Thank You (Fallettinme Be Mice Elf Again). - Sly Stone - A Memoir # 1 Funkadelic

 

'Life is a record. But where do you drop the needle?'

My younger sister Alison knows me well. We enjoy giving each other birthady and Christmas gifts every year. It's as much a joy to give as to recieve. This last Christmas she bought me Sly Stone's memoirs. I'm just starting to t read it as Easter approaches. 

It's something of a surprise still to remind yourself that this great man is still with us. He's one of the few living musicians to whom the term 'genius' still applies I'd say. 'He's lived a hundred lives and they're all here.' That's according to the blurb on the back corner from Questlove, who also supplies the Foreword. Let's find out.

Sly is getting clean. He sits in his house in LA watching classic boxing contests. Reflect on hisp ast. The time he appeared with Ali on the Mike Douglas Show in the summer of 1974. Ali was raging about injustice. Sly wanted to radiate happiness. 'If you get bit just hate the bite.' 

He seems to be freefalling through memory lane. Memory Lanes. He goes back to the beginning.He's born in Denton, Texas.  His family move shortly afterwards to California. They learn Mahalia Jacksom amd The Swan Silvertones at the familo piano. Sly starts performing in church and comes alive. He finds it difficult to apply himself at school. Rock & Roll comes along. He gravitates towards Jackie Wilson and Ray Charles .