Goodbye Sly

Sly Stone, aka Sylvester Stewart, has passed away at eighty two. Raise a glass to a true icon, whose multiracial, mixed gender band Sly And the Family Stone influenced everyone from Prince to Primal Scream. Even Pee Wee Herman covered ‘Stand’!

Having formed the band with his family in San Francisco, he expanded the line-up and rocked the Woodstock generation with a cosmic fusion of psychedelia, funk, gospel and rock. From the civil rights defining turmoil of There’s A Riot Goin’ On to the more complex jams of Fresh, they always pushed the music and their progressive message forward, even when battling with ego problems, inner band conflict and drug abuse.

There would be no hip hop, grime or techno without them, so widely have they been sampled, and contemporary acts like Say She She, The Comet Is Coming and Kokoroko owe so much to the blending of genres and themes. RIP Sly, you were wonderful, a true pioneer.