him a poet. What does Sly call his best poem? “I don’t know.”
The lyrics of Sly’s songs are as patently obvious as their titles.
“Everyday People” sings the praises of… you guessed it.
“Stand” is a call for self-respect. “I Want to Take You Higher,” is a vision. “Everybody Is A Star” and “You Can Make It If You Try,” are, well, other songs that Sly has written. Who in his right mind, besides a press agent, would call this man a poet?
A theory: There were not many who misunderstood Chaucer’s tales, nor were there simple-minded villagers who could mistake the tales sung by Alan a Dale. In the centuries ruled by the Gutenburg press, huge numbers of artistic forms and artifices were built up, and one was given to understand that one must be acquainted with the artifices in order to appreciate the art. Right? But the generation that perceives its world as being hypercomplex is asking for simpler forms in its entertainment. And getting them.
How then explain the Beatles? Suggest another theory, of course.

＊＊＊

When Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin snuffed out their lives this year, there were those who cleared their throats and concluded that both had succumbed to the pressures of stardom, that with their deaths and the Beatle split most of the creative energy was gone from rock. Truly a death knell, they said.
Question: Is rock dead?
Sly: “I don’t know.” (Newsday 701202)

701128 Little Sister “Somebody’s Watching You” b/w “Stanga” 7″ was released (Stone Flower). 

701128? 7012XX? Joe Hicks “Life and Death in G & A pt.I/II” 7″ was released (Stone Flower).

701128? 7012XX? 6IX “Dynamite” b/w “I’m Just Like You” 7″ was released (Stone Flower). 

701128 Civic Arena, Pittsburgh, PA [supported by 6IX & Ruth Copeland]

701204&05 Jai Alai Fronton, Miami, FL [supported by 6IX]

701211&12 Winterland, SF [supported by Pacific Gas & Electric, Dunn & McCashen and Little Sister]

“In late 1970, I did see Sly and the Family Stone at Winterland, San Francisco. What I really remember most was Sly bringing out his red, white and black flag and explaining that it stood for of our blended society IIRC. That show was very satisfying.” (DeeZee) (https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/did-you-ever-see-sly-and-the-family-stone.360991/)

“Sly–Master of Rock-Theater“
by Philip Elwood

You could tell by the eight long black limousines double parked outside Winterland last midnight that Sly and the Family Stone, frequent no-shows as superheadliners in the concert world of rock had, indeed, shown.
And after an enervating hour’s wait while the stage was being filled by fifteen massive speaker units, organ, piano, percussion, guitars and other paraphernalia, you could tell by sound and sight that Sly Stone had, indeed, arrived on the Winterland stage.
Stone, recently enough for most of his local fans to remember, was a very hip “soul” d.j. ー one who knew music and understood the theatrical possibilities of a microphone.
His musical astuteness wasn’t particularly evident last night when the seven piece Family Stone got into its inimitably loud wailing, but as for theater there is no one more aware of handling a stage mike or presenting a theatrically satisfying show than Sly Stone.
He is affecting, now, something of a combination of Jimi Hendrix and Mick Jagger.
He is not the instrumentalist or singer that either have been but his stance and manner can’t help but reflect the late Jimi and, if only in costume, at Winterland there was striking reminder of Jagger in Sly’s appearance.
His black cloche-like hat was trimmed in red and white. His high, brass-buckled, patent leather boots came to his knees, partially covering his noisy red, white and black striped pants; his flag-like shirt was open to the waist a massive brass pendant swinging on his chest.
And the rest of the Stone “Family,” especially bassist Larry Graham in his matched tinsel blue-and-silver jacket and flared pants, were comparable in outrageous attire.
Musically? Well, Sly spends half his set a-building. His (or Rosie Stone’s) keyboard work, on piano and/or organ, on nects the tunes, which gradually climb (like their hit) higher-and-higher in emotional pitch.
Finally, the whole bandstand and the entire crowd (over 6000 last night) are at full volume, full fever-pitch. The Family is bathed in sweat, the noise is stupendous, and out front Sly is magnificent; pounding, stomping, shouting, thumping anything in sight, conducting as only he can, a real ritual in rock.
Musically, if not theatrically, PG&E last night were ‘way ahead of Sly and the Family Stone, and they set-up the audience splendidly for Sly. (The SF Examiner 701212)

701228 L.A. Forum, Inglewood, CA [plus Little Sister and Bloodrock]

Sly and Family Stone in Concert at Forum
by LEROY ROBINSON

When Sly and the Family Stone took the stage of the Forum on Monday night the rumor that they would not show was instantly discredited. Apparently the rumor had little effect: a capacity house waited eagerly for Sly to give them what they paid their happy bucks to see and hear.
Sly took full advantage of the situation. After some delay, which was shortened by a foot-stomping impatience display by the audience, Sly came on to the fanfare of his followers, but instead of jumping in and socking it to them all at once, he built on their eagerness.

Versatile Leader
“We’re gonna do what we wanna. You do what you wanna,” were Sly’s words as he tuned his instrument. Then it was into “Thank You for Letting Me Be Myself,” which was marred by grossly disturbing responses from the massive amplifiers and microphones. But Sly and his group carried on with the versatile leader shifting back and forth from standing and singing to sitting at his electric piano and singing.
Bedlam came, however, with the arrival of Sly singing, “Stand.”
The audience took him literally and security guards began to move in. Then with a segue into “Higher” things became increasingly tense for the security but the audience was feeling free and letting it all hang out.
Chorus after chorus of “Higher” increased tension to a point where Sly had to cease playing and assist security in calming down several over-zealous supporters. Afterwards, it was into “Dance to the Music” and the bedlam became a celebration of dancing, singing, revelry, and order, although no one was sitting in his seat by now.

Hard Rock
All in all, it was a happy, clapping, foot – stomping display of pleasure at the musical dexterity of Sly and the Family Stone who left perhaps one stone unturned, time. A contract that prevented them from going past midnight didn’t help either.
Some of the time was used by Blood Rock, a hard rock ensemble complete with a vocalist who seemed to be challenged more by the total electric sound of his colleagues, and performed sexual calisthentics with the large amplifiers as a way of getting attention. Something was trying to be said by the group. Just what was anyone’s guess.
Then the appearance of Six, a blues-rock-soul group out of the Sly management family, had something to say too, and we’re trying to say it, but not very successfully. Only their harmonica player, Marvin Braxton, with his sound and solos gave any dimension to the hard working desire for a groove.
Little Sister, Sly’s blood relative, only bordered on success with this andience that had come to see her brother. That came with her last selection, “You’re the One,” which did what it was supposed to do, warm up the audience for the star of the evening, Sly and the Family Stone. (Los Angeles Times 701230)

701231 Pepperland, San Rafael, CA [with Little Sister, 6IX, Joe Hicks, Rubber Band, Fox, Aum and Country Weather]

710102 Pepperland, San Rafael, CA [with Little Sister, 6IX, Joe Hicks and Rubber Band] 

710102 TV broadcast The Andy Williams Show [Performing “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” (lip-sync). Other guests: Petula Clark, Flip Wilson and Bill Haley & the Comets.]# 

Sly canceled 26 out of 80 shows in 1970, and we missed five concerts in a row on a Southern swing in February 1971. He skipped network television appearances. He left the other band members waiting backstage for hours wondering whether he was going to show up or not. (Joel Selvin “For the Record: Sly and the Family Stone – An Oral History”) 

The newspaper article “Sly Stone Says Reputation Hasn’t Hurt Career at All” by Mary Campbell (AP Newsfeatures Writer), originally published on Asbury Park Press 701215, spread all around the world by numerous local newspapers until 1971, under various titles: “Will Sly Blow His Career?”, “Sly Stone, the Newest Rock Star”, “Sly Stone Tries to Get There on Time”, “Sly Stone: To Be Or Not To Be?”, “Is Sly Stone Really Sly?”, “Switched-On But Sleepy, Sly May Blow His Career”, “Sly Stone, the Rock Star”, “Sly Stone Unworried About Reputation”, “Sly, Family Stone trying to improve reputation”, “Sly Stone Number 1 Now”, “Sly Stone Replaces Jimi Hendrix as No. 1”, “Singer Sly Stone’s Fans Stay Faithful”, “Late Arrivals, No-Shows Are Sly Stone’s Trademark; But Fans Keep Waiting”, “Sly Stone not rocked by rocky reputation”, “Sleepy Sly Stone Rambles”, “Sly Stone’s actions don’t disgust fans”, “Sly Stone’s music is so good fans will wait” etc. etc.

“Sly & the Family Stone arrive the morning after for a concert at MSG, claiming they were delayed by the cab strike in December.” (Soul Sauce – presenting the predicted future, Billboard 710102) 

Sly Stone: I’m never late for concerts, because the concerts don’t start till I get there. (1972) (source?)

710109 Civic Center, Charleston, WV

710110 Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA

“Sly ‘Arrives’ At Spectrum–Good Thing”
By JACK LLOYD
Of The Inquirer Staff

It was like the good old days of rock ‘n’ roll. When the folks really got worked up over their music. With the beat booming, hearts beating, feet moving, limbs failing, plenty of screaming and cops all over the place.

The scene was the Spectrum on Sunday night. And the occasion was the coming of Sly and the Family Stone.

You knew it was going be one of THOSE nights 

soon as you arrived at the Spectrum and found all of those people milling about, locked out because all of the tickets had been sold, trying to buy a pair from anyone who might be in the mood for a bit of scalping.

TICKETS STOLEN

And there was no doubt at all about it a little later when a report came in from a Spectrum otficial that a patron was held cp at gunpoint outside the pleasure palace and relieved of his tickets to Sly and the Family Stone.

So you figure on a night like this, Sly simply isn’t going to show. In the past, he’s missed the gun with far less reason. But Sly and his merry band of musicians did find their way to South Philadel-phia.

And it’s a good thing. treg because the sell-out eront-had obviously come to let off steam They not warmed up with a strong session of gos-pel-influenced rock turned out by Little Sister, who received strong support from the delegation of musicians and backup singers who came with her.

Finally it was time for Sly.

It was still time for Sly 45 minutes later and the crowd was getting a trifle testy.

And then he was there. More of that gospel-rock. And no one does it better than Sly’s little family. The rhythm and force of the music is relent-less. The power builds and builds and the crowd starts going bananas.

It’s dancing in the aisles, on top of the seats, even in the press box. A policeman was seen tapping his brace of spare 38 shells in tire with the music. It was ju.. one of THOSE nights. (The Philadelphia Inquirer 710111)

710117 Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver, BC, Canada [No show up. They were late again for a concert in Vancouver and the promoters impounded all their equipment and instruments.]

“Rock fans go quietly when Sly group fails to show”

Several thousand Vancouver rock fans were left out in the cold Sunday night when Sly and the Family Stone failed to show up for a concert scheduled at the Pacific Coliseum for 7:30 p.m.

A similar no-show by Sly and his group in Chicago last July resulted in rioting in which 148 persons were arrested and 66 injured.

But the picture in Vancouver was totally different. After shuffling around the doors of the Coliseum for a few minutes and after a small hand-lettered notice announcing the cancellation had been posted shortly before 7 p.m., most of the crowd dispersed quietly.

The majority headed for their cars while others went hunting for a phone booth in order to phone parents or friends who had only just dropped them off.

Scott Bergstrom of Moose Valley Farms, promoters of the concert, was unavailable for comment Sunday evening and no reason was given for the cancellation. (The Vancouver Sun 710118)

by Jack Wasserman
THE TOWN AROUND US ー There’s a Hertz rent-a-truck with some $15,000 worth of electronic music-making equipment locked in the PNE coliseum following the no-show by Sly and the Family Stone Sunday night. To make double sure that nobody gets away with the equipment, promoter Scott Bergstrom of Moose Valley Farms, who acted as local agent for the group, has some of the wiring from the truck. The hassle began Sunday afternoon when word was received that the group wouldn’t be able to make its Vancouver date. Then the truck load of equipment arrived, along with a three-man stage crew. Their arrival was followed by long distance phone call from Sly’s agent saying that a special jet was being chartered in L.A. to get the group to San Francisco where it could catch a regularly Scheduled Western Airlines flight to Vancouver. They’d be in late, but better late than never. Around 6:30 p.m., just when the PNE was about to open the doors, another phone call came, saying that the group was in San Francisco but Sly wasn’t. The concert was cancelled for the second and last time. Only 3,000 tickets had been sold, which would have meant a disaster anyhow. (The Vancouver Sun 710119)

…the Sly and the Family Stone’s performance was called off when Sly and his group failed to turn up in Vancouver. (The Vancouver Sun, British Columbia 710122)

In: Bob Talbert’s Detroit
Sly Stone and his freaky family haven’t changed. They were late again for a concert in Vancouverーshades of Detroitーand the promoters impounded all their equipment and instruments. Sly doesn’t care. His agent said the rock star personally made $1 million last year and will double it this year. Think how much he could make if he started showing up for concerts! (Detroit Free Press, MI 710128)

710120 Reed Field House, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI [2 hours late]

“I promoted a concert in Kalamazoo on January 20, 1971 and Sly was 2 hours late causing a massive crowd control problem … not worth all the trouble” (Dan Pepper) (https://www.facebook.com/groups/vanishedchicago/posts/5110908922309159/)

“I saw them in ‘69 [’71?] at the WMU campus. It was a rockin show…as we chanted “higher!”” (Dennis Grimski) (https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=34176787665302396&set=gm.10164086419778007&idorvanity=56160843006)

710221 Dailton Daily News, OH
“Sly Stone was slapped for non-payment of travel agency tabs.”

710121 Montreal Forum, Montreal, QC, Canada [with Little Sister and Soma]

“Soma is good and Sly is sloppy in joint show at the Forum”
By DANE LANKEN
of The Gazette

Every character R. Crumb ever created was in the Forum last night to hear Sly and the Family Stone.

They all clapped their hands, jumped up and down, held up lit matches, threw rolls of toilet paper and generally had a good time.

Sly, for his part, led the band through its numbers and evidently delivered to the kids all that they had expected.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t too much. Sly’s band has had a few hits, but musically it’s never distinguished itself to any great degree. Their songs all have pretty well the same choppy beat, which is okay, but it gets a little wearisome after a while.

And last night in particular, there were other shortcomings. Sly seemed to be having problems keeping his mind on his job and sometimes he was just so casual he was sloppy. The whole band, in fact, tended at times to get pretty strung out.

But the drummer kept drumming and so the beat went on and that seemed to be enough to keep the kids happy. Hopefully, they would have demanded a little more from the artists they paid to see than a beat and a reputation.

Soma, on the other hand, the Canadian band that played the top half of the bill, worked damned hard for the audience, not only on stage last night, but generally in getting their music together.

Their set was a little too long, but their music is good and loud and heavy and they deserved the ovation they got.

It’s going to be nice to hear Soma again and see where they’ve moved to musically.

But as for Sly, well, he’d just better pull up his fancy buckle boots. (The Gazette, Montreal, Quebec 710122)

“And the music was secondary
15,000 saw a smashing ‘Sly’”
by JUAN RODRIGUEZ

Last night was action night at the Forum.

A girl near the front of the stage hollered to a friend standing on the other side,

“Hey Lindsay!… Heard ya got busted… Ya got out!… Far out!… And ya didn’t cut your hair!…”

A guy wearing a faded green army parka, carrying an old cane, was reassuring someone he knew that, yes, it was true that John had dropped. Just a few moments ago, too.

“No kidding,” he said knowingly, and he shuffled off.

John was slouched in his seat having the time of his life.

The air, needless to say, was heavy.

About 15,000 people, most of them in their teens, were at the Forum to see Sly & The Family Stone. The show was smashing success because everyone, almost without exception, got what they wanted. That’s where it becomes difficult to review “musical performance” such as last night’s because it was clear that the music played a secondary role. This was a big occasion, the largest audience since Led Zeppelin, an audience perhaps even more enthusiastic than Zep’s.

They were downright effervescent. There were friends to meet and scenes to make, cool to practice, chicks to pick up and guys to glom onto. It was a great night out and it looked as if everyone got the most out of it, one way or another.

And Sly gave them what they wanted: music to enjoy themselves, in appropriate surroundings. But it wasn’t particularly good music.

On record, Sly & The Family Stone are one of America’s really great groups. They are soulful and funky but with a flashy kind of commercialism that prompts some to call them a sort of black edition of the Mothers of Invention. It’s not a bad description because Sly’s records possess the structural complexity and imagination of Frank Zappa. Sly is successful because he has fused two previously unbridgeable styles black and white. He has done so with amazing wit and variety.

They went through their hits last night. I expected them to do this but I also thought they might be better than the records. They were not. They were worse. Much worse. Gone was the complexity. In its place were mere hints of the real thing, transported through lazy, simple-minded characterizations of their sound. Gone was the funk. Long, boring solos took care of that.

Furthermore, Sly came on at 10 p.m. and played until 11:15, not a very long time when you consider the shallowness of much of the music. Soma, the opening group, played loud and long, too. Sly was better but you expected it. The astonishing thing was that you could compare the two groups.

It’s true that Sly’s voice was shot and he wasn’t feeling too good. He said he was really sorry and that they’d like to play Montreal again because they really wanted to give a good show, and then he came up with the stock crowd-winner of the last few years: “You’re beautiful!”

So what else is new?

Sly did not play the music he can play. He didn’t even play the music he’s famous for. Instead he played at lowest common denominator. Sure it was good ‘n’ loud. Sure it made you move. But it wasn’t good music. It was music to grace an event a Forum full of people who came out for a good time and it was successful in its function. (The Montreal Star 710122)

710123 Jenison Fieldhouse, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI [1 hour late, 1 hour set and 20-min. encore. Supported by Ned.]

“9,000 FANS THRILLED
Sly Stone: true superstar?”
By DAVID BASSETT
State News Reviewer

Sylvester Stewart, alias Sly Stone one of the world’s greatest living superstars, thrilled 9,000 ?id superstar fans Saturday night in Jenison Fieldhouse with one of the world’s greatest displays of superstarness.
Stone, former leader of the Stoners, a group once described as the greatest group ever to appear in the men’s restroom of ?e Lodi, Calif., Civic Center and Beat Packing House, gave a masterful exhibition of superstarness suitable for ?faming.
Such unheard-of feats as flowing in his rhythm guitarist’s ?r and turning completely ?sound to acknowledge the presence of his drummer were performed with all the elan and devastatingly poetic grace and precision of a true superstar.
Before tearing into one of superstardom’s alltime classies, Stone dipped deep into his bottomless well of erudite humility and warmly exclaimed, “I don’t give a shit. I. Don’t. Care.”
Occasionally strutting proudly from one end of the stage to the other while clapping both hands out of time and tripping only once in the process, Sly altruistically gave the audience numerous glimpses of his shiny black patent leather superstar boots (with three buckles).
Complementing perfectly his simply divine red corduroy velour hat (replete with a genuine black feather), these boots were seen to lift off the ground and return again at least twice.
Rounding out his stunning ensemble were a Harry Belafonte type open-to-the-navel shirt jacket and matching pants decorated with brilliant red and yellow patches.
After breaking his previous record of arriving only two and one-half hours late, Stone pranced onstage at 10:55 (only one hour late), meekly confronted his vicious audience and self-effacingly answered chorus after chorus of jeers with “Shut UP!!”
After 13 members of the audience applauded this unthinkable display of humility, the superstar added, “And I’m not a cocky asshole.”
Stone sent rhythmic shivers pulsating up and down the spines of the audience with his exquisitely executed self parodies, at first placing his hands on his hips and smiling at his bassist, only to outdo himself by snapping his fingers and saying “yeah.”
Dispensing with his guitar after a brilliant three second solo, Stone proceeded to majestically recline on his bench in preparation for the heretofore unheard of feat of executing three more-or-less different notes in succession.
Stone concluded his concert with a rousing encore which included the epitomic superstar feat of looking at the keys of his Farfisa organ while occasionally tapping his left foot. (source?)

“TWO HOUR DELAY
Sly concert has snags”
By JOHN BORGER
State News Staff Writer

A sell-out crowd of nearly 9,000 students sat waiting for four hours in Jenison Fieldhouse Saturday for Sly and the Family Stone to appear on-stage.
They booed him when he finally pranced into view at 10:55 p.m., after two hours of procrastination which ended only when Pop Entertainment officials told Sly he wouldn’t be paid if he didn’t go on immediately.
But Sly slapped down his detractors and by the end of his one-hour set and 20-minute encore he had most of the crowd stomping and clapping to his music.
“I don’t think anybody knows why Sly was so late,” Kris Ernst, Pop Entertainment chairman, said Sunday. “Sly’s just a different kind of guy. Part of his bit is making everybody apprehensive.
“Nothing happened last night that we didn’t expect would happen,” he said. “And I think the crowd expected it too. Everybody was pretty cool about it.”
“The crowd was just beautiful,” Randolph Webster, Pop Entertainment adviser, commented. During the two hours between Ned, the warmup group, and Sly’s Entertainment and watched one student pantomime to canned music played over the sound system.
The Sly concert produced problems with equipment as well as with Sly himself. Sly’s organ, piano and 17 other pieces of equipment were held up in Montreal. All equipment eventually used was borrowed, Ernest said.
“You just don’t come up with that kind of equipment at 3 on Saturday afternoon which is when we found out about the hold up,” Webster said. “But the students on the committee did it.”
Lansing and Detroit music stores, Ned, and Detroit group called “Tacklebox” loaned the equipment.
Sly, who was scheduled to arrive in Lansing at 5:30 p.m. on a charter plane, eventually flew in at 8:15 p.m. He was in Jenison when Ned finished playing at 9 p.m., but waited through a 45-minute set up and another hour delay before going on stage.
“We tried every ploy to get him on,” Webster said. “Finally, we said if he didn’t go on in a hurry, he wouldn’t get paid.”
“Most of his excuses to begin with were fairy reasonable ー he had to get dressed and he wanted to tune up before going on-stage.
During his performance, Sly complained that the eight-foot stage ー which he had demanded in his contract – prevented him from “establishing a rapport” with his audience.
Webster said stages at future concerts would be elevated only five feet.
Sly’s 20-minute encore was entirely his own idea, officials said.
“Why he gave that extra time I don’t know,” Webster said. “I would say that’s the peak time he plays, ever, except perhaps at Woodstock.”
Sly’s fee for the performance was $15,000 or 60 per cent of the gross, whichever is greater. (source?)

“Policemen Injured At Concert”

Campus police at Michigan State University are seeking complaints and warrants today charging several persons with assault and battery in the injury of three officers during Sly and the Family Stone pop concert in Jenison Fieldhouse Saturday night.
Chief of Police Richard O. Bernitt said officer Harvery Clark suffered a split lip in one altercation.
In the other incident, Bernitt said a group of black youths attacked officers Charles Cribley and Ronald Reamer. They kicked Cribley in the groin and forced Reamer into a men’s room and hit him about the face, Bernitt said.
The chief declined to reveal names of those who assaulted the officers pending the issuance of warrants.
Bernitt said that nine officers were originally assigned to the Sly concert and that more were assigned after several incidents during the two-hour wait by a packed crowd of about 9,000.
Police received complaints from five persons who said that a person misrepresented himself as a ticket taker and took their tickets to the Jenison event.
Two windows in the fieldhouse were broken by persons apparently attempting to gain entrance to the concert, police said. (Lansing State Journal 710125)

“Late ‘Sly’ Mechanical To Boot”
By CINDY
State Journal Special Writer

Sly and the Family Stone held up the show for more than an hour at the Michigan State University concert at Jenison Fieldhouse Saturday night as they have concerts for the past few months.
But it’s better than not appearing at all. A no-show by the group for a concert in Chicago last July resulted in an eight-hour rampage of angry fans.
Sly appeared with his group at 11 p.m. and told the hissing crowd of 10,000 to shut up. He said he couldn’t understand the restlessness even though some people had been waiting at the door since 6 p.m. as well as through the co-featured band and a two-hour long intermission.
Sly and his group never really got interested in their music. They sang and played mechanically. The exuberant exit song, “Higher,” was squeezed dry by the time they finished with it in the finale exit.
Five other selections played in 45 minutes with a 20-minute encore, lacked gusto.

NO RAPPORT

Sly complained of a lack of rapport with the audience, though one of his contract demands was a high stage with a triple-staked snow fence around it, according to David Thompson, a sound technician responsible for the stage area.
Other of Sly’s demands was an elaborate security force and 105 decibels of sound through-out. A recent study has shown 120 decibels is the point where sound becomes painful.
“We had 2,000 watts of power in use, and I was recording at 116 decibels,” Thompson said.
Ned, a six-man rock group who travels with Sly and company, kicked off the show right on time at 8 p.m. The music was medicore at first, but as the group got excited about the music, so did the crowd as it responded with rhythmic clapping and hearty applause.
Setting up amplifiers and other stage equipment for Sly took the crew 45 a minutes, Thompon said. An additional hour and fifteen minutes were spent waiting until Sly and the Family Stone were good and ready to appear.
Spongy discs were provided by stage personnel for the audience to toss around during intermission. An unidentified male student with a crew cut and horn-rimmed glasses stood on his chair and pantomimed several of the piped-in songs. (Lansing State Journal 710125)

710210 Stokely Center, Knoxville, TN [canceled at the last minute]

“‘Sly’ Group Cancels Outー
Pushed-Around Vols
Accomplish Things”

Kentucky’s Adolph Rupp and Vanderbilt’s Roy Skinner couldn’t do it, but now Tennessee’s Ray Mears is beginning to wonder as to what lengths someone will go to force his Vols out of Stokely Center for practice.
Sly and the Family Stoneーthe rock groupーwere to have performed at Stokely Center last night. They canceled out at the last minute, saying they couldn’t get out of Los Angeles.
Stokely Center was ready and waiting for the Sly one, Musical instruments, sound equipment, additional chairs all were in order. But Sly waited until after the Vols had completed their workout in the new Health, Physical Education and Recreation Building before getting word that he wouldn’t be here.
Mears originally had planned to work out in Alumni Memorial Gymnasium but later decided on the other site because it was closer and lighting was better.
But a wrestling match (UT vs. Western Carolina) was in progress on the other side of a portable wall. Spectators got rather excited and their shouts drowned out instruction from Mears and Stu Aberdeen to their players.
“I guess it was a good workout, considering everything,” said Mears with a grin. “There were a few distractions, but we accomplished some things on offense and defense.”
As Mears re-entered Stokely Center after the workout and heard that Sly and the Family Stone had canceled, Aberdeen said, “Coach, you’re not gonna let’em have that arena again tomorrow are ya?”
So, now it’s on to Georgia for a Saturday battle and to Florida on Monday. There could be some distractions there, too. (The Knoxville News-Sentinel 710211)

710212 TV broadcast ABC’s American Bandstand Little Sister performed “You’re the One” and “Somebody’s Watching You”. Other guest: Bobby Sherman.

710219 Met(ropolitan Sports) Center, Bloomington, MN [supported by The Mystics]

710221 Dailton Daily News, OH
“Sly Stone was slapped for non-payment of travel agency tabs.”

710226 Convention Center, Louisville, KY [no show up]

“Sly Sly
Another non-act, this time not in Louisville”
By PAUL M. BRANZBURG
Courier-Journal Staff Writer

