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Sunday Music: How Sly Stone Evolved, At The Beginning
Keep It Simple Sly: a creativity lesson and a life celebration of one of my favorite artists
Matt Zeigler
June 29, 2025
When I was piecing together a tape and then CD collection of Sly and the Family Stone years ago, I always wanted to know what happened between the first album and the second album. It’s the same band, it’s the same idea, and it’s even some of the same ideas - but, you can tell something flipped. Something is different. Something changed from the first album, when they were playing local shows and wanting national exposure when they got their record deal, to what came next.
Why was that?
It started as hobbyist curiosity. There wasn’t much of a way to find out. And then Ben Greenman’s co-written biography with Sly Stone, “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin: A Memoir)” hit my desk and got the closest to solving the mystery for me, finally.
I need to do this with quotes. First, you have to know why the band came together the way it did:
Each person had something distinct.
Freddie was quick. he could hear quick and play what was needed quick. he was also funny and could be as loud as anyone. He was the most fun in the group, for me. My Brother.
Cynthia stayed close to quiet in life, but she was loud on record. She was loyal in every way from the start.
Larry was sneaky., he could be quiet or loud, both in his playing and his personality. Whichever one he was being, you knew he’d be the other one soon enough.
Jerry was mischievous and quick. He would play and play tricks. he was doing cute s***, always f****** around, but not in a way that hurt anyone.
Greg could keep a beat, not just when he was playing but when he was talking.
And then there was me. What did I have? It’s not for me to say.
I was going to borrow Freddie’s band name, the Stone Souls, or call the band the Seventh Stone, and there were other contenders too: Sly and the Stoners, Sly Brothers and Sisters. None of them stuck. The name was up in the air.
Then at some point it landed: Sly and the Family Stone. The band had a concept—white and black together, male and female both, and women not just singing but playing instruments. That was a big deal back then and it was a big deal on purpose.
Each person was a contributor. Every contribution, at every layer, was smart. And every contrast, between all the layers, from the most obvious (skin color, boys and girls, etc.) to the most hidden (harmonic and melodic concepts) - they were aware of them all. Before they had a record deal, they had already cracked something incredible, as a combination of players and creators. And, best of all, it was as organic as it was self-actualized.
The record deal followed, mostly because the ideas the live performances were just that good, and Clive Davis (a young Clive Davis!) championed the project. It didn’t take long to get them into the studio to record and release A Whole New Thing. It’s an insanely smart record, probably even too smart as you’ll see in a second.
Here are some more quotes from Sly in the Greenman book, to illustrate,
The first song, “Underdog,” had been written for the Beau Brummels back at Avenue. They had recorded but not released it. “I know how it feels,” which started every verse, was a kind of answer to Bob Dylan’s “How does it feel?” from “Like a Rolling Stone.”
…
The Record slowed down a little with “If This Room Could talk,” a pop song about a bad breakup, and then it sped back up again with “Run, Run, Run,” which was the generation gap, young longhairs and old squares eyeing each other uneasily.
…
There were also nods to other songs: “Run, Run Run” opened with a toy version of the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction,” and “Turn Me Loose” wasn’t a cover of Otis Redding’s “I Can’t Turn You Loose,” but another kind of answer record, rushing forward like Otis on speed.
The album got critically panned. In reflecting on this response, Sly realized his ideas were still too cluttered. While it was cool to respond to Dylan and Redding in the way he had, most people didn’t get it. Sure, the jazz people he was a fan of reached out to say they loved what he was doing, but the average people, the ones who buy records en masse, they weren’t interested.
Sly thought hard about it. How part of what made Dylan and Redding the successes they were, was how clear they made their message. He committed to learning more, and getting it right on the next record.
The path forward became clear when Sly’s manager, Dave Kapralik, delivered some hard truth, “You’re not making music for those people,” he said, meaning the jazz artists and producers who were celebrating the first record, “You have to make it for everyone, to get people dancing to your music.”
Kapralik’s voice carried weight with Sly. He was on the inside of the industry, of making hits. And, he believed in what Sly was doing too. Kapralik wanted to help him succeed, and Sly knew the feedback was to be considered as deeply as his own feelings about their potential.
Clear as Dylan. Danceable as Redding. Smart, but not so smart you can’t dance to it because you’re too busy thinking. Quotes, again, are helpful,
I had an idea in mind with the catchiest melody, the most obvious rhythm, and the simplest words
…
Right into that hurricane of sound, Cynthia shouted an order: “Get up and dance to the music! Get on up and dance to the music!” That was the name of the song: “Dance to the Music.” It was both a title and a description of itself.
…
Giving people energy was an interesting business. Once they were up you couldn’t necessarily control what they were going to do next.
…
“Dance to the Music” wasn’t just the hit and the title. it was also a model for half the record: leads traded off, tight solos, keep everyone’s feet on the dance floor. Side one ended with a medley of variations on the theme: “Music Is Alive,” “Dance In” (as in “meet me at the…”), and “Music Lover.” Some people said “formula,” but formula was something you fed to a baby. We were feeding people of all ages.
This is the flip. The second album is still smart, but the presentation is reorganized to make Miles Davis as happy as your buddy who lives a few miles down the road. Sly cracked a code.
For all the artists and creators who see this post, I don’t think I could fully appreciate the rest of Sly’s catalogue, for all of the other changes and evolutions he and the band went through, without understanding these details first.
You can have the smartest, coolest, most inspired idea ever. But, if people can’t spend enough time with it to eventually come around to truly thinking about it? Most people are just going to miss your message. Sly figured it out over the course of one record. It changed music history.
What would happen if you made it simpler?
What would happen if you made it more sophisticated?
What would happen if you did both - at the same time?
We don’t have to work out the presentation as fast as Sly did. We don’t even have to have as powerful an idea as his band and what they put together. All we need to do is never forget to ask the question, “What will make the people I want to reach spend time with my creation?”
I know it’s subtle, but see if you can notice the difference between these two songs: