Sly Stone rumours

(In other words: no, I've heard not a thing.)

do you really think that nobody thinks Sly Stone being a crack addict is a tragic thing?

good source, stevie!

if nobody cared that he is a crack addict living in a housing project - who is going to care that he's dead

please???

as for the comment - i read a fairly good article on that ... umm ... let me see if it's on the net.

i think they probably do, or would, if they knew... but what are they supposed to do, to express that sense of care? how would you stop sly being a crack addict? how would the public's attitude either way affect this reality?

but i think sometimes, buying those records after someone's death is some consumers' way of paying tribute/respect... i remember buying the rerelease of BoRhap as a broken hearted 16 year old queen fan back in 1991, even though i already owned the song in various forms...

and also, often, it takes an artist's death to put their music back in the public eye; i can't bring myself to hate people who buy the records after the artist's death, at least they;re exploring the music.

Clinton (George that is, not Bill), Bootsy, all those guys always talk up whatever Sly is up to - none of them seem prepared to admit he fucked up big style

Total Classic. Anyway, yeah, nothing's showing up on Factiva about Sly being dead (possibly). But I'm told his spirit lives on in music regardless...

But here's the kicker: while you hear Sly talking some incomprehensible gibberish while playing a Rhodes at the beginning, at the end, he starts talking again, at which point, an old pre-Linn drum box kicks in and he starts playing some really interesting funky stuff off it. At which point, of course, the tape ends.

Vanity Fair interview

theres a few UK dates lined up this year... i wonder how he and the family stone sound these days...

But when I ask Stone to describe the new songs, he straightens up, rocks forward in his seat, and starts rhyming in an insistent cadence somewhere between a preacher's and a rapper's, the rasp suddenly gone from his otherwise low, throaty speaking voice. "There's one that says, 'Ever get a chance to put your thanks on? / Somebody you know you can bank on? / Even sometimes you might embarrass them by pulling rank on? / Now, whatcha gonna do when you run out of them? … Another holiday, you're drunk and curbing it / You can't face a noun, so you're straight adverbing it / You had an argument at home, and you had to have the last word in it / Now whatcha gonna do when you run out of them?'

I'm debating going to the Lovebox festival he's headlining in a couple of weeks, not sure yet really.

those lyrics are pretty good

I liked the bit about Sly being able to hold linear conversations, move chairs, etc.

thanks for pointing folks to that article Shakey.
i rarely pop over to Vanity Fair, so would never have seen that.
cracking read, and is making me disappear to the archive for my crappy non-reissued Riot.. cd.
he sounds like he's got himself proper sorted. would have liked to have the interviewer dig a little into the connections with Prince as there were all those rumours that Prince had him working in Paisley making music (or did i mis-remember that)

you must be thinking of George Clinton, or maybe Bill Laswell. I don't think Prince and Sly have ever met

(altho Prince did round up Larry Graham - maybe that's who yr thinking of?)

nah - i recall the Clinton era, i once even had that album (grrr memories of grim era of depressing tradeins when i let that one go!), but i'm sure, in some articles there was mention of Sly being holed up in Paisley ..
though, being honest, i could have it mixed with Larry G as i deffo recall Prince harping on about a stunning Larry G album at one point ..

that album came out and it was not stunning

Commodore Graham invites you aboard his millenial loveboat

that album came out and it was not stunning

ha. well thats stopped my ebay trawling in its tracks then ..

that gcs 2000 album has one or two decent tracks... but it had typically modern prince production, so everything sounds too glossy for its own good.

those new lyrics mentioned in that article sound good... just hope the music is as good as the words.

theres no larry graham at the upcoming sly gigs from what ive read... :(

I would put money they never play together again, because 1) Larry's successful enough in his own right (unlike most of the rest of the band, who don't have songwriting or "I invented funk bass playing" credits), 2) by all accounts at one time both Graham and Sly were basically making death threats to each other and both had armed hired goons prepared to do so, that's not something easily forgiven.

one thing about that VF article is there is too much bloody narrative and not enough interview quotes from sly...