Sly Stone is famous if he does and famous if he doesn’t.
Last night, in Louisville, he didn’tーshow up at Convention Center to perform before 6,000 people who had paid to hear him.
When Sly performs with his rock groupーSly and the Family Stoneーhe usually proves that he is the world’s leading black rock artist by whipping himself and his audience into a gyrating frenzy.
When Sly fails to show up for scheduled concert, that, too, is part of his fame, because he has done it again and again.
Why didn’t he come? Nobody knows.
Not even the promoter of the concert, Burt Horowitz, president of American Concert Association, Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Horowitz, who came to Louisville for the concert, said that “when Sly did not show up, we called the William Morris Agency (Sly’s agent) in New York and we were informed he was not going to show up. They do not know why. He didn’t tell them why.”
Tom Minter, general manager of Convention Center, got the bad news from Horowitz at 6 p.m. last night. Immediately he ordered a message put up on the marquee: “Sly Cancelled RefundsーMon.ー10 a.m.”
Those who purchased their tickets at Convention Center or L. S. Ayres & Co. may get a full refund by going to the Convention Center ticket office on Monday or Tuesday between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. (Refunds will not be made at L. S. Ayres.)
Tickets purchased at the University of Louisville will be refunded next week at the Athletic Ticket Office between 10 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. weekdays and until noon on Saturdays. (Tickets bought at U of L will not be refunded at Convention Center.)
Those who showed up for the concert seemed disappointed, but not surprised.
“I missed Sly when he didn’t show up at a concert in San Francisco,” said a young longhair. “But I saw him once in Arizona, so it doesn’t bother me. One out of three.
“I drove 120 miles from Bowling Green and I’m very disappointed,” moaned Edward Barr, a senior at Western Kentucky University.
“We had heard he was good at not showing up, but we didn’t believe he would do this in Louisville. We were really excited about it, and then he does this.”
Last summer, Sly and the Family Stone failed to show up at a rock festival on Randall’s Island in New York City. The group’s manager announced that Sly wouldn’t be coming because the group couldn’t afford to charter a plane to get there from another engagement, but they would be glad to give a free concert in a New York park later.
Soon after, on a hot muggy August afternoon, a riot broke out in Chicago’s Grant Park when a crowd in excess of 50,000 demanded Sly, who had not yet arrived for his performance. Result: 165 persons arrested, 135 injured (including 65 policemen) and three youths wounded by gunfire. (Sly says he was on his way, but police wouldn’t let him enter the riot-torn park.)
After the riot in Chicago, New York decided it didn’t want Sly in one of its parks. And the mayor of Boston cancelled a concert scheduled for his city. And, last November, a concert in Detroit was canceled an hour before it was supposed to start. (Sly explained later that a mixup occurred because he had fallen asleep when he was supposed to call his manager.)
“I think about 90 per cent of our lateness was because of our road organization and about 10 per cent is because I don’t want to get up,” Sly told an interviewer last month. “I’m sleepy. It’s a hangupーbut I’m trying to get over it.”
Sly may not soon forget his failure to show in Louisville.
“We will institute a lawsuit against him next week for failure to show upーfor breach of contract,” Horowitz said last night. “And we’ll never touch Sly and the Family Stone again.
Horowitz said he lost well over $10,000 by the concert cancellation.
Tom Minter, director of Convention Center, said that about $30,000 would have to be refunded to those who bought tickets. He said it has been five years since artists last failed to show at a scheduled performance at the auditorium. (The Courier Journal 710227)

710305 Cumberland Memorial Arena, Fayetteville, NC [supported by Toy Factory]

“Sly Stone Flops in Fayetteville”
By GROVER BAILEY
Staff Writer

FAYETTEVILLEーFollowing a trend, Sly and the Family Stone showed up late for their Friday evening performance at Cumberland County Memorial Auditorium. Sly was up to his old tricks again.
The emcee at 8 p.m. said there were rumors Sly would not appear but assured the house that Sly was en route to the auditorium. A group, Toy Factory, was to entertain until 9 p.m. and Sly and company would perform after the 30-minute intermission.
Advance advertising did not give the time of Sly’s performance nor was there mention of Toy Factory, another rock group. With entertainers such as Sly maybe ticket buyers should require more specifics especially about refunds and replacement acts. What happened to the featured “Georgia?”
At 10 p.m. the audience had grown impatient. They began shouting “We want Sly!” The emcee returned saying Sly’s equipment was being set up and there was difficulty on the floor. Those close to the stage would have to move back before the show could start.
The audience grew irritable. When the emcee announced Sly’s arrival and asked for 10 more minutes of patience, elements within the audience booed, complained and threw objects toward him. He said Sly would not perform with objects on the stage. The stage was then cleared.
Sly appeared at 11 p.m. and made an incoherent apology and said the group would perform as long as they were allowed. He asked for understanding and uttered an apparently meaningless phrase concerning truth. Discernible words were acrimonious and acidulous.
It was a full house and many in the audience had been standing since 8 p.m. The group tried to grab the crowd with the surefire “Thank You” and failed. The Family Stone played well but Sly sounded as if his vocal cords needed rest. More excuses. Sly said the group was “trying to get it together.” Approaching another number he said “they” had cut the mike off. “Honest,” he said, “we want to play.”
The audience had grown weary of excuses and Sly’s indifference. The excellent visual expression of the act wasn’t enough and the psychedelic soul came too late.
It was time for the concert to end. Sly had not performed an hour. But he said they would play until the electricity was turned off. And it was, at midnight.
Sly and the Family Stone can keep an audience on its feet with vocal harmony and electronic riffs with inserts of brass, movements and psychedelic effects. Apparently Sly was not in the mood. He kept the Fayetteville audience on its feet because the seats were filled and everyone was waiting for him to get it together. He never did.
Sly’s approach to this engagement was repulsive. He cheated an audience that screamed and waited all evening for him. Soon many of his followers may recognize that his music even at its best, is not worth the agony and uncertainty of waiting. (The News And Observer, Raleigh, NC 710309)

“Rock star, Cougar tilt”
by Howie Carr
Feature Writer

MAJOR CULTURAL EVENT NUMBER ONE:
(Editor’s noteーIn an effort to lay to rest rumors about a cultural vacuum in the ol’ North State, Howie Carr was commissioned as roving cultural correspondent. The events he reports form an artistic pattern. Sly is usually late, and the Cougars usually lose. As Oscar Wilde remarked, “Style, not sincerity, is everything.” Howie’s illuminating observations follow.)
The chanting began at 10:40.
“Go to hell, Sly. Go to hell, Sly.”
As the chanting continued, the standing room only crowd that had packed the Fayetteville Memorial Coliseum to hear Sly and the Family Stone began to pelt the stage with crumpled Coke cups and pennies.
The fans, many of whom had traveled a long way to reach Cumberland County, the nation’s second largest heroin market, were in a surly mood two and a half hours after the concert was supposed to have started.
Many had stood in mobs trying to get standing room tickets while scalpers passed money up to the front ranks.
“Hey, brother, get me a couple.”
“Hey, country boy, get me two more”
Meanwhile, the chanting continued.
“Go to hell, Sly. Go to hell, Sly.”
The ringleader was a bespectactled, wimpy-looking man in a yellow plaid shirt standing up front, who time after time would hit the bass drum with wads of debris to the cheers of the crowd.
At 10:48 somebody came on the stage and made the big announcement: “Sly will be on in two minutes.”
Six minutes later Sly and the Family Stone were on stage, a mere two hours and 56 minutes late.
“We’ll play as long as necessary,” said Sly, dressed in the same costume he was photographed in for his “Greatest Hits” album cover.
Sly hasn’t changed his act much over the years, except for switching his opening song from “M’lady” to “Thank you falettin me be mice elf again.” He did not play “as long as necessary” though, finishing after only a little more than an hour.
On the way out, people were already starting to talk about Cumberland County’s next major cultural event, the Ali-Frazier fightーan event which now belongs to history and legions of hack sports writers.
“My man’s gonna blow taps at reveille, and retreat all over Frazier,” said one.
“Yeah, that’ll be some real power to the people;” said his friend.
Sly Stone couldn’t have put it better himself. (The Daily Tar Heel, Chapel Hill, NC 710312)

710306 Assembly Hall, Champaign, IL

710312 Muhlenberg College Memorial Hall, Allentown, PA

710313&14 Iowa State University Armory, Ames, IA [no show up]

710316 Barton Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

710320or21 Roberts Stadium, Evansville, IN [canceled]

710325 Civic Auditorium, San Jose, CA

710327 Littlejohn Coliseum, Clemson, SC

710402&03 Iowa State University Armory, Ames, IA [supported by Mason Proffit and West Minist’r] 

“Saw them in Ames Iowa 69 [71?] Sly was so stoned he couldn’t come on stage. Mason Proffit was playing so much better. People kept clapping for Mason Proffit really pissed Sly off.” (Bob Lewis) (source?)

“Sly and His Family Stir ISU Crowd”
by Gary Claxton
AMES. IA. ー Three of the gospel-singing “Stewart Four” ー Sylvester (Sly), Rosie and Freddie ー came to Iowa State University Friday night and mau-maued the folks.
Now they’re the family of Sly and the Family Stone. With bright costumes and halos of hair, they brought some 6,000 young people at ISU’s Greek Week concert a slinking, screaming, foot-stomping succession of grinding, churning soul music that has made them one of the top groups on the pop music scene.
And like their other concerts for the past four years, father K. C. Stewart was there ー thinking his kids will be rich and famous “maybe someday.”
“They all came out of the church,” said K.C., 59, who raised his five children in Valejo, Calif.
Along with daughter Loretta who plaved piano but now works at a California school ー Sly at age 12, Rose, 10, and Fred, 8, traveled as a gospel trio, the Stewart Four.
Choir Singer
“I took them all to church; made ‘em go to Sunday school,” K. C. said. “They sang in the choir and all that. When you’re doing something in the church, you put more into it until you feel it yourself.
“You can tell it’s in them ー all of them. Sly’s got it ro and he can’t get it out of him.”
And these days, with Sly on organ, Rosie on electric piano and Freddie on lead guitar, “it” is what Sly and the Family Stone has to sell. That’s with you’re doing something in the help of Jerry Martini on saxophone, Cynthia Robison on trumpet, Greg Errico on drums and Larry Brown on bass.
Mason Proffit
Sly wrapped up an evening in the ISU Armory that began with The West Minist’r ー a band from Fort Dodge ー and moved quickly enough to Mason Proffit, a five-piece group which is into a pioneer fantasy and country-flavored thing freely using banjo and steel guitar. (The Des Moines Register 710403)

710409 Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, San Jose, CA [Supported by Country Weather and Gropus Gackus. 2 hours late. Minor riot.]

