Questlove On Sly Stone & The Burden Of Black Genius
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Who is Sly Stone and why is he significant?
This is Fresh Air. I'm Terry Gross. Today, Amir Questlove-Thompson is back to talk about the life and legacy of Sly Stone. Questlove's new documentary called Sly Lives, a.k.a. The Burden of Black Genius, is about the impact of Sly Stone and his band Sly and the Family Stone on music and culture. Sly got his start as a DJ and record producer in the early 1960s. formed a multiracial band with his brother, sister, and other musicians, and went on to record hits like Everyday People, Dance to the Music, Family Affair, and Stand. Their music influenced Prince, George Clinton and Funkadelic, The Ohio Players, Earth, Wind & Fire, and many hip-hop artists. The film also covers the problems that came along with fame and drugs that took Sly down.
It premiered at Sundance last month and starts streaming on Hulu Thursday, February 13th. Questlove is the co-founder of the hip-hop band The Roots, which is the house band for The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. If you feel as if you just heard him on our show, you did when we talked about his other new documentary focused on Saturday Night Live's music guests and music sketches over the past 50 years. That one's called Ladies and Gentlemen, 50 Years of SNL Music. Questlove's 2021 documentary Summer of Soul, featuring performances from the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, won an Oscar for Best Documentary. So let's talk about your slide documentary. I really love this film. I want to start with a song, and it's their first big hit. It's Dance to the Music. It's so catchy, and I'd like you to point out what makes this song special in its moment, which was 1967 or 8?
This is 1968.
Okay. So what makes this song so special in its moment?
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, okay, 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 is— 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 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. Oh, really?
Literally?
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.
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