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http://www.classicbands.com/sly.html

This Bootleg is a compilation of various unreleased
live sessions from sly, from 1968 to 1983 compiled
by the japanese label "Big Fro".

Disc 1:
1.Life (Kraft Music Hall Show 1968)
2.Dance To The Music / Music Lover (Kraft Music
Hall Show 1968)
3.M'Lady / Music Lover (NBC Summer Showcase 1968)
4.M'Lady (Fillmore East 1968)
5.Love City (Ed Sullivan Show 1969)
6.Everyday People (Leslie Uggams Show 1969)
7.Everyday People / Dance To The Music (The Music
Scene October 1969)
8.Hot Fun In The Summertime / Don't Call Me Nigger,
Whitey / I Want To Take You Higher (The Music Scene
October 1969)
9.Interview / Thank You (Dick Cavett Show 1970)
10.I Want To Take You Higher (Dick Cavett Show
1970)
11.Interview (Dick Cavett Show 1970)
12.M'Lady (Kasteel Groenveld, Amsterdam, September
10, 1970)
13.Sing A Simple Song (Kasteel Groenveld,
Amsterdam, September 10, 1970)
14.Stand (Kasteel Groenveld, Amsterdam, September
10, 1970)
15.Dance To The Music (Kasteel Groenveld,
Amsterdam, September 10, 1970)

Disc 2:
1.You're The One (Don Kirschner's Rock Concert
1973)
2.Stand (Don Kirschner's Rock Concert 1973)
3.Intro / Stand (Midnight Special, October 26,
1973)
4.Thank You (Midnight Special, October 26, 1973)
5.Music Lover (Midnight Special, October 26, 1973)
6.I Want To Take You Higher (Midnight Special,
October 26, 1973)
7.If You Want Me To Stay (Midnight Special, October
26, 1973)
8.Dance To The Music (Midnight Special, October 26,
1973)
9.Dance To The Music / Music Lover (ABC In Concert
1974)
10.Family Affair (Mike Douglas Show 1974)
11.Intro / Thank You (Soul Train 1974)
12.Interview / Dance To The Music / Music Lover
(Soul Train 1974)
13.Band Intro / If You Want Me To Stay / Stand
(Soul Train 1974)
14.If You Want Me To Stay / Sing A Simple Song
(David Letterman Show 1983)
15.I Want To Take You Higher (David Letterman Show
1983)

Biography of Sly & the Family Stone:

If there were ever a band that lived up to the
cliché of 'defining the times' it was Sly and the
Family Stone. For three brief years in the late 60s
Sly Stone's happy-faced vision of integration of
psychedelic pop and innovative funk rhythms
dominated the American music scene.
Born Sylvester Stewart on March 15, 1944 in Texas,
his family relocated to San Francisco in the
1950's. Music came early to Sylvester , who at age
four recorded his first song as a gospel singer
with his nuclear family group, "the Stewart Four".
By high school, in Vallejo, California, he'd taken
on the nickname Sly and played rock 'n' roll with
Joey Piazza and the Continentals

Sly's knowledge of music and his charming
personality led to disc jockey positions at R&B
stations KDIA and KSOL, where his shows were
popular enough land him a job as a producer for
Autumn Records.

Already a multi-instrumentalist, Sly quickly added
experience as a producer to his resume after
hooking up with another dj and future, alternative
rock radio pioneer Tom "Big Daddy" Donahue. Sly's
credits at Donahue's Autumn Records included
several early San Francisco Sound tracks: the Beau
Brummels' "Laugh, Laugh" and "Just A Little" and
"Somebody to Love" as performed by "the Great
Society". Sly's offer to sit in on the latter was
turned down, the song did not become a hit until it
was reworked a couple of years later by "the
Jefferson Airplane" with Grace Slick on vocals.

