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Jack Riedy has said it before and he’ll say it again: Beach Bunny >>>> Rolling Stones.
Sly Stone has been immortal for a long time. In the late ‘60s, Sly blew minds with a string of hits backed by his matter-of-factly multi-racial mixed gender band the Family Stone. The tight grooves and “can’t we all get along” messages of classics like “Dance to the Music,” “Stand!,” and “Sing A Simple Song” are so elemental as to feel like folk songs. In his memoir, friend and fellow funkateer George Clinton wrote that Sly “was the only other act who could do what The Beatles were doing. But there were four of them – there was only one of him.”
As Sly dealt with success and substance abuse in the ‘70s, his sound curdled into something danker and darker. He experimented with drum machines and overdubbed until the tape wore thin, recording the soundtrack of baby boomers’ dreams going bust. Sly released albums with various bands and labels, but his addiction issues worsened such that he has been functionally retired for four decades.
Sly finally got sober in 2019 with the help of loved ones and medical professionals. Questlove has taken it upon himself to maintain the elder musician’s legacy, publishing Sly’s memoir on his Auwa Books imprint and directing a documentary, Sly Lives (aka the Burden of Black Genius), out February 13 on Hulu.
The music of Sly Stone is a foundational text for generations of musicians to learn from and scribble on. He inspired Miles Davis to go electric and was name-checked on Herbie Hancock’s jazz-rock blockbuster Head Hunters, and in this century, he appeared on To Pimp A Butterfly via two different samples. “I was always happy if someone took the things I was doing and they liked them enough to want to do them on their own,” he told the Guardian in a rare 2023 interview. “I’m proud that the music I made inspired people.”
Funk Gets Stronger is a tribute to the wide world of Sly Stone outside the still-canonical Greatest Hits LP. The mix includes live performances, collaborations, unreleased songs, samples, and covers by like-minded legends. Everybody is a star, but few have shined as brightly as Sly Stone.
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