“Headlined Sly & the Family Stone, with my band, Country Weather, second billed and Gropus Gackus as openers. Gackus was lucky: they split before the s**t hit the fan. We kept being told to play longer and longer, meaning that Sly was MIA. The audience was heavily black; we were white and played acid rock. Objects started flying at the stage, booing and scattered fights erupted, and we left the stage. When Sly hit the stage…almost 2 hours late…he mumbled something about “Hey, I admit it, it’s usually me…but this time, it was Larry (Graham) who f**ked up.” He then lurched into an incredibly sloppy intro to “Thank You Falettin Me Be Mice Elf”, the band tried to bring it up to tempo, the crowd became even more, ahhhh, prone to snittiness, and I got the hell out of there. I heard there was a minor riot…if there can be a “minor” riot…but I was too terrified and disillusioned to care.” (A member of Country Weather) (https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/sly-family-stone-country-weather-489694467)

710416 Will Rogers Coliseum, Fort Worth, TX [supported by Tony Joe White and Israfel, a Fort Worth group]

710429 Hollywood Sportatorium, Pembroke Pines, FL

710508 Arena, Kern County Fairgrounds, Bakersfield, CA [with 6ix]

710511 The Daily News, Lebanon, PA
“Rock star Sly Stone and his manager have a slight difference of opinion totaling $250,000.”

710515 War Memorial, Rochester, NY

710529 McGaw Hall, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL [like 2 hours late]

“We went to Northwestern U to see/hear the music. He was like 2 hours late and played like 4 songs- people were pissed and they let him know it!” (John Risdon) (https://www.facebook.com/groups/vanishedchicago/posts/5110908922309159/)

710530 Maple Leaf Garden, Toronto, ON, Canada [With James Gang, Buddy Miles Express, Taj Mahal (?), Rita Coolidge and Crowbar. SATFS and Crowbar were brought in to replace Steppenwolf, because John Kay came down with a severe strep throat.]

“I think it was 70 that a couple of friends and myself went to see what we thought was going to be Steppenwolf, and they canceled, and lo and behold, I was blown away when Sly and the Family Stone took the stage in Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. It was so frigging incredible! Will never forget it! I was 13 at the time and have loved them ever since. Thankufalettinmebemiceselfagin! One of my all-time fave songs ever!” (Brian Patrick Arscott) (source?)

710604–06 Cherry Hill Arena, Cherry Hill, NJ [preceeded on stage by Johnny Caswell & the Crystal Mansion, a late replacement for 6IX] 

710608 TV broadcast The Dick Cavett Show, NYC, NY on ABC [Performing “I Want to Take You Higher”. Other guests: George Burns (comedian), Jim Bouton (baseball pitcher) and Cliff Gorman (actor).]# 

710615 Los Angeles Times
“Buddy Miles, Bobby Womack and drummer Frosty have been contributing to Sly Stone’s new album at the Village Recorder studio in Los Angeles.”

710615 Municipal Auditorium, New Orleans, LA

710621–28 Celebration of Life, McCrea, LA [Shut down after its third day. Scheduled acts: Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, Moody Blues, Pink Floyd, B.B. King, Ike & Tina Turner, Sly & the Family Stone, Chuck Berry, Stephen Stills, WAR, John Sebastian, and Delaney & Bonnie. Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, Moody Blues, Pink Floyd, B.B. King, Ike & Tina Turner, Sly & the Family Stone etc.. The only well-known musicians who actually performed were Chuck Berry, Stephen Stills, WAR, John Sebastian, and Delaney & Bonnie.]

Although the 1971 festival drew a crowd of 60,000, the lineup of 70-plus national and international acts slated to perform ended up a paltry 10 acts as poor fairground conditions, lack of shelter, sweltering heat, and legal problems for organizers turned what could have been a major “Woodstock” type concert into an event-organizer’s calamity. Acts scheduled to perform included Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, Moody Blues, Pink Floyd, B.B. King, Ike & Tina Turner, and Sly & the Family Stone. The only well-known musicians who actually performed were Chuck Berry, Stephen Stills, WAR, John Sebastian, and Delaney & Bonnie. According to a Southeastern press release, the bands played at night but “festival goers spent their days in misery seeking food, drugs, and shelter on the treeless, mosquito-infested grounds.” The release also stated, “Rumors of police brutality along with a number of accidents, including the drowning deaths of at least four people in the swift-moving Atchafalaya River, contributed to the disaster. The festival shut down after its third day.” (https://www.nola.com/entertainment_life/movies_tv/mccrea-1971-louisianas-failed-woodstock-subject-of-film-airing-on-north-shore-cable/article_21f8144e-2dcb-581b-8729-e736e69d60cb.html)

At some point in early 1971 (in the autumn of 1970?), they moved from the Coldwater Canyon house to 783 Bel Air mansion (ex-John Phillips’ house), as known as Twin Gables.

John Phillips: [Sly’s] goons were sullen, unfriendly and armed. These people were rough. They laughed at me. There were lots of guns, rifles, machine guns, big dogs. (Papa John: An Autobiography by John Phillips by John Phillips and Jim Jerome)

Hump “Bubba” Banks: It all fell apart at Coldwater. That is when Sly did the PCP and he was just out of it… all the way out. There wasn’t anything happening no more. He was doing shit you would expect to see in some kind of institution for mentally retarded people. (“For the Record: Sly and the Family Stone – An Oral History” by Joel Selvin)

Greg was the soonest to escape from an orbit around Sly altogether, returning to his own Marin home. Jerry went back up to his Marin home. Freddie stayed in his Oakland Hills house.

Recording at 783 Bel Air mansion commenced. There was a recording studio installed by John Phillips. Many people were hanging out at Sly’s place in the “Riot” period (70–71): Bobby Womack, Ike & Tina Turner, Billy Preston, Johnny Guitar Watson, Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Buddy Miles, Bernard Purdie, Isaac Hayes, Richard Pryer, Redd Foxx, Terry Melcher, Jimmy Ford, Barry ‘Frosty’ Smith, Joe Hicks, Marvin Braxton [6IX], Gerry Gibson, Patryce Banks, Lithofayne Pridgon…

Bobby Womack: It was so spacey. I remember sitting there in the dark in Sly’s studio, coked to the brain, trying to sing, staying up four, five, six days. That’s just the way he was. Sly said to me, “Man, I’m comin’ outta left field o’ these motherfuckers. My music is like the devil’s music it’s got a little of yours in there but you can’t recognise it ‘cause it’s so loose and raw.” (“Looking at the Devil” by Barney Hoskyns The Guardian March 19, 2006 https://www.theguardian.com/music/2006/mar/19/urban.popandrock)

Clive Davis, who had signed the group to Epic in 1967: Sly was simply not producing albums at all. I heard stories that he was laying down hundreds of instrumental tracks in Southern California studios – without vocals. There was strong speculation that he would never sing again. (“Looking at the Devil” by Barney Hoskyns The Guardian March 19, 2006 https://www.theguardian.com/music/2006/mar/19/urban.popandrock)

Clive sent Miles Davis to Los Angeles in ’71 to try and help Sly complete the new album more quickly. 

Miles Davis: I went to a couple [of recording sessions] and there were nothing but girls everywhere and coke, bodyguards with guns, looking all evil. I told him I couldn’t do nothing with him – told Columbia I couldn’t make him record any quicker. We snorted some coke together and that was it. (“Miles Davis: The Autobiography” by Miles Davis with Quincy Troupe) 

Greg Errico: I’d get daily calls from [Sly], from everybody, and I just didn’t want no more part of it. It wasn’t fun anymore…. The business was handled very poorly… I had seen the situation deteriorate and seen [Sly] not responding to it, refusing to respond to the needs of everybody on all different levels. It got ugly within the group, around the group, the audience, the whole thing…. Then I made a decision, emotionally: I cut the umbilical cord. (“I Want to Take You Higher – The Life and Times of Sly & the Family Stone” by Jeff Kaliss) 

Around June 1971, Greg Errico left the family. 

Gerry Gibson: A friend of mine was engineering at CBS. He had met Sly, and when Gregg quit he told Sly about me. Sly remembered me from doing an interview show on his radio show in Oakland. “(You Caught Me) Smilin’” was in the can except for drums. This track, which is as I played it the first time through, was my audition. I listened to it while the engineers set levels, and then I played it through. At the end, Sly’s parents, Larry, Rose, Freddie, and two or three other people broke into applause in the booth. Sly came into the drum booth and said, ‘You got the gig!’ I said, ‘Yeah, but can I do that over?’ He said, ‘No, it’s fine just the way it is.’ He wouldn’t let me do it again. (“There’s a Riot Goin’ On” by Miles Marshall Lewis)

710710 Hinchliffe Stadium, Paterson, NJ [Gerry Gibson’s first gig. Supported by The Sun People, Smalltime Leroy, The Dixie Avenue Band and Ruth Copeland.]

“Small crowd for Sly”

“Sly and the Family Stone played to an estimated 4,000 enthusiastic fans Saturday night in Hinchliffe Stadium, Paterson. Four lesser-known groups entertained the crowd before Sly showed up a characteristic two and a half hours late. Fears that having a rock concert in the stadium would end in disorder proved groundless. There was just one arrest during the night, that of a young man on a disorderly charge. Drug use seemed at a minimum. There were a number of policemen in the stadium, some of them in uniform and some in street clothes. Traffic in the area was tied up before and after the show as it is after football games. When he finally did arrive Sylvester Stewart, or Sly Stone, refused to go on stage until he received his full payment of $12,500, plus a percentage of the gate receipts. A bigger crowd had been expected. The promoter, Jules Zalon, said the poor turnout was due to bad publicity in the press, and the fact that the concert was listed in New York as being sold out.” (The Herald-News, Passaic, NJ 710712)

“Hinchcliffe Stadium, Paterson N.J. 1971… show was suppose to start at about 7 or 8pm….12am they showed up… Then after they started playing… lost my hearing midway… virgin ears.” (CliffJefferson) (source?)