After the rejection by "The Great Society", he
decided to change his name and make his own music.
After a couple of false starts, Sly recruited
trumpeter Cynthia Robinson, sax-player Jerry
Martini, pianist Rosie Stone, guitarist Freddie
Stone, drummer Greg Errico and, most importantly,
bassist Larry Graham.

Not only did they sound different, they looked it
too, as the only band of the era to include blacks
and whites, males and females.The Family Stone's
diverse racial makeup unwrapped the hidden fact
that soul music was often a synthesis created by
both black and white musicians. Perhaps even more
radical was the crucial role women played as
instrumentalists, rather than just vocal wallpaper
to round out the band's sound.

After paying it's dues in the suburbs, the band
released their first album in 1967. As the title of
it says, Sly and the Family Stone were indeed "A
Whole New Thing". Their fusion of the head-trip
effects of psychedelic rock with the pulse of dance
music had an audacity that seems commonplace now.
Their first great moment was the 1968 single "Dance
to the Music", which made it's way into the top ten
on the nation's music charts.

All the while the group's outlandish live
performances featured choreographed onstage
movements and fantastic hairdos and costumes which
appealed to a rock audience despite the grab bag of
musical sources. The message of their next single
made it #1 for a month. The catchphrase from
"Everyday People" - 'different strokes for
different folks' , was a popular saying throughout
the late sixties.

Radio stations mostly stayed clear of the band's
next single release "Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey",
It was the first evidence of Sly's dark humour as
the title phrase was endlessly repeated over a
gloomy funk vamp. Their following single, "Hot Fun
in the Summertime", while superficially breezier,
was an ironic commentary on America's long, hot
summer of racial unrest. "Hot Fun" reached #2 in
the American charts as almost nobody got the joke.

In 1969, the band released their breakthrough album
"Stand," and spent the majority of the year
touring, turning in a historic performance at
Woodstock and galvanizing audiences across the
country with their innovative mix of soul, funk,
R&B, rock, psychedelia, and pop.

Sly's image appeal helped to bring black youth over
to rock, and may have encouraged black militants to
try and make him an agent of their cause. Under
their pressure and internal group friction, Sly
began to exhibit signs of a bleeding ulcer, and
sought relief through drugs. After developing a
reputation for missed and delayed concerts, a
comeback with another number one hit, "Thank You
(Falettin Me Be Mice Elf Agin)" in 1970 seemed to
indicate a return to form.

During this period, Sly was feeling intense
pressure from his record company to keep putting
out new materia, getting muscled by black
nationalist leaders to make his music more radical,
receiving death threats, failing to show up for
concerts and wrestling with cocaine addiction. The
Album "There's a Riot Goin' "on finally came out in
1971, preceded by the wonderful cool funk of the
hit single "Family Affair".The album was ravaged by
fallout: from cocaine, from the 60s, from the
failure of black nationalism, from the bloatedness
of the counterculture, from being a superstar. Sly
became more overindulgent in drugs, making records
at less frequent intervals.

Larry Graham left in 1972 to form "Graham Central
Station" and has been touring and recording to this
day. In 1980, he hit the charts again with a
beautiful song called "One In A Million You"

Sly released two more records ("Fresh" (1973), and
"Small Talk" (1974)) with mostly different lineups,
after that, the quality of his output diminished in
direct relation to his increasing drug addiction
and egomania. "Sly and the Family Stone" no longer
had the drawing power to be a headlining road show,
but singer Bobby Womack felt it necessary to help
Sly into drug treatment, afterwards honoring his
mentor by taking him on tour.

With the exception of his appearance on
Funkadelic's "The Electric Spanking of War Babies"
(1981), the rest of Sly's career has been a series
of drug nightmares, half-hearted releases and
idiotic marketing schemes (1979's Ten Years Too
Soon was a pathetic disco remix album of his 60s
hits).s

Sly has not released a record since 1983, and has
not made a public appearance since 1993, when Sly
and the Family Stone were inducted into the Rock n'
Roll Hall of Fame.