I think about the most I could hope for with any new Sly material is something along the lines of the recent Al Green/Willie Mitchell albums--a record that approximates the classic sound, being better than anything he's done in years while still being something I would never end up listening to.

maybe the on-the-record interview only last 10 minutes and the VF guy had to punch it up with narrative. also average VF reader needs context to understand why they are supposed to care about this guy on a weird motorcycle.

i thought it was a great read. made me want to track down the oral history book.

the book is GREAT

yeah the oral history book is probably the greatest rock n roll bio ever written

its a shame there arent (m)any other books about sly stone.

anyone know if the 33 1/3 book about riot is worth a read?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Family-Stones-Theres-Riot-Goin/dp/0826417442/ref=pd_bowtega_1/026-0873243-0982006?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1183501279&sr=1-1

yeah, that's a great book too, my favourite in the series.

really enjoyed the vanity fair piece.

I've only heard about the Oral History via ILM... on some thread there was mention of a tale involving guns & pet peacocks. I must find this book.

He had these two big peacocks, and if you came out of there at night fucked up, forget it. These two peacocks would attack you. You coming outta there and they just fly off the roof. Big old peacocks. These things would fly down on you. That would freak you out because you would come out of there totally spaced, saying where are these fucking peacocks motherfucker, because you knew they were out there. - Bobby Womack

lolololol

Awesome, thanks.

thank you for linking to that article!

I was the cat that fired Larry Graham. We were in New York City, getting ready to go to Madison Square Garden. Larry Graham had his whole little entourage and Sly hated this cat. I hated him too. I called and said that it was time to be at the limousine Now he's got his henchmen... Sly is no longer the only cat with the bad guy. Larry's got himself his own tough guy. I said, "Put Larry on the phone and tell him the car is waiting downstairs." He said, "Tell everybody to go ahead." I said, "No, you are coming down now." I sent everybody else ahead and stayed in his car. I was getting ready to intimidate now. I went in his room and his little henchman was walking around behind me. I decided to do something to him after the gig at Madison Square Garden... - Hamp "Bubba" Banks (Sly's bodyguard)

Sly came into my room. I was sitting on the bed. He said "Why did you do this to me - give me the fucking organs that don't work?" I said, "There was nothing wrong." Boom, somebody kicked me in the head. They were all standing over me, like, do you want me to kill him? They did me in pretty good. I had cuts on my face, I was almost knocked unconscious on the first blow. They went through their karate shit and fucked me up a little bit, mainly in the head. I didn't have any broken ribs. I was sitting down, so I just fell back on the bed. I don't even know who it was, I never even saw the guy. He just kicked me from behind. They left... They took Rob's girlfriend. We were really worried about finding her because she was, like, kidnapped, didn't want to go with them. They took her. I got pretty tore up. Went to the hospital for a concussion. - Vernon "Moose" Constan (Sly roadie and engineer)

Somebody tells me that Larry and his henchmen are in the lobby. I don't know why but I had a walking cane in my hand. When I looked up, I'm in the lobby, and Larry's man is there. I took the walking cane and broke it over his head. We started whipping this cat so bad, I don't know if he was ever heard from again. But we whipped him so bad, Larry was able to escape. He got out of there quick. That's why I say I fired him. That was the end of Larry Graham. - Hamp "Bubba" Banks

if any of you belong to rocksbackpages i think its all on there (somehow)

Sly played last weekend (7/7) in San Francisco apparently, as part of some oldies double bill with the Average White Band. Anybody hear anything?

It was San Jose: http://www.mercurynews.com/search/ci_6328422?nclick_check=1
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/09/DDG3IQSE6L1.DTL&hw=sly+stone&sn=001&sc=1000

sounds less than stellar :-/ Here's hoping he gets "it" back and does some more shows.

anybody else read the Sly interview in Vanity Fair? inconclusive IMO.

