When I write about Sly & The Family Stone, I can only write with this feeling of pride and love that I can’t use when writing about any other act, past or present. The first record I ever owned, I love to tell everyone, was Sly & The Family Stone’s Fresh, purchased for my 3rd birthday for me by my mother (because I loved the “guy on the cover with the afro doing a jump kick”). The music Sly & co. created was both infectious and immeasurably dangerous for the times. There remains an urgency to his work which, if you can grab hold of it, will never let you go.

Of course, it was not without a price. In the making of this music, the limits of the chemical and sexual revolutions were pushed to extremes by Sly and his companions that you and I could barely fathom. The music left in the wreckage of this transitional era can never be compared intelligently to anything else except in passing because, frankly, nobody ever has or ever will do it like Sly. If you’re looking for a textbook definition of “one bad motherfucker”, Sly Stone’s picture might need to be in that dictionary.

After his appearance on the GRAMMYS, complete with blonde mohawk, I became fearful that Sly was forever lost to time and circumstances beyond anyone’s control. I guess, you know, I was wrong. With thanks to Idolator for cluing me in, there’s an excellent Vanity Fair article online in which some of the “lost years” between 1973′s Fresh (widely considered his last truly listenable and intelligent work) and today’s chopper-riding, Napa valley-living Sly finally get talked about. The best part: Sly even says he’s ready to make a comeback, is starting a European tour (no kidding) has 100-200 new songs (can you imagine?) and will start recording a new album in the fall (I just fell down). If you care anything about soul music, I suggest you sit down and read this thing. Here’s a little song to get you in the mood to read.

Listen to Sly & The Family Stone – In Time

A deluxe remastered edition of Sly & The Family Stone’s Fresh was issued with unreleased alternate versions of some tracks back in April 2007. You can purchase it by clicking here.

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