On January 12, 1993, all of the original members of
Sly & the Family Stone appeared together to receive
an award marking their induction into the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame. They were inducted along with
music legends like Cream, Creedence Clearwater
Revival and The Doors. After being introduced by
P-Funk leader George Clinton, all of the members
except Sly walked onto the stage. Larry then led
all members in acapella renditions of "Thank You
(Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" and "Dance to the
Music" after which the six members of the Family
Stone made short, thankful speeches Just when it
seemed as though Sly was not going to appear, he
stepped onto the stage accompanied by a standing
ovation. He made a hasty speech, uttered the words
"See you soon" and left the podium.

Rumors of isolation and eccentricity have followed
Sly's legend over the past decade. He lives
reclusively in Los Angeles, and reports of his
mental and physical health are generally not
encouraging ,though his musical legacy lives on in
his classic and influential recordings.

On Sunday, May 25, 1997, Larry Graham reunited with
original Sly & the Family Stone members Rose Stone,
Jerry Martini and Cynthia Robinson to perform a Sly
& the Family Stone medley, at Sinbad's Soul Music
Festival in Aruba. The performance, was shown on
HBO later that year.
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http://bigozine2.com/roio/?p=675

SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE
The Thesaurus of Funkasaurus [Big Fro, 2CD]
Collection of live tracks, possibly from various TV broadcasts. Very good soundboard?

For anyone not acquainted with Sly And The Family Stone, this is what’s Rickey Vincent wrote in Funk: The Music, The People, And The Rhythm Of The One:

For mainstream America, the ambassador of funk was Slyvester Stewart, also known as Sly Stone. His outlandish appearance, infectious smile, throaty soul-singing voice, and hyperactive rock music turned America on at a time when the nation was searching for identity… The slang term far out was coined for the sole purpose of identifying Sly And The Family Stone…

The Family Stone was the first self-contained, all-purpose band. The warmth and innocence of the pop hits Everyday People and Hot Fun In The Summertime was but a smoke-screen for the assaulting lyrics and bone-crunching funk riffs of Don’t Call Me Nigger, Whitey, Stand! and Thank You (For Talkin’ To Me Africa)…

Sly Stone owned pop music from 1968 to 1970 and reached his highest rock high of all - Woodstock - but in a few short years disappeared not only from the scene, but the history as well… Sly’s music created such an open atmosphere of tolerance and truth that the wicked elements of racism were exposed and thrust into the pop dialogue like never before… The impact of Sly Stone on black music was greater than anyone else from that era except for James Brown.

As for this Big Fro set, someone commented on the net:

This collection is the bomb, simply put. It was lovingly prepared by the same kind soulsters at Big Fro who were responsible for the Curtis Mayfield 1972 Rarities collection, and the Otis Redding Soupcon of Soul collection… It’s a fascinating document of the group at the height of their powers, and every performance is a gem. The sound quality is varied, but predominantly very good. For the perfectionists, be warned, these recordings do have some limitations, and the occasional minor analog artifact.

And this was posted at www.virose.net:

Here’s the cool part: I know somebody who works for CBS/Sony who is VERY high up in the company. He was a huge Big ‘Fro fan. When I sent him his copy of this he was completely flabbergasted as Sony had been thinking of issuing this later in the same year as the BF version came out. What amazed him was that OUR version sounded better than what Sony had in their vaults! And that we had actual photos from the show! He wanted to use our version for the master - cover and all! I told him no problems at all there as long as a) They credit Big ‘Fro for the source tape etc, b) They send us a box of them and c) That they would have to negotiate with the photographer seperately for use of his photos. I was VERY excited about this coming out officially using our release as the master!