Inconclusive in what way? I mean, the guy is 64, it's hardly like he's going to be Steve Winwood reappearing out of nowhere with Back in the High Life.

July 21st. Then we'll know.

anyone seen him live lately?

i read he doesnt even appear for most of the set.... i wonder if he still is using or if his health is just not up to par, or if he just has stage fright.

The show he did in Finland last week was apparently a disaster. According to a local paper he only appeared for a couple of songs, wasn't really able to sing, and the whole band was practically booed off the stage.

It has been like this for the whole tour (Italy, Belgium, Holland, now Finland too)...

I was at Lovebox, but popped into the Strangelove tent to see Switch before he came on and, erm, lost track of time. When I found the people I was with they said I hadn't missed much. He only appeared on 3 or four songs. Claimed he needed a pee and went off for a bit. Oh the glamour! However, they said he was pretty good on those numbers.

whats the reason though? is he still doing drugs? i think its probably just old age and slys old demons about performing coming back to haunt him. well i hope so.

Sly Arrives, 30 minutes into the set @ North Sea Jazz festival:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBi7kmLt8ao

(in Ghent, he was even later - see the comments on youtube)

Shy Stone, amirite?

The organiser in Belgium is thinking about dragging mr Stone to court.

Claimed he needed a pee and went off for a bit. Oh the glamou

Euphemism for sure as he's been doing this during various performances. Or he has as small a bladder as I have.

he's singing well, to my surprise, in Ghent anyway - in the second clip he's got great control, and he even belts out a couple of lines before leaving the stage in "Thank You" (in the third clip) - but the machinery around him is somewhat embarrassing: that revue-style whoo-hoo-it's-a-big-party! thing to welcome a frail dude to stage is just a heavy disconnect, building the wrong kind of expectations for the nature of what he's (take your pick) able to do/choosing to do. The presentation's all wrong, and kinda creepy. The challenge, I guess, is "we can't really control when Sly will be willing to go to the stage, so we have to build a show that allows him to turn up when he can," which is a unique situation. But there's something kind of undignified about the vibe they end up with, in my opinion.

srsly if you watch clip 2/3 all the way and say "he can't sing" then you don't know what singing is. At 5:19 he just kills his line completely, and then he does it again at 6:20.

his voice was amazing one the one occasion i actually heard it at lovebox, but i was miles from the stage and the camera was zoomed in so close to his face i couldn't even figure out where he was on stage!

he didn't sound like he was on drugs in the vanity fair piece. he just sounded....kind of removed from himself.

and the new lyrics that are quoted in the piece for his new songs are pretty good.

J0hn otm about the presentation aspect

srsly if you watch clip 2/3 all the way and say "he can't sing" then you don't know what singing is. At 5:19 he just kills his line completely, and then he does it again at 6:20.

OTM.

he shouldn't be playing festivals, is my thought.

Small clubs with a better band -- also Sly's neck is the best argument for a headset mic EVER.

Nathalie: Blue Note Records festival won't sue after all, according to this article.

Dang, I really wanted to see them. Tomorrow's show was cancelled.

Sly Stone’s return to the stage hasn’t been much less bizarre than his well-documented burnout nearly 30 years ago. Following his rickety performance of “I Want to Take You Higher” during a Family Stone tribute at the 2006 Grammys, the rock/funk/soul pioneer and notorious recluse has confounded expectations by lingering in the public eye; he now claims to have 100-plus songs ready to record. Though it’d be wise not to bet on bassist Larry Graham wandering back into the fold anytime soon, the current incarnation of the Family Stone does feature the original horn section of trumpeter Cynthia Robinson and saxophonist Jerry Martini, who accompanied Sly on a string of European dates last summer, as well as Sly’s sister, keyboardist-singer Rose Stone. But regardless of how well things seem to be going, even the most naive concert promoter on this tour must be shitting his pants wondering how long Sly’s chronic gig-blowing disease can remain in remission. Lubraphonic opens and John Ciba spins. Arrow 8 PM, the Vic, $64, 18+. Update: Tonight's show is canceled "due to health reasons." Refunds are available at point of purchase.

is this the minneapolis date?