710711 Palace Park, Hunlock Creek, PA [Concert moved from the Pocono Downs Race Track, Wilkes-Barre, PA. Arrived at 11:45 in five limousines and played until about 1 in the morning. Supported by Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show and Ruth Copeland. (source: “Hunlock Creek Rock Concert Ends in Late Traffic Tieup” The Times Tribune 710712)]

710713 Kounessevitzsky Music Shed, Lenox, MA (Tanglewood)

by John Schweizer
SLY’s BAND, which includes brass and reed instruments, combines rock and soul more effectively (and successfully) than most groups. Sly’s trademark ー syncopated punching by the horns ー was supported by strong, incessant drumming. Although Sly is quite highly regarded by other musicians, the repetitiveness of the call-and-response of his singing and brass punctuations grew wearisome, particularly with the overriding drumming. At times, the flow was very herky-jerky.
The crowd didn’t care, though. It was a cheering, stomping group that stood on its chairs calling for more for at least 10 minutes after Sly concluded his 50-minute performance. (Berkshire Eagle, Pittsfield, MA 710714)

710717 Arena, Richmond, VA [2 hours late]

Sly kept 5,000 persons waited 2 hours. The group came to Richmond a day before, but Sly went to NY for a recording session. A private plane that was to bring Sly to Richmond had engine trouble. When Sly arrived, he demanded payment in full before he would perform. The promoter had to pay Sly $6,250 (1/2 of a $12,500 fee) to get Sly on stage. In the confusion during 2-hour wait, 2,000 more people crashed the concert. Sly, scheduled to perform at 9:30 PM did not appear at the Arena until 11:45 PM. Sly gave no apology, no explanation to the audience, only telling the restless crowd, “Shut up! We can have a good time or a bad time. It’s what you make of it.” (source: “Sheriff, Gate-crashers Enliven Late Sly Concert” by Stephen Flemming. Richmond Times Dispatch 710719; “A Disgraceful Performance” Richmond Times Dispatch 710725)

“I was there – early ’70s it was. They’d had flight connection problems I learned later. When they finally took the stage with a lot of attitude but no explanation or apology we started booing; Sly said into his mic “Alright, alright – y’all shut up.” Took me about 20 years to forgive him for that.” (Dave Hillgrove)
“It was close to midnight before they came on. They announced that Sly had been detained at the Airport. I saw them all get out of a limo and run backstage much earlier so I never believed the detained at the airport business. I heard later that Sly wanted to be paid before going on and they didn’t want to pay him until after the show and eventually they reached an agreement. True or false? I don’t know. I was so tired of waiting and sitting on that cement floor. When they finally came on it was magic. They were great.” (Steven Effinger) (https://www.facebook.com/groups/richmondcounterculture/posts/10163194906523824/)

710908–10 MSG, NYC, NY [supported by Ruth Copeland and Rare Earth]#

710908 Wed.

“A show to bring down the house
SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE“
by Albert Goldman

Rock will go down rocking, if Sly Stone has anything to say about it. The scene at Madison Square Garden recently, where Sly and his Family did three consecutive nights to sold-out houses- some 55,000 people in all-provided the final test of that new building’s strength. As the band pumped out Dance to the Music and I Want to Take You Higher through a gigantic speaker system slung on cables from the roof of this Nuremberg Sports Palast, 18,000 kids jumped to their feet and began doing exactly what this music demands. It isn’t dancing, exactly; the caper is closer to bouncing. You stand in one spot, bend at the knees (with or without body English) and jack yourself up and down, like a human pile driver. Clenched-fist black-power salutes, wide-armed whoopee gestures are optional: the main thing is to bounce with the beat until the massive concrete floor is bouncing right along with your feet. An alarming spectacle, Hortense. A structural engineer’s nightmare. A show that can really bring down the house.

When you look a little closer at the cause of this infernal pep rally in a pop pandemonium, you find, as usual, that much of the ado is about nothing. Sly and his Family are clothed like harlequins in black-red-and-white jump suits with big, flat newsboy hats squeezed over Afro-Annie haircutsーbut so are the Jackson Five and the Mobile Three and the Orlando Eleven and all the other Motown-styled black groups camping it up on the current scene. Sly himself provides a very weak focus for the group’s inciting energies, stooping behind his electric keyboard and pulling this way and that like a balloon tugging at its string. Compared with cats who can moveーJames Brown, Mick Jagger, even the late Jim MorrisonーSly is fly-stuck. As for the group’s musicーyou certainly don’t hear much of it in concert. (I mean at those concerts where Sly deigns to show up. Often he stays home and lets the police break the bad news of his delinquency to the enraged kids, who take it from there.) Apart from a muddy mixture of bass (organ), bass (drum) and bass (guitar)ーthrumming away below the level of music like a colossal bee in a colossal bottleーyou can’t hear anything beyond an occasional yell or a couple of disjointed words or a squiggle of brass from Cynthia’s trumpet. I suppose, during his 50-minute short-change set (preceded by two hours of warm-up bandーwhat a rip-off!), Sly played six or eight tunesーbut they were virtually indistinguishable.

Another reason you couldn’t tell them apart is that all of Sly’s hits are variations on one formula. Like James Brown before him, Sly recognizes the all-important fact that the action in pop music is down below thereーin the beat, the bass line, the pelvis. That is the secret of the whole Pied Piper fantasy in music: you don’t do it with a flute and a cute little Robin Hood suit. The trick is to come in hard and low on the muscle and trampoline the people out of their minds. As for language, all you need is a shout-one phrase, one word, grunt, belch, burp that flashes over and over into the listener’s punch-drunk head. James Brown shouting “Hot Pants!” on his latest hit or Sly shouting “Higher! Higher! Higher!” at the Garden knocks the hell out of all the deft wit and tricky rhymes in the songs of Cole Porter and Lorenz Hart.

Because when you come right down to it, pop music is not an art, not an effort to take some matter and carry it out to the utmost reach of human invention and intelligence and spirit. Pop music is a pill swallowed with the ear and acting fast like a snort of coke or sliding up the back of your skull nice and slow like a heavy downer or maybe bending your head totally out of shape à la acid to make you flash the weirdest elastic-plastic-paisley-amoeba shapes. Pop geniuses, like Sly Stone, know how to roll all the moods and humors and floating images of a certain moment into a wad of wet brown paper or munchy-mulchy bubble gum which they slam with a stunning WHAM! smack against the side of your poor pain-hugging head. Whether they get you off, release you with the cathartic powers of art, get you uptight with the insistence of a never-resolved incitement is a point that pop aestheticians generally dodge or fudge.

Looking at that crowd at the Garden riding their invisible pogo sticks and stabbing their clenched fists into the empty air, my flash was that everybody was winding himself up into a cramp, a rage of frustration, impotence and baffled anger that was just too dumb to know its own discomfort. (Life 711022)

710909 Thu.

710910 Fri.

“Sly and the Family Stone Plays To a Sell-Out Crowd at Garden“
By DON HECKMAN

How does the old story go? When your girl friend’s late, you flatter her by explaining that one waits 15 minutes for an ordinary date, a half-hour for a beauty queen and, ah, 45 minutes for a goddess. Well, using that as a point of reference, Sly and the Family Stoneーafter keeping a sell-out audience waiting happily for nearly an hour at Madison Square Garden Friday nightーmust be developing a pretty Olympian view of themselves.
There was a time when the music might have justified it. In his first appearances with the Family Stone, Sly Stewartーformer disk jockey, superb guitarist, organist and drummer, brilliant songwriter and arranger-established what was virtually a new pop music style. Mixing up the long, tension-building vamps of rhythm and blues with the electric energy and ear-slitting acoustical wattage of rock, he became the first major black performer since Jimi Hendrix to conquer the white market.
But the edges of Sly’s Olympian dream have begun to blur a bit. Instead of ranging through the wide variety of material he has written and recorded, Sly now focuses on the crowd-rousing, everybody-on-your-feet, boom-sha-ka-la-ka-la-ka numbers that are his commercial hits. And after a while, “Dance to the Music” and “You Can Make It If You Try” and “Stand” and “I Want to Take You Higher” all begin to sound like parts of one incessantly repeated chord, one unending rhythm pattern.
The sheer, exuberant joy that I’ve seen flowing out of the audiences at Sly’s past concerts seems to have been replaced by an almost desperate self-conditioningーa sheer determination that dancing up and down, singing “higher, higher,” waving, whistling and shouting will somehow revive the old magic. But it isn’t working, because the Family Stone sounds as though it is just going through the motions. And even though Sly’s blurry-edged blues singing is as good as ever, he simply isn’t bringing the musicーthe whole musicーtogether the way he once did.
Can it be that the milk and honey have been flowing too freely in the gardens of the gods? (The New York Times 710912)

“The Struggle for Sly’s Soul at the Garden”
by Timothy Crouse.

… For the past six months, Sly’s performance record has been relatively spotless. But, just as Sly started to straighten out, his old reputation began to catch up with him. Madison Square Garden contract, for instance, was ominously studded with penalties ー $5000 if he wasn’t at the Garden every night by eight o’clock; $20,000 if he had not gone on stage by 10:30.