They then slated it for release and announced it as an upcoming release. Maybe they even pressed up a test pressing or two. But for some reason the release never happened. Now if you look up Sly on the AMG site you will see that they claim this to have been released. Fine and dandy EXCEPT that NOBODY has ever actually seen a copy of the supposed official release (and believe me: when I saw that on AMG I was offering a lot of money to anybody who could turn one up. Nobody ever has). And my source at Sony has confirmed to me that this was never released. Planned for release yes. But never actually issued.

And like I said: my source is almost as high up in CBS/Sony/Epic/whatever as you can possibly get.

Click on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s (these are high quality MP3s - sample rate of 224 kbps). As far as we can ascertain, these tracks have never been officially released on CD.

Due to the size of some of the files, please be very patient when downloading the tracks. It could be that the server was very busy. Please try again later. Kindly email us at mybigo@bigozine.com if you encounter persistent problems downloading the files.

Disc 1 [73:05]
Track 101. Life [Kraft Music Hall ‘68] (4.6MB)
Track 102. Dance To The Music/Music Lover [Kraft Music Hall ‘68] (11.2MB)
Track 103. M’Lady/Music Lover [NBC Summer Showcase ‘68] (8.5MB)
Track 104. M’Lady [Fillmore East ‘68] (5.1MB)
Track 105. Love City [Ed Sullivan Show ‘69] (5.5MB)
Track 106. Everyday People [Leslie Uggams Show ‘69] (3.6MB)
Track 107. Everyday People/Dance To The Music [Music Scene 10/’69] (5.6MB)
Track 108. Hot Fun In The Summertime/Don’t Call Me Nigger, Whitey/I Want To Take You Higher [Music Scene 10/’69] (8.8MB)
Track 109. Interview/Thank You Faletinme Be Micelf [Dick Cavett Show ‘70] (9.0MB)
Track 110. I Want To Take You Higher [Dick Cavett Show ‘70] (12.1MB)
Track 111. Interview [Dick Cavett Show ‘70] (1.1MB)
Track 112. Thank You Faletinme Be Micelf M’Lady [Kasteel Groenveld, Amsterdam 9/10/70] (9.4MB)
Track 113. M’Lady Sing A Simple Song [Kasteel Groenveld, Amsterdam 9/10/70] (7.6MB)
Track 114. Sing A Simple Song Stand [Kasteel Groenveld, Amsterdam 9/10/70] (8.8MB)
Track 115. Stand/Dance To The Music [Kasteel Groenveld, Amsterdam 9/10/70] (16.1MB - visit the html page to download the track)

Disc 2 [74:39]
Track 201. You’re The One [Don Kirschner’s Rock Concert ‘73] (10.3MB)
Track 202. Stand [Don Kirschner’s Rock Concert ‘73] (12.1MB)
Track 203. Intro/Stand [Midnight Special 10/26/73] (8.8MB)
Track 204. Thank You Faletinme Be Micelf [Midnight Special 10/26/73] (8.7MB)
Track 205. Music Lover [Midnight Special 10/26/73] (5.1MB)
Track 206. I Want To Take You Higher [Midnight Special 10/26/73] (4.8MB)
Track 207. If You Want Me To Stay [Midnight Special 10/26/73] (7.6MB)
Track 208. Dance To The Music [Midnight Special 10/26/73] (2.5MB)
Track 209. Dance To The Music/Music Lover [ABC Concert ‘74] (15.5MB - visit the html page to download the track)
Track 210. Family Affair [Mike Douglas Show ‘74] (7.0MB)
Track 211. Intro/Thank You Faletinme Be Micelf [Soul Train ‘74] (12.1MB)
Track 212. Interview/Dance To The Music, Music Lover [Soul Train ‘74] (10.6MB)
Track 213. Band Intro/If You Want Me To Stay/Stand [Soul Train ‘74] (6.4MB)
Track 214. If You Want Me To Stay/Sing A Simple Song [David Letterman Show ‘83] (6.2MB)
Track 215. I Want To Take You Higher [David Letterman Show ‘83] (1.6MB)