The reason I read for the Minneapolis cancelation was scheduling conflicts with band members.

I saw the Sly configuration in December at B.B. King's in NYC. Sly had a hypeman who wasn't terribly interesting. The Rose who was singing was his SISTER?! Holy hell, she sounded - and looked - phenomenal! I had assumed she was a niece. Took them an hour to run through the hits (only glaring omission was "Dance to the Music"; only notable surprise was "Sex Machine"); Sly was onstage for roughly 35-40 minutes of that hour.

W/r/t the following. I guess those shows with George Clinton got Sly onto t different (and sounds like much better) foot. As a friend noted recently, Sly goes crazy if he's the center of attention, if the show is all on him alone...

From http://www.myspace.com/slystonevarietyshow

"What's up people!!? I tried to write this section in an official 3rd person description way, but I wasn't really feelin' it. So straight up, this is me, Novena Carmel, Sly's daughter and I put together this page. In case you're wondering what the heck the "Sly Stone Variety Show" is, I'm here to clarify and to intrigue.
The first show of the series took place on December 28th, 2008. IT didn't know it was "the first" at the time, but it was such a success and a fun time, that we had to do it again (and anticipate again and again).
Look, besides the hit songs, the image and the rumors, my dad is an artist and an all-around creative person. He writes music just about every day and always has new ideas...always. I feel the best forum for him is a place where he can express himself on his own terms, free from expectations, open to full expression. Hence, the Sly Stone VARIETY Show.
Dec. 28th indeed quenched the palate of those looking for Sly Stone to sing their favorite tunes, but also featured special guests jamming on stage: Gemi Taylor (Graham Central Station) and George Johnson (Brother's Johnson). Oh, and did I mention, Aunt Rose from the original group got on stage looking and sounding as good as ever! (maybe even better!) Plus DJs Anthony Valadez and A-Ski killed it AND my dad went ahead and made up, on the spot, a couple of songs with talented audience members. Those of us in the band did nothing more than prepare to go with the flow of the show, because that's what the vibe was all about. Anything less would be uncivilized. :)
And that's what the vibe is going to continue to be about. Sly Stone will always be the foundation of the show and be in the building, but the makeup of the show itself will be wonderfully unpredictable, each one being a brand new experience, just as each day is brand new.
Stay tuned to this page for all upcoming events and/or hit up slystonevarietys✧✧✧@gm✧✧✧.c✧✧ to join the mailing list.
Peace n Grease, Novena Carmel"

Coachella meltdown

sounds about par for the course

man, it'd be tough to be in a band with that guy. don't care how much money you're getting paid -- going up in front of 75,000 people and flailing for an hour can't be fun.

I wonder who it would be worse to be in a band with post-personal-meltdown, Brian Wilson or Sly

like 21st century Brian Wilson? That seems like an easier gig -- is Brian's keyboard even plugged in? I mean, the Brian Wilson band can just go on autopilot, regardless of whether their leader is on or not. With Sly it seems like everything depends on him. And he *will* sabotage the set.

Add a few more people in there, and we could have a poll.

like 21st century Brian Wilson?

nah I mean like 1975-1985 era Brian Wilson. but yeah it's true that there were other guys in the band that could carry the weight, more of an ensemble thing.

obviously Syd Barrett seemed like a rough dude to be in a band with towards the end too

I remember picking up the benicassim set by Arthur Lee, 2 years after the brilliant "Forever Changes Live" set, only to hear him singing like Ian Brown, totally off his face and crying about Rick James having died 6 months previously (apparently he didn't know)...

Who knows, maybe that was the whole of the problem...

yeah arthur lee is a good one -- he was great when I saw him (2002?) but also a little unhinged, and you could tell the band was nervous about what he was going to do next.

