I Want To Take You Higher: The Life And Times Of Sly & The Family Stone
by Jeff Kaliss
I blame Behind The Music.
I think that the once-great VH1 show (Garbage, Everclear, and Nick Lachey got their own shows… really?) has ruined my ability to properly read any rock bios. The Behind The Music way of breaking down every story into a format of “Out Of Nowhere Success–>Uh Oh, Here Come The Drugs, Women, And Dissent Amongst Bandmates–>After Hitting Rock Bottom, Redemption (And Possibly A Comeback) Is Sought After” has made it impossible, for me, at least, to read about an artist or musician and not hear Jim Forbes’ voice saying, “And then, it all fell apart…” when getting to the part about drugs and alcohol affecting the band.
And I don’t think I am alone either. It is hard not to see every celebrity profile as a three act story that follows the same success-collapse-redemption script and, to be sure, this is probably how all celebrity profiles have unfolded since the dawning of Hollywood. But at some point the story itself gets lost because it is cheapened by repitition. (The same is true with The E! True Hollywood Story: what started as an informative little show about Rebecca Schaeffer or Gianni Versace or The Partridge Family became a bloated empire that inexplicably gave Jessica Simpson’s career a two hour treatment.) What compounds all of this for me is that, because of this–because of how entertainment reporting, features, and profiles are handled, and how information in general w/r/t to entertainment is fast and furiously banal (for the most part)–there are a lot of people walking around on this Earth who do not know who Sly & The Family Stone are.
Sly & The Family Stone was a groundbreaking multi-cultural band that is partly or fully responsible for the following things (in no particular order):
- Precursor to the musical direction that Stevie Wonder would take starting in the mid-’70′s
- Precursor to Prince
- First band to pioneer the thump and pluck style of playing bass, which drastically altered the direction that funk and soul music would take
- One of the first popular truly diverse bands
- Sly Stone was one of the first musicians to cultivate a look based on wearing ornate jewelry, ultra-flashy outfits, and sporting a huge afro
- One of the first bands to fuse message lyrics with mainstream music appeal
- The simplistic way the drum beats and cymbals were utilized was one of may precursors to hip hop beats
- They wrote “Everyday People”
Regarding the last point, it is impossible for me to convey how significant “Everyday People” is. In my mind, “Everyday People” is one of the ten greatest (and most important) pop songs ever written–not only is the melody just beautiful to listen to but the lyrics encompass an intelligence and a social awareness that has rarely been matched. Lyrics like “I am no better and neither are you/We are the same whatever we do/You love me, you hate me, you know me and then/You can’t figure out the bag I’m in” and the famous “different strokes for different folks” line come to mind in proving its genius. And I say all of this fully realizing that it was used in Toyota ads for a while in the ’90′s. (You can listen to the song here if the title does not ring a bell.)
With all of that said, I totally appreciate that Kaliss has written this book. Sly & The Family Stone is a band that should be more recognizable by name with people and I find it somewhat disheartening that there are a lot of people walking around today that have never heard of this group. But I think Behind The Music and the new school of entertainment profiling has temporarily ruined my ability to truly enjoy reading about anything music bio-related, especially when it predictably falls into line, again, with the success-collapse-redemption mold (all though there were some interesting tidbits in here, especially regarding Sly Stone and his early DJ work in California).
I completely recommend this book for anyone who is a fan or who wants to know more about the backstory of the band. Otherwise, I think there is more value in buying the music over reading about.
Unless, of course, you are immune to Jim Forbes’ voice being in your head.
