6 Degrees of Soul: …I tried… but I seem to have hit a dead-end with the degrees of separation from Day 16’s Rotary Connection to Day 17’s Sly & the Family Stone. If you know a way… please let me know…
In the early seventies there were three dominating styles of funk, the godfather Jame Brown’s version, his godson’s version of Parliament-Funkadelic and the distant cousins Sly & The Family Stone. Led by Sylvester Stewart, aka Sly Stone, the groups sound an edgier rock infused form of funk than their counterparts. With brother Freddie Stone and Larry Graham (of Graham Central Station fame), the band would make some of the most memorable music of all time. At the end of the sixties, the bands music became progressively more political and synonymous with the Black Power Movement. This would both catapult and lead to the undoing of the groups success. However, One thing remains to this day… their catalog of great music.
…“Dance to the Music” was initially written to satisfy the Clive Davis request of a “pop” record… the title track would become the groups first song to crack Top 10 on the charts…
…the groups breakthrough album was Stand!… check out their performance of “I Wanna Take You Higher” at Woodstock…
…here is a medley of Stone hits… “Hot Fun in the Summertime”, “Don’t Call Me Nigger, Whitey” and “I Wanna Take You Higher”…
…as long as it’s funky for you…
– dre’ of onustees.com