Jim Morrison seems like he would've been a pain to play with

from the NY Times
Mr. Stone came onstage mumbling things like, “I made so much money I didn’t know I was being stolen from.” He played computer-recorded snippets of new songs he has been writing: drum-machine tracks with lyrics like, “They always tell the truth but for you they will lie/They’ll knock you out of the way in a drive-by” and “If you think I’m crazy, sometimes I know you will/If you think I’m crazy, I’ll give you a sleeping pill.”
i mean, it probably wasn't good ... but it sounds kind of cool.

Brian Jones toward the end ... supposedly he hated "Satisfaction" and would often play the riff for "I'm Popeye the Sailor Man" during performances of that song.

I saw him last year at BB King's in NY. He was not entirely there, but was more lucid and engaged than in these recent reports. I got enough "Sly" where I feel I've actually seen him. I'm going to say he got through 5 or 6 complete songs. Folks from the late set that same night were ecstatic.

Well, as I said, that last Mojo interview was fine.

man I saw some Soul Train performance of his recently ('75? '76?) that was sooooo sad.

What happened to his neck? He looks a bit like ET now.

xp 70s soul train episodes are on demand now; im so excited

Brian Jones toward the end ... supposedly he hated "Satisfaction" and would often play the riff for "I'm Popeye the Sailor Man" during performances of that song.

bring back brian jones imo

xp 70s soul train episodes are on demand now; im so excited

some of these are less than impressive unfortunately (Staples Singers lip-syncing? wtf)

Bear in mind, Sly is an old man now.

What happened to his neck? He looks a bit like ET now.

― brotherlovesdub, Tuesday, April 20, 2010 10:48 AM Bookmark

Motorcycle accident, if I'm not mistaken

Some back story is in order.

In 2008 Sly's daughter put together a band for him to front. He "toured" Europe and did some USA shows. The shows were reviewed s something between barely tolerable/corny (watch this video from Tokyo) and more than awful, with Sly usually onstage for 20-30mins, tops. Can't remember how many original Family Stone members were in this incarnation but it may have been just two, I think Cynthia and Rose. Sly's guitarist brother Freddy didn't play. Bassist Larry Graham didn't play. And this is how the tour finally ended, in Santa Rosa, Oct 18, 2003.

http://www.bohemian.com/citysound/?p=1081

Later in the year Sly reappeared in Santa Monica to play in George Clinton's revue. That's probably about right--very good players around him, no pressure on him to run a whole show, and George there to supply the comfort of long-ago brotherhood and cocaine. A lot easier to see Sly going forward in that scenario than anything else...

Sly is a genius, and can still compose music and spiel and riff and ride his weird motorbikes and dress like nobody's business [see the recent documentary trailer footage that's online]. But he's simply not competent to make a decision about taking money to lead a band onto a big stage. The dude is not Iggy, in other words. This Coachella debacle reminds me of one of those fights that Muhammad Ali or Larry Holmes or Leon Spinks or whoever fought when they shouldn't've, where everybody ended up losing. So sad.

Actually, the set was more like if Ali stepped in the ring today. The small crowd's enthusiasm was like that of a child excitedly waiting for their alcoholic dad to come take them to the zoo on Sunday afternoon; Sad when he doesn't show up, then mad when he finally does because he's so fucked up. It didn't even qualify as a "train wreck". It was far worse. To top off my night, Gary Numan's performance was canceled (due to volcano). A total bust.

He's 70 today.

http://www.factmag.com/2015/01/28/sly-stone-awarded-millions-in-unpaid-royalties-after-court-ruling/

After years of financial struggles the legendary artist walks away with $5 million dollars.

Sly Stone has been the midst of a massive, complicated legal battle for the last several years to reclaim millions of dollars in royalties that he has never received.After an appeal rejection in 2013 that deemed BMI, Sony, and Warner were not liable to pay things looked extremely grim for Stone, especially when reports came in that he was homeless and living in a van in Los Angeles.

...

Deduct the lawyers fees..

oh nm, I see this is actually old news and was already covered in a different Sly thread.