On Wednesday [710908], the day of the first concert, Sly missed six flights in a row in Los Angeles. By the time Sly arrived at the Garden, just after 8:00 p.m., there were already problems. Ruth Copeland, the first act on the bill, had been prevented from entering the Garden for an hour by security guards because she couldn’t prove she was Ruth Copeland. Ruth started late and sang an extra ten minutes. Rare Earth went on and played twenty extra minutes. The stage was finally ready for Sly at 10:50, and he was supposed to have finished his set at eleven. The band filtered out of the dressing room; Sly came last, picking up his knees like a drum majorette and grinning a steely grin. He walked a gauntlet of agents, attorneys, promoters, old-guard members of his retinue, new guard. There was a queasy tension about the whole scene. Kapralik caught up with Sly in the corridor, took him by the biceps, looked him hard in the eye and puffed at him. Sly puffed back. “It’s something we do when things are going well,” Kapralik explained. “We give each other breath.” Sly’s girlfriend, a striking black lady with high Indian cheekbones, trailed along behind him and patted his enormous Louis XV bouffant Afro into place. Sly went on to tepid, tired applause.

The set lacked fire. They played most of the greatest hits, wandering off into endless raggedy jams by way of segues. When Sly finally attacked “Higher” with confidence, the crowd used all of its waning energy to stomp.

Sly finished his last encore at twenty past twelve. The delays by the other acts had cost him $7500 in overtime fees. On the ride back to the hotel, Kapralik was unusually quiet.

On Thursday [710909] night, Kapralik ushered me into the cinder-block dressing room, which was dark as the Land of the Shades. In one corner, discernible in his white jumpsuit, was Sly. Sly was itching to make a pronouncement, for he didn’t like the Sly-Sylvester theory that Kapralik had been purveying. “Right or wrong, good or bad, Sylvester Stewart and Sly Stone are the same person,” he said softly. “Sometimes they give you two names, your real one and your also-known-as. But we’re the same people –– Sly, Sylvester and the whole Family Stone. We’re all one, you got that?”

Sly gave the group a pep talk before they went onstage. They went on at the stroke of ten and played a transformed set. No mumbling rap, no jams, just one unbroken, hysterical climb. The group exited at 10:59. As Sly walked down the stage steps to the waiting limo, he was still beating out a riff on his tambourine.

There were delays again on Friday [710910], costing Sly more overtime fees. But by now it was clear that Sly was back in business; he had broken the house record at the Garden, he was going to clear over $100,000 for three nights, and Ken Roberts was planning thirty more dates for him. The show went well until, in the middle of a set, a kid jumped onstage and told a roadie that someone in the audience was aiming a shotgun at Sly. Sly got the word, walked behind the amps and huddled with Kapralik.

KAPRALIK: I’ll go on if you don’t want to go back on.

SLY: I’ll go back on, man. Whatever’s going to happen is going to happen.

Sly returned and did a neat bit of crowd engineering. “Look around you,” he said, “and make sure the person next to you doesn’t have a shotgun. We just want to play for you.” With one stroke, Sly had acquired 24,999 bodyguards. (A suspect was seized later by Garden security guards, but no shotgun was discovered.)

But the incident was disturbing. Kapralik may be right about Sly Stone. There is something dangerously, provocatively arrogant about his glorified gang leader looks. As he walked down Forty-second Street that afternoon on a shopping expedition, one street dude after another had approached him to pick a fight. Now he had whipped into “I Want to Take You Higher,” and 25,000 people were grunting “hey, hey, hey,” like the Russian Army Chorus. Early on in Sly’s career, it became a cliché to say that his concerts looked like Nuremberg rallies; but as every fist in the house began to punch at the air, it was that which came to mind.

Apparently Kapralik was flashing the same idea. “Can you imagine how I felt when the reviewers called him a neofascist after his first New York concerts!” he shouted over the uproar. He gestured at the array of fists. “Thank God it’s life affirming, you know what I mean! My life is a small price to pay for that!’ His eyes rolled up toward the vaulted Garden roof and beyond. “Thank you, God!” he shouted. (Rolling Stone 711014)

“Sly Stone Tours East & West
Sly Threatened Twice in N.Y.”
by G. Fitz Bartley
NEW YORK, N.Y.

ー The last night of Sly and the Family Stone’s Madison Square performance almost started with bang from before the word go. Atter security decided that the bomb threat was just a hoax. The snow opened with Ruth Copeland, one of Invictus’s young white rock singers. Friendly, easy to speak to, Ruth hails from England and started professional singing at age 16, shortly after the death of her mother. Her career, which started in the bars or England, has not been crowned with any claim to tame, except joining the Invictus stables and designing their label some two years ago. Since then Ruth claims that she has been learning rapidly. Unfortunately I could neither hear nor see what she had learned, the blast of the hand and her perpectual screaming saw to that.
Rare Earth was next and, though they had some good moments, they could have stayed at home. Outside of Pete Rivera on drums and, to lesser extent Eddie Guzman on congas, they were droll, and dull and loud. Came the break and one viewed the crowd. Up front and most of the downstairs seats were occupied by white kids and adults wearing as if by mutual agreement, faded blue-jeans, Tee shirts, sandals or sneakers, hair unkempt, and some of the bodies definitely needed washing. This amused me faintly, for this was once the projected image of Black people. but in this the age of exoration and hipness the shoe seems on the other foot. Most of the sisters in the audience looked as though competing in a beauty contest, clean, well dressed and radiant pleasure to behold, while the evidence of Women’s Liberation was evident as braless girls moved to a symphony all their own.

The Usual Wait
Back stage security became so tight it was ridiculous, press passes meant little or nothing and it seemed as if half those present had passes. After a forty-five minutes wait Sly arrived.
The lights dimmed and WLIB’s top jock Frankie Crocker, who disappointing as an M.C., came on and introduced Sly amongst tumultous applause from a standing audience. Before those who attempted to sit sat, the pungent sweet aroma or marijuana permeated the air, mixing the body ordor of thousands of screaming yelling people as Sly in white suit, with red and blue cuffs demonstrated his dexterity on the guitar, bass, drums, organ, mouth organ, vocals, and one assumes that it was only because he ran out of stage time that we did not hear a trumpet or saxophone attempt from this talented “musical machine.”
The performance was interrupted briefly near the end when he reluctantly left the stage as security got word that some one with a shot gun was going to shoot him. In that brief intrim where the audience was trying to decipher if this was a publicity stunt, a spate of serious looking officials prowled through the crowd with one hand in their pockets and attempted to look unconcerned. The lights were quickly redimmed and the show continued, a young man who was attempting to climb on stage was promptly kicked off by one of Sly’s strong arm security men who were by now in full evidence at the extremities of the stage.
The eighteen months lay off has hardly affected Sly who much to the consternation of the security men, especially at the time or the threat, had the crowd on its feet, dancing in the aisles and in front of the big ten foot stage. It was like some gala Roman celebration of old.
Sly had done it again, his infectious air had given him the pardon of the crowd who was just about to condem him for the long wait, and as he peeled off hit after hit the crowd stood and marveled at this man, this musical enigma whose lyrics have revolutionized an industry, all too soon it ended but we were told that Sly would be back at the Gardens for a December date.
In admiring Sly it is easy to ignore the rest of the Family Stone, not intentionally but accidentally, and that would be bad in the worse sense of the word, for without them the musical master of Sly would hardly be evident. Professional in the highest sense of the word is this backdrop, this background of which Sly can perform, extemporise, and project himself to the audience. On themrgan is his sister Rosie who also plays the piano, sings, and dance, on the saxophone is Jerri Martini who is also proficient with accordion, clarinet, flute, and tambourine. Sly’s brother Freddy who composes and arranges plays lead guitar, while cousin Larry Graham, Jr. who turned in good performance on the bass, but I was most impressed with Cynthia Robinson on trumpet whose “hot lips” almost blew a hole in my soul. (Soul 711122)

710912 Detroit Free Press, MI
“Rock pianist Billy Preston says superstar Sly Stone plans a bizarre marketing of his next release. It will be limited to 3 million copies, after that you can’t buy any more. Sly’s Family Stone music is so hot he may just get away with such a stunt.”

710912 Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA [Supported by Rare Earth and Ruth Copeland. Sly was late. ]

SATFS flew by 6 chartered helicopters from Hilton Hotel in Manhattan to the Spectrum in an emergency, because Larry’s girlfriend was sick. (“For the Record: Sly and the Family Stone – An Oral History” by Joel Selvin)

Sly arrived late and walked off mid-show. (“Sly and the Family… Stoned at The Spectrum” Wibbage Report Magazine 710900)

“It was in 1970 [1971?], after the glory of Woodstock and running on fumes after their monster-hit, “Thank You (Falletinme Be Mice Elf Agin)”. The band was two hours late hitting the stage, which might have been okay a year earlier. But by now Sly was a legend, and the front of the stage was flooded with gang members from West Philly and drugged-up suburban kids, a bad mix on any night. Lots of scuffles, shoving, threats, ugly looks. House security was overwhelmed so they brought in fat Philly cops in their fake leather jackets and nitesticks. Finally, Sly showed, but by that point the cops had already dragged off about two dozen kids and gang members. Sly was drugged out himself, noodling on the organ and making small talk with the band. Some wacked out kid climbed upon one of the monster speakers and Sly lazily suggested he come down, saying: “Come on down, Beauregard, you might hurt yisself.” Finally, the guy did and the cops carted him off, too. With nothing better do do, Sly and band ended up doing a fairly-desultory mini-set that lasted maybe a half-hour. They did a throbbing bass version of “Thank You” and “Hot Fun” but after rushing through “Higher” they split, leaving a lot of pissed off kids who vowed not to see them next time around.” (bodine) (https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/did-you-ever-see-sly-and-the-family-stone.360991/)

