Their music changed pop history, but we've never known much about the
people who made it...until now.
"...a first-hand account of both the kaleidoscopic talent that drove
Stone to the top and attracted so many people to him, and the madness
that he soon descended into and never truly returned from, a victim of
ego, drug abuse sycophants and the era.... It amounts to a definitive
history of one of the rock generation's greatest and most tragic
artists." --Jem Aswad, Variety, "The Best Music Books of 2022"
"...the musical trajectory of Sly & The Family Stone, and especially
its namesake and leader, Sly Stone (born Sylvester Stewart), makes even
the most shocking episode of Behind the Music look like Nickelodeon
programming. Esteemed music journo Joel Selvin chronicles the good, the
bad, the ugly (and the really ugly), in a new reissue of his 1998
book, Sly & The Family Stone: An Oral History." --Bob Ruggiero,
Houston Press
Sly Stone shook the foundations of soul and turned it into a brand new
sound that influenced and liberated musicians as varied as Miles Davis,
Stevie Wonder, and Herbie Hancock. His group--consisting of Blacks and
whites, men and women--symbolized the Woodstock generation and crossed
over to dominate pop charts with anthems like "Everyday People," "Dance
to the Music," and "I Want to Take You Higher."
Award-winning journalist and bestselling author Joel Selvin weaves an
epic American tale from the voices of the people around this funk
phenomenon: Sly's parents, his family members and band members
(sometimes one and the same), and rock figures including Grace Slick,
Sal Valentino, Bobby Womack, Mickey Hart, Clive Davis, Bobby Freeman,
and many more. In their own words, they candidly share the triumphs and
tragedies of one of the most influential musical groups ever
formed--"different strokes" from the immensely talented folks who were
there when it all happened.
"Joel Selvin, the veteran music critic of the San Francisco Chronicle,
published a thoroughgoing, book-length oral history of the group in 1998
that is as disturbing and chilling a version as you'll ever find of the
'dashed '60s dream' narrative: idealism giving way to disillusionment,
soft drugs giving way to hard, ferment to rot." --David Kamp, "Sly
Stone's Higher Power" Vanity Fair, August 2007
Available for the first time in years, Sly & the Family Stone: An Oral
History, is an unflinching look at the rise and fall one of music's
most enigmatic figures.
