Amir Questlove–Thompson
speaker
268 appearances
5 recordings
1 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard May 2025
Amir Questlove–Thompson’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
This is 1968.
Sly will invent the alphabet for which most of pop... And R&B or black music will write from for, you know, the next 60 years. Like we're still writing from his dictionary to this day. And so, OK, we have a four minute song to make. How many micro songs can we have in this particular song? In other words, a typical Sly the Family Stone song has a bunch of elements that will grab everybody.
Like, most songs will just have one specific hook. Like, this is the chorus. This is my hook. Okay, here are my lyrics. Instead, Sly will do a four-bar part that's like earworm. You know, like, that'll grab you, and then he'll do another four bars that will grab someone else. So, you know, lyrically and melodic-wise, his formula is also... The world's funkiest nursery rhyme music.
Look at Everyday People, his number one hit. Everyone knows Everyday People. Everyday People is basically the schoolyard version. The lyrics of that song, the melody of that song is basically schoolyard taunting. There is a black one who doesn't like the... And... his, his whole thing is like, if it can appeal to a kid, to a first grader, um, then melodically you have them and rhythmically, um,
His rhythm section, Greg Rico on drums and Larry Graham on bass, specifically Larry Graham's right thumb are probably the two most revolutionary aspects of Sly's music. And that's because Larry Graham is a bass player who used to play in bands without a drummer. So as a result, he would have to hit his bass in a very specific way so that you could feel the rhythm because there's no drummer there.
And, of course, once he's in the sly system, he invents kind of a thumping, plucking thing, which I guess most of your listeners would probably be familiar with, the way that the Seinfeld theme sounds, or the way that Flea plays in the Red Hot Chili Peppers, like with his thumb. Larry Graham from Sly and the Family Stone, a.k.a. Drake's uncle.
Yeah, Larry Graham is... Well, you know, Drake's name is Aubrey Graham. Drake's father is Larry Graham's brother. Anytime I show this movie to someone under the age of 30, they're like, wait, is that Drake's father? I'm like, no, that's his uncle. Because they look alike. But, yeah, he revolutionized a way to play bass. And so, I mean, pretty much he just invented the idea of, like, ear candy.
Like... a whole bunch of micro ideas inside of one three-minute song. And that's the genius of Sly Stone.
So what people don't know is that Sly basically considered dance to the music like his sellout song. Sly had released this really intelligent debut album called A Whole New Thing, which is probably my favorite album of this entire canon. But It was way too wordy, way too smart, way too nerdy, just so ahead of its time that only a certain few latched onto it.
And the rejection of that album kind of depressed Sly and his label said, look, You know, like you're doing way too much. You know, you're doing way too much. You got to simplify it. People aren't as smart as you are. Like instead of you being the smartest guy in the room, be a relatable guy in the room. People just want to dance to the music and kind of in a very bitter, scoffy way.
Like he's like, all right, well, people want to dance to the music. Fine. And so he did a very sarcastic thing. And so he's like, all right, well, people want to dance to the music. Fine. I'm going to make a song and I'm going to teach them how to dance to my music. And essentially dance to the music is an instructional introduction on who we are. Hey, I play the bass. Yeah. I play the drums.
I play the keyboards. And literally, that's the song. There's no lyrics to the song. It's just a sing-along. But what Sly doesn't realize is that in his very sarcastic, bitter, middle finger type of way, he includes everybody. And people grasp to it. And so, Dance to the Music is one of those accidental number one songs that he didn't intend on catching on.
It was more of like just a bitter, here, you guys want regular food instead of this meal I cooked up for you? Fine, take your sandwich and get out of here. And people gravitated towards it, so.
Yeah, so what he includes is, you know, a very, you know, the drum beat that is played there is kind of a precursor to what we will call four on the floor. And 10 years later, four on the floor will just be, you know, whereas in the 60s, four on the floor means that the snare, the kick, and the hi-hat are all doing... You know, it's teaching your body how to dance to it.
Ten years later, they'll take the snare and the hi-hat away, and it'll just be the kick. Boom, boom, boom, boom. And that will be the disco rhythm. You know, what we call boots and cats. Boots, cats, boots, cats. Boots and cats. So Sly will basically kind of give you the prototype of what... will be the disco pulse in the late 60s.
But, you know, he's writing the blueprint of what modern dance music will be in 10 years.
Yes. So, again, like Sly believes in micro examples like, you know, another artist will will make one hook, one melody, one lyric, you know, like just one thing where Sly will probably try to cram in seven ideas at the same time. Sly puts a lot of attention to harmony, which is a church thing. So that makes people feel comfortable like, oh, they went to church because they sing harmonious.
But then Sly knows the importance of unison. Unison singing is where everyone sings in the same register. So like... Think of the idea of when Billy Joel's Piano Man comes on. That's the type of song that you hear in a bar and everyone sings together as they hold their mug of beer and sing along. So that's a very inclusive type of thing.
So when everyone's singing in the same key without harmony, it's not intimidating. Like the worst singer and the best singer. can unify. So he knew the power of unison singing, which is included, and harmony singing, which is a spectacle and type of dance rhythms and innovative bass sounds.
Just every new idea that was unexplored in 1967, 68, and 69, Sly was the pioneer and the first person to do those things.
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