710925&27 New Haven Arena, New Haven, CT 

710929 Hilton Hotel, NYC, NY Sly Stone interview by Timothy Crouse. “Now Sly Tells his Side of the Story, Sort of – One man survives a Sly Stone interview – and washcloth attack – and lives to tell the soggy tale” (Rolling Stone 711111) https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/now-sly-tellshis-side-of-the-story-sort-of-40345/

Lithofayne Pridgon: Sly had brought her out from New York towards the end of 1971 – at the height of his fame and all the craziness that came along with it – telling her he wanted to record her. As he’d never even heard her sing, she suspected he had other intentions in mind. “I told him from the beginning, ‘Yeah, if you want to do this, we can do it. Fine with me – platonic…’” He never did get around to producing her. Instead, she found herself mothering him. On one occasion, she returned to Bel Air from visiting Etta James to find his flunkies standing around on the lawn, fearful to go inside because Sly had shot the place up. Lithofayne walked into the house alone and found Sly sitting in the lotus position in the middle of his bed, a gun by his side. “Where you been?” he demanded. “I almost lost my fuckin’ mind. Don’t ever go off like that again.” She told him: “People keep asking, what did you do before you got me?” “Tell them muthafuckas I SUFFERED”, Lithofayne says, mimicking Sly’s gravelled bass voice. At that point she realised his dependency had taken a dangerous turn. “I thought, oh shit, it’s time to go.” (“My Life with Jimi – Lithofayne Pridgon looks back on her Harlem years” by Chris Campion (The Observer March 22, 2015) https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/mar/22/lithofayne-pridgon-jimi-hendrix-original-foxy-lady)

Bobby Womack: Sly would be dressed all in red leather, handing out the orders. Like, “Tiffany, baby, I want you to take Bobby to your room, y’know, fix him up.” As time progressed, I became paranoid at everything, I was always thinking I was going to get killed, that the feds was gonna bust in on Sly. Later you give Sly one hit and he’s looking around the room, very paranoid, you couldn’t make no music with him. I got to the point where I said, I gotta get away from here. (“Looking at the Devil” by Barney Hoskyns. The Guardian March 19, 2006 https://www.theguardian.com/music/2006/mar/19/urban.popandrock)

Bobby Womack: “I became paranoid at everything. I was always thinking I was gonna get killed and that the feds were gonna bust in on Sly. Everybody had pistols… Sly be talkin’ to you, but he ain’t there. He’d be lying on the piano whacked out of his brain when it was time to do a vocal, and they’d have to lay the microphone next to his head.” (“Sly Stone’s Higher Power” by David Kamp. Vanity Fair July 3, 2007 https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2007/08/sly200708)

711001 L.A. Forum, Inglewood, CA [supported by Rare Earth] 

“Sly Stone Tours East & West
Nothing New From Sly & Family in Los Angeles”
by Sharryn Watts
INGLEWOOD, Calif.

ー In the beginning was Sly. And Sly had the word, and Sly sang the word and all the people rejoiced… so it was and is. Except the word hasn’t changed in five years. And though the sound of the word was rearranged a bit, the message on the night of Sly’s last concert in Los Angeles’ Forum was exactly the same.
Filling the Forum were eager / anxious Black and white followers of the Mighty Sly, not a few of which also came to see another group of growing reknown ー Rare Earth.
Rare Earth, a group of six white guys from Detroit who play a soul-sound claiming they are not trying to sound Black, warmed up the audience with tunes they had made popular on their own label distributed by Motown.
Though this reporter felt the group wasn’t as tight as they could have been the majority of the audience was well inspired and had it not been for the club swinging, helmet-protected security guards and the muscle-bulging cutie-pies that are hired to keep at bay the people who pay to see their favorite groups perform, the entire audience would have been to their feet swinging and swaying.
It, of course, is understandable that the performing groups be protected and the furniture in the auditorium be spared damage, but it never seems to make sense why the patrons may not be allowed to enjoy themselves done without infringing on the rights and pleasures of others. When a highly-moved chick or an over-stimulated dude jumps to his feet to bounce to the music he or she instantly gets a flashlight beam in the face or a sturdy tug on the arm with the word that “the people behind you can’t see.” Now I wonder if it ever occurred to them that if the people behind really couldn’t see they would ask the kid to sit a lot faster than any cop could. Of course, we realize there exists the fear that one person could cause a whole section to bolt to their feet in gyratory motion… then they’d naturally move out and toward the stage causing an unruly congregation. If only there were a way to encourage the musically responsive listeners to merely stay at there individual seats to dance so they could fully enjoy themselves and be rid the marano, but I’m sure places like the Forum have taken every thing into consideration for the safety of the people.
It seems such a waste of togetherness, for all concerned, however, when groups who would like to see the audience respond more naturally to their sounds are forced to merely bounce in their seats. For example ー when Rare Earth finally got down while jamming on their hit single, “I Just Wanna Celebrate”, they wanted the audience to get down with them. While each guy aid his own thing to the great excitement of the crowd, the lead singer jumped down into the audience to personally encourage all to participate. On the stage professional groups are just that, but when they come down to the level of the masses they become real and easier to appreciate, and for the moments he was in the audience even the guards had to stop, watch and enjoy ー inert, of course.
Then, when all were seemingly filled, the group drenched in their own sweat and attempting to leave, the crowd jumped to their feet stomping for more of all they could get. Smiling in gratitude Rare Earth returned to do more for their enthusiastic admirers, “Get Ready”. This time not even the muscled-bullies could keep the crowd down. And so Rare Earth went out. with loud and roaring cheers leaving all more than ready for the Sly and his Family Stone.

The Usual Wait
After approximately a forty minute wait, the lights still on and the crowd restless, Sly strutted onto the stage, arms high in glory followed b The Family Stone all dressed in red, white and black. Sly either had a wig on or his hair has grown more in a year than weeds to in two. Never-the-less, he still looked as good as only Sylvester Stewart can. I’d like to say here that Larry Graham looked more than good in his long Black-knit midi tunic slit to the waist to expose his white Knickers and high rec boots.
After tuning his electric organ and chatting with his followers for a fast few minutes the lights finally went out and Sly went into “So Glad You Made It.” On the second chord the crowd was up and moving forward. Before his second number Sly paused to encourage everyone to have a good time doing their thing, whether it be dancing, getting high, or just sitting. Then into “I Wanna Thank You For Lettin Me Be Myself” ー funkier and gutsier than ever ー with the seams of the guard-line bulging to the shoving of the fans.
“My Lady” was what Sly really opened up and cut loose on, causing the crowd to do the same. Flowing heavily over security guards seats, and other people, the mob surged on until a distraught usher jumped on the stage begging all to cease and desist. Sly took the microphone and for about five minutes encouraged the crowd to enjoy themselves but not destroy themselves. He said they could gig, but be cool so they could all (including himself) do what they wanted. For a swift minute we all feared Sly might walk off the stage after we’d been led to believe he might play something from his new album ー so everybody cooled it.
Taking just a moment to regroup, Sly proceeded again this time going into “Stand”, “You Can Make It If You Try”, “Sing A Simple Song”, and “Dance to the Music.” Needless to say the entire Forum bounced and swayed to the music, laughed and clapped to the mood, and hoped for the something new from their leader.
Sly seems to have gotten into a jazzier funk in the new arrangements of his old songs and each of the Family Stone was tight in the act, keeping the groove together. Special mention should be given to Sly’s new drummer who was great. It was also good to see the Mighty Sly unhigh for a change.

No New Message
As Sly moved on to his last number, “Higher”, we all knew we weren’t to hear anything new in message from our Prodigal Prophet. And though thoroughly disappointed we all yelled “Higher” Hail-Hitler fashion even as Sly and Family marched off the stage. It didn’t even seem to matter that he returned to our scream of MORE to only sing “Higher, Part two” for we realy came to hear a brand-new Sly.
The evening ended with security guards shoving people out or the auditorium ike cowboys stuff cattle into a corral while there were heard mumbles of “Why didn’t he play something new?” or “paid for something new and different!” or “I ain’t comin’ again to hear the same old songs.” This reporter has always been a Sly Stone freak, but I, too, must chime my disappointment in having to sit through the exact same tunes amost the exact order heard last year. Yet, I, like the rest, still hope for more messages in song, new, fresh, and soon from the Man, Sly Stone and his magnificent Family. (Soul 711122)

“Sylvester Stewart earns $2m”
From our New York office.
SYLVESTER Stewart is expected to earn $2 million dollars this year, which may well put him in the same class as Aristotle Onassis, Stewart is also known as Sly Stone and, as head of the ace rock group Sly and the Family Stone, young Stewart is currently one of America’s top entertainment attractions.
In three consecutive nights at Madison Square Garden last month, the group jammed the place to the rafters and grossed $400,000.
This did not quite equal the Bob Dylan concert, but was certainly the next best thing.
After the New York appearance, the group went down to Philadelphia and made $100,000 for a one-night stand.
Sly and the Family Stone are now booked into prime arenas all over the country and the guarantees get bigger and bigger. (The Sydney Morning Herald, New South Wales 711003)

711008 Sports Arena, San Diego, CA [Supported by Jo Jo Gunne. No show of SATFS.]

“Went to see him in early 1972 [1971?] in San Diego Sports Arena… he never showed up, stood up a huge crowd. The announcers kept saying “He’ll be here any minute now!” Nope. Never showed. Jo Jo Gunne was the opening act, they put on a good show and wound up being the headliners.” (CliffL) (https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/did-you-ever-see-sly-and-the-family-stone.360991/)

711009 Cow Palace, Daly City, CA

711030 “Family Affair” b/w “Luv N’ Haight” 7″ was released (Epic). 

711106 “There’s a Riot Goin’ On” was released (Epic).

(Continued in Part V…)