{"id":24489,"date":"2023-01-16T05:30:35","date_gmt":"2023-01-16T10:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=24489"},"modified":"2022-12-09T13:55:26","modified_gmt":"2022-12-09T18:55:26","slug":"joel-selvin-and-sly-the-family-stone-an-oral-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/16\/joel-selvin-and-sly-the-family-stone-an-oral-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Joel Selvin and ‘Sly & the Family Stone: An Oral History’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"In 1998, Joel Selvin was well into his third decade as pop music critic\/journalist for the San Francisco Chronicle<\/i>; he had also authored several books. But his 1998 book, Sly & the Family Stone: An Oral History<\/i> would make an especially serious impression. In the years since its publication, that work has served as the closest thing to a definitive account of the life and music of the man born Sylvester Stewart. A new edition of the book, dedicated to one of its central voices, is out now.<\/p>\n

Groundbreaking San Francisco-based band Sly & the Family Stone smashed down cultural and musical barriers. As Selvin wrote in the book\u2019s introduction, \u201cThere are two types of Black music: Black music before Sly Stone, and Black music after Sly Stone.\u201d Even that proclamation understates the wide-reaching influence of the man and his music.<\/p>\n

Selvin believes that now \u2013 nearly a quarter-century after its original publication \u2013 is the ideal time to reintroduce readers to Sly and the Family Stone: An Oral History<\/i>. \u201cFirst of all,\u201d he says, \u201cQuestlove is working on a documentary.\u201d So even though the famously mercurial Stone hasn\u2019t released any new music since 2011\u2019s misleadingly-titled I\u2019m Back: Family & Friends<\/i><\/a>, the Vallejo-born Stone will soon be back on the minds of the public.<\/p>\n

And another author is reportedly collaborating with Stone on an official historical account. Stone is nobody\u2019s idea of a reliable source on much of anything, but Selvin is keeping an open mind. \u201cLet\u2019s hear his<\/i> account,\u201d he says, challenge implicit in his tone. \u201cI doubt his account is as truthful as the one I collected from his associates.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSly\u2019s the hole in my story,\u201d Selvin acknowledges. \u201cHe\u2019s the doughnut hole.\u201d But the absence of Stone\u2019s voice in Selvin\u2019s book isn\u2019t for lack of trying on the author\u2019s part. With a laugh, he explains that at one point he did<\/i> actually speak with the elusive Mr. Stone about a book based upon Sly\u2019s version of events. \u201cHe was in rehab,\u201d Selvin explains. \u201cAnd his lawyers were thinking that a book would be a perfect project in sobriety.\u201d<\/p>\n

The author and the musician connected on the phone to discuss the potential project. \u201cHe wanted to know: did I think he could get $90,000 out of a book deal?\u201d Selvin says. \u201cBut it was clear to me that he was more interested in the payout than in the work. It was \u2026 amusing.\u201d And nothing came of those talks.<\/p>\n

The oral history approach isn\u2019t one that Selvin often uses; he\u2019s a highly skilled scene-setter, and it\u2019s fair to wonder if the story in his 1998 book might have benefited from a narrative approach of the sort he employed most recently in his 2021 book, Hollywood Eden: Electric Guitars, Fast Cars, and the Myth of the California Paradise<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"Selvin shrugs again. \u201cThat was the assignment,\u201d he explains. The book was commissioned as part of a larger \u201cFor the Record\u201d oral history series that included Susan Whitall\u2019s Women of Motown<\/i><\/a> and Dave Marsh\u2019s Sam and Dave<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Joel Selvin\u2019s approach to Stone\u2019s story was based on interviews with no less than 40 individuals, including many of Stone\u2019s former band mates. He also spoke at length with family members; music industry figures including Clive Davis; and fellow musicians who knew Stone (Mickey Hart, Grace Slick, Sal Valentino, Bobby Womack and many others).<\/p>\n

\u201cI overachieved on my little thing,\u201d says Selvin. \u201cI didn\u2019t do phone interviews unless I had to.\u201d He out countless hours into getting the fuller story.\u201dI remember the [Family Stone saxophonist] Jerry Martini interviews were over five hours!\u201d<\/p>\n

The lurid, bizarre, often scary and sometimes violent story that emerges from the pages of Sly & the Family Stone: An Oral History<\/i> has as a central character one Hamp \u201cBubba\u201d Banks. Banks was a former pimp who would eventually marry (and divorce) Rose Stone, singer\/keyboardist in her brother\u2019s band.<\/p>\n

And Banks \u2013 who passed away in October 2021 \u2013 would prove the linchpin of Selvin\u2019s project. The author explains that when he first interviewed several of Sly\u2019s closest associates, they were all circumspect, telling a sanitized story. \u201cThey were all victims of trauma, more than anything,\u201d Selvin says. \u201cThey still felt scorched from it, all these years later.\u201d<\/p>\n

But then he spoke to Banks. \u201cHe had an entirely different viewpoint,\u201d Selvin says. When he re-interviewed Stone\u2019s former band members and others, Selvin encountered more candor. He recalls Family Stone drummer Greg Errico conceding, \u201cWell, Hamp’s a lot of things, but Hamp’s no bullshitter.\u201d Selvin dedicates the new edition to Banks.<\/p>\n

Selvin says that the accounts from the ex-pimp brought the whole project together. \u201cHamp Banks was absolutely the epitome of Dylan\u2019s phrase, \u2018To live outside the law, you must be honest,\u2019\u201d he says. And that kind of unvarnished reportage \u2013 straight from those who lived through it all \u2013 is what makes Sly & the Family Stone: An Oral History<\/i> relevant now, a half century after Sly reached his creative peak.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1998, Joel Selvin was well into his third decade as pop music critic\/journalist for the San Francisco Chronicle; he had also authored several books. But his 1998 book, Sly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24492,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,31,41,62,64,69],"tags":[4506,5020,1981],"class_list":["post-24489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book","category-funk","category-interview","category-rawk","category-reissue","category-soul","tag-joel-selvin","tag-sly-the-family-stone","tag-sly-stone","cat-10-id","cat-31-id","cat-41-id","cat-62-id","cat-64-id","cat-69-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24489"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24495,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24489\/revisions\/24495"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}