Sly and the Family Stone, to me, at least, represented a paradigm shift in the music business. Here was a group unlike any that had come before it and it represented the psychedelic culture of the Sixties in America more so than anyone I know. Like I said, I could be wrong, but that is my take on it.

Sylvester Stewart was born in 1943 in Denton, Texas, but soon after he was born, the family moved to the Bay Area of San Francisco, California, moving to North Bay. Sylvester was the second of five children. Like many who grew up to be performers, the Stewart family were church going and that is where they learned to sing together and develop their musical talent.

Four of the five children took an interest in music, but of the four, Sylvester was the closest thing to a musical prodigy. He could play keyboards by the time he was seven years old and by the time he reached eleven, he could play guitar, bass and drums. The kids formed a group they called the Stewart Four and actually recorded a record at a local recording studio, which was sold around town, but didn’t go any further than that.

The spelling of Sly resulted when a classmate misspelled Sylvester’s name and the nickname kind of stuck. After high school, Sly worked as a disc jockey at several radio stations around the Bay Area. He formed a band he called “The Stoners” in 1966 with friend Cynthia Robinson. That band evolved into Sly and the Family Stone which included Robinson, his brother Fred, Larry Graham, Greg Errico and Jerry Martini. One of the unique things about the band was that it was multiracial. In 1968, Sly’s sister Rosie joined the band, so it really was a family.

All of the members of the band took on the last name of Stone to help perpetuate the image that they really were all a family. Sly and the Family Stone had one message: Peace and equality through music. This was the era of the Vietnam War and Martin Luther King had been killed just the year before and the races were fighting for equality, so the Family Stone sang about it.

Their first hit was “Dance to the Music” which made it to number eight. Then Sly wrote “Everyday People.” “Everyday People” is an anthem to equality. It was written and produced by Sly and would be the first of three number ones that the band had over the next five years. It is called psychedelic soul music.

“Everyday People” entered the pop charts on January 4, 1969 and spent four weeks at number one. Billboard magazine ranked it the number five song of the year, 1969. It was also number one on the R&B charts.