Sly and the Family Stone Live at Woodstock
The Saturday night/early Sunday morning time rock show continued with an inspired performance by Sly & The Family Stone, who managed to become the pre-dawn audience on their feet for an impassioned telephone call-and-response of "College" during the song "I Want To Take Yous College."
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Woodstock festival, August 1969–2019
Twenty-four hours Two, Performer 12: Sly & The Family unit Stone
Performed Sun morning, August 17, 4:00–5:00 am
Sly & The Family unit Stone Band Members
- Sylvester "Sly" Stone: vocals, keyboard, harmonica
- Freddie Stone: guitar, vocals
- Jerry Martini: saxophone
- Cynthia Robinson: trumpet
- Rosie Stone: keyboard, vocals
- Larry Graham: bass
- Gregg Errico: drums
Sly & The Family Rock Woodstock Setlist
- 1000'Lady
- Sing a Simple Vocal
- You Can Make It if You lot Try
- Everyday People
- Dance to the Music
- I Want to Have Yous Higher
- Beloved City
- Stand!
Born in 1943 into a Christian family from Dallas, Texas, Sylvester Stewart and his siblings were encouraged to perform sacred music from an early historic period. In 1950, the family moved to Vallejo, California where they performed (even recording a 78 RPM single) sacred music every bit "The Stewart Family." Influenced past the emerging R&B and rock music they heard on the radio, Sylvester and his brother Freddie began playing guitar in bands in high schoolhouse, with Sylvester finding a small amount of local success with a Doo-Wop group known every bit The Viscaynes. Around this time, Sylvester became known every bit Sly Stewart, due to a grade school classmate's misspelling of his name.
By 1964, Sly Stewart had transformed himself into San Francisco R&B disc jockey Sly Rock. He mixed white performers like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones into his playlists and worked as a record producer on the side. In 1966, he formed his own ring, Sly & The Stoners, which merged the following year with his guitar-playing blood brother Freddie's band Freddie & The Stone Souls to go Sly & The Family Stone. The band included Sly and Freddie, Cynthia Robinson on trumpet, Gregg Errico on drums, Jerry Martini on saxophone, and Larry Graham on bass. Seeing no need for ii guitarists in the ring, Sly gave the guitar duties to Freddie, while he took over the role of frontman and organist. It did not have long for the band to amass a post-obit, with their funky dance grooves igniting audiences in and around the Bay Surface area.
Signed to Epic Records, The new ring's first album,A Whole New Thing, was released in October 1967 to critical acclaim but poor sales. Clive Davis encouraged Sly to write and record a song specifically for single release, and the resulting vocal, "Trip the light fantastic toe to the Music," reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1968, and the album of the same proper noun sold relatively well. Effectually this time, The Family Stone expanded when Rose Stone joined the group as a vocalist and keyboard player. The band continued to bout behind their hit single and album, and while they continued to fire up their audiences, their third album,Life, released in the summer of 1968, failed to capitalize on the success of the previous album.
Things would modify in the autumn of 1968 with the release of their next single, "Everyday People." This plea for unity was an instantly massive success, giving the band their commencement #1 single and propelling the fourth Sly & The Family Stone album,Stand!, to #13 in the Billboard 200. The album went on to sell three one thousand thousand copies. The band was one of the hottest in America by August of 1969, when they took to the stage at Woodstock. Their loftier-energy stage show was the perfect vehicle with which to dance the night away, and the crowd was pumped upward and ready.
Unfortunately, there were issues. Sly Stone was already showtime to earn a well-deserved reputation for unreliability in a live performance setting. Living upwards to this reputation, Sly attempted to agree off actually taking the stage, forcing further delays to the already well-behind Sabbatum schedule. As the story goes, information technology took Woodstock production manager and emcee John Morris slamming Sly up against a backstage trailer and threatening actual damage to convince the reluctant Stone to go on with the show.
At 4:00 on Dominicus morning, Sly & The Family unit Stone finally made information technology onstage, opening up with a powerful and dynamic rendition of "M'Lady" from the previous year'sLifealbum. With the briefest of pauses, the group went into the first of several tunes to exist played fromStand up!with "Sing A Simple Vocal." At this signal, the grouping stopped to piece of work out some equipment issues, Sly attempting to convince the audience that it would be best if the group waited "until the shit works right." The crowd were having none of this of class (and one tin can't imagine John Morris was thrilled either), so the group marched on with an impassioned and appropriate version of "You Can Brand Information technology If You Endeavor," the closing track fromStand!
From here, the remainder of the prove kicked into a major-league high gear with a long medley. This began with "Everyday People," which segued into another of the grouping's mega-hits, "Dance To The Music" from the 1968 anthology of the same name. With the crowd on their anxiety, the proceedings got even hotter as the group jumped into "Music Lover," besides fromDance To The Music. At present fully switched-on and in command, Sly engaged the crowd in an ecstatic call-and-response dirge of "Higher!," their voices nearly louder than those of The Family Stone.
The medley wound downward into a rendition of "I Want To Take You Higher" fromStand up!, a most deliciously low-down and funky way to end the main set. Febrile, the crowd demanded and received two encores with "Love City" from theLifealbum, and the group's current hit unmarried (reaching the top 30 in the U.Due south.), the title track fromStand up!Sly & The Family Rock captivated the Woodstock audience with their funky rhythm section, powerful horn section, and soulful vocals. Many people consider their Woodstock performance as the best of the festival. A new single, "Hot Fun in the Summertime," released immediately later on Woodstock, went to #2 on the U.Due south. pop chart, further solidifying the band's success, as did the inclusion of "I Want to Take You College" in theWoodstockdocumentary and soundtrack album.
But, every bit is often the example in the music industry, their success also fueled their downfall. Sly Rock adult a legendary cocaine addiction and gained a reputation for missing shows or leaving the stage early on. He also brought unsavory characters into the band organization, farther alienating other ring members. They continued to create basis-breaking music and influence other musicians, just the writing was on the wall.
The band broke up in 1975, with only Cynthia Robinson continuing to perform with Sly. The other members went their own means. Freddie Stone recorded at Motown for a time and wrote for other musicians, later becoming an ordained government minister. Larry Graham formed his own band, Graham Central Station. Rose Stone was a solo and backup singer, working with Michael Jackson, Phish, and Ringo Starr. Gregg Errico, Jerry Martini, and Cynthia Robinson all worked with other artists and joined forces to create The Family Stone. Cynthia died in tardily 2015.
Sly Stone continued to tape solo albums for a fourth dimension (the concluding being 1983'southOwn't But The One Manner), then dropped out of public view as he struggled with cocaine addiction and legal troubles, finally making a strange appearance on-stage at Sly & The Family Stone'due south 1993 Rock & Scroll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. It was reported in the early 2010s that Sly was homeless and living in an RV in the suburbs of Los Angeles. He recently won a multi-million-dollar lawsuit against the band'south former director for fraudulent practices. He occasionally performs live, simply Sly's career is an excellent example of a music business cautionary tale.
—Wade Lawrence & Scott Parker
More Woodstock Performers
Want to acquire more about the musical artists and groups that performed at Woodstock? We accept information near all of them! Whether you're interested in Santana, Janis Joplin, Canned Estrus, or Tim Hardin, you lot'll notice information technology all right here!
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