Sly Stone, who died Monday at 82, didn’t invent funk music – that honor goes to James Brown – but he’s the first one who took it beyond the dance floor. Starting with “Dance to the Music” in 1967, Sly and the Family Stone released a string of hit singles that changed the course of R&B.
Born Sylvester Stewart into a musical family – his brother Fred and sister Rose were members of the Family Stone – Sly rose to fame in San Francisco as a DJ who dabbled in record production. He was also a multi-instrumentalist. He played mostly keyboards on stage, but by the time he recorded 1971’s “There’s a Riot Goin’ On” he was playing most of the instruments himself as well as producing the album. He didn’t play the drums on the LP, widely considered a landmark of the era, but instead pioneered the use of a drum machine.
“There’s a Riot Goin’ On” – the title was an answer to Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” – included “Family Affair,” the band’s biggest hit and the last of its three No. 1 singles. Stone’s cocaine habit took a hard toll soon after, and the group disbanded as disco took hold. He recorded several solo albums that used the Family Stone name, but none of the comebacks took. He last released new music in 1982 and rarely appeared in public after that. His name sporadically turned up in tabloid stories of drug arrests and homelessness, but a lot of people who learned of his death were surprised he was still alive.
