Spotlighting the first several years of a band that blew all conventions out the door, Sly and The Family Stone, the first major music act that was multi-gendered and multi-ethnic, who also became the Haight-Ashbury San Francisco music scene’s most popular act. #blackhistorymonth #BHM #slystone #psychedelicsoul #rockandroll #RandB #1960s

San Francisco Chronicle music journalist Joel Selvin once wrote that “There are two types of black music: black music before Sly Stone, and black music after Sly Stone”. Though that quote may be endlessly debatable, it underscores the significance today’s artist I am spotlighting for Black History Month 2021: Sly and the Family Stone.

Sly and the Family Stone, 1969. Photo by Stephen Paley, Columbia Records A&R staff member. Courtesy of Sony/BMG. (l-r) Gregg Errico, Rose Stone, Sly Stone, Cynthia Robinson, Freddie Stone, Jerry Martini and Larry Graham.

Though not the first multi-ethnic/multi-gender group in Rock history, they were the first signed to a major label. In just three short years, the group, led by Sylvester Stewart (aka Sly Stone) went from being what some early critics referred to as a gimmick to the hottest music act in the world. The band not only included not only black and white members, but male and female members; it is important to remember that they were, in essence, a family act, with his sister Rose and brother Freddie in the band, as well as Cynthia Robinson, who was the mother of one of Sly’s children.

Two of the three remaining members were white: drummer Gregg Errico and saxophone player Jerry Martini. Last but definitely not least was bassist and singer Larry Graham, who is credited with creating the slapping bass technique, which would prove highly influential in its own right. Graham would also be the only member of the band to achieve success after the dissolution of the group.

An iconic image from the Age of Aquarius: Sly Stone performing live from the film Woodstock, filmed in Bethel, New York, August 1969. Director: Michael Wadleigh.

Sly Stone had released singles as a solo act and with his brother Freddie to little success outside of the San Francisco bay area, where the band was based. Up until the formation of the group, Sly was better known as a record producer and local radio DJ.

Their debut LP, A Whole New Thing, recorded live in the studio, went nowhere, and now legendary Columbia records president Clive Davis stepped in to help. The resulting second LP and new single, both titled “Dance to the Music”, launched the band into the mainstream in 1968.

“It’s not the teaching, it’s the learning.” Sly Stone

The follow-up release, Life, also in 1968, didn’t replicate the success, but their 1969 release Stand! became one of the best-selling albums of the entire decade and cemented the group’s status as a band without peer.

They forged a sound that merged Soul, classic R&B, Dance music, Pop sensibility, Jazz arrangements, Rock and psychedelic sounds so original they birthed a whole new sub-genre of music, Psychedelic Soul, and were one of the creators of what would become 1970’s Funk music. Their high energy performances and songs about universal love and personal politics struck a chord with the black and white record buying public during a time of intense racial and political strife in the United States.

Cover of Stand!, 1969. Courtesy of Sony/BMG.

In short, Sly and the Family Stone were everything that the “sixties generation” and the “Age of Aquarius” promised: unity against adversity, that money didn’t matter,