{"id":591,"date":"2011-09-02T04:47:57","date_gmt":"2011-09-02T09:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=591"},"modified":"2011-09-02T04:47:57","modified_gmt":"2011-09-02T09:47:57","slug":"in-search-of-sly-stone-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2011\/09\/02\/in-search-of-sly-stone-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"In Search of Sly Stone, Part Two"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One<\/a>, in which Ann Wilson<\/strong> and Johnny Winter<\/strong> discussed their roles in the new sort-of-tribute album from Sly Stone.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ray Manzarek<\/strong>
\n\u201cI used to play in a band called The Doors<\/strong>,\u201d jokes the keyboardist at the start of our conversation about his part in I\u2019m Back<\/em>. We had a lot to talk about well outside of the Sly Stone project (that conversation will form the basis of an upcoming feature here), but we did cover Ray\u2019s contribution to the new remake of \u201cDance to the Music.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t set out to consciously bring something\u201d to a session, Ray says. \u201cEverything I play flows from the unconscious, the subconscious. I approached it from a Zen perspective; I put on the headphones, listened to Sly sing, and immersed myself in the groove<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

After joking that Vallejo, California-born Sly was the originator of the \u201cV-sound,\u201d Ray observes that Stone did almost single-handedly \u201cinvent contrapuntal rock.\u201d Noting that the approach dates all the way back to the \u201cmulti-layered drumming of tribal Africa,\u201d Ray credits Sly with combining the percussion-oriented form with rock music. A serious student of music, Ray also points out that Sly exerted great influence on \u2013 of all people \u2013 Miles Davis<\/strong>, especially in the latter\u2019s work during the last decades of his life.<\/p>\n

Consistent with everyone else interviewed for this feature, Ray says he had no dealings with Sly during this project. \u201cSly remains an amorphous entity,\u201d he chuckles. \u201cI know there\u2019s a man out there named Sly Stone. And I\u2019m dying to meet him. I\u2019ve played with him, but I have not physically met the man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carmine Appice<\/strong>
\nDrummer Carmine Appice has a long and storied career. He made his initial mark as a member of Vanilla Fudge<\/strong>, going on to brief power trio success with the Fudge\u2019s bassist-vocalist Tim Bogert<\/strong> and ace guitarist Jeff Beck<\/strong>, and worldwide acclaim with Rod Stewart<\/strong> (Appice co-wrote \u201cDa Ya Think I\u2019m Sexy?\u201d) By this point in my research I expected the now-standard answer to how he got involved with I\u2019m Back<\/em>: \u201cSly\u2019s people rang me up,\u201d or somesuch. But Carmine\u2019s answer was a little different. \u201cI do sessions for Cleopatra Records every few months,\u201d he says. \u201cWhat they do, mostly, is tribute albums.\u201d He rattles off a list of recent projects, contextualizing his I\u2019m Back<\/em> work as just another session: \u201cI did a Who<\/strong> tribute, the Sly thing, a William Shatner<\/strong> album\u2026I\u2019m not a house drummer, but I\u2019m sort of a house rock star that they call to do some albums.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Unlike Ann Wilson and Johnny Winter, Carmine says that \u201cI know Sly from the old days.\u201d He even admits to some relatively recent in-person dealings with the man: \u201cI met Sly about a year or two ago when he played B.B. King\u2019s in New York.\u201d He characterizes Sly as \u201ca bit out of it. He was crazy. He did a song, and then he walked out the back door. People were clapping, and he went down the stairs, walked out and never came back. I looked at the guys in the band; they didn\u2019t know what to do!\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked to lend his power drumming to a remake of \u201cStand!\u201d Carmine had to ask, \u201cIs Sly on these songs or is this just a tribute record?\u201d Though the high-energy drum track doesn\u2019t betray the circumstances, Carmine was recovering with an injury during that period. \u201cI had a rotator cuff problem, so I did the track one-handed,\u201d he laughs. The session laid Carmine\u2019s drums atop a basic track with a reference \u201cclick track\u201d for timekeeping. Characterizing the sessions as \u201cpiecemeal,\u201d he nonetheless thinks the end product \u201ccame out great.\u201d But, \u201cI haven\u2019t heard the finished mixes,\u201d he adds. When I tell him that I have, he replies with a bit of good-natured sarcasm. \u201cYou<\/em> have a copy? Oh. I\u2019d love to hear it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carmine is happy to share some stories from the old days. He reveals that back in the 70s, \u201cBeck, Bogert and Appice<\/strong> were going to have Sly produce our second album. We went all the way up to San Francisco; we brought all our equipment and roadies and everything. We were there for about a week to ten days, and did\u2026nothing<\/em>. Because Sly was so out of it.\u201d He notes that the whole thing cost the band about $20,000, \u201cchasing Sly from studio to studio.\u201d He quotes a typical Slyism from the abortive sessions: \u201cHey, man. Just play this groove for me. I\u2019ll be right back…<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

Reflecting on Sly & the Family Stone\u2019s music, Carmine observes that \u201cthey were the only band with horns that was really honking and soulful. I love \u2018em. And so did Tim [Bogert]. Larry Graham<\/strong> [Family Stone bassist] told Tim that he got his bass style \u2013 the thumb style that he came up with \u2013 from Tim.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bootsy Collins<\/strong>
\nBassist Bootsy Collins\u2019 involvement with the I\u2019m Back<\/em> album makes more sense than some of the other guest spots. Collins\u2019 music has much in common with that of Sly & the Family Stone, and Bootsy happily cites Sly as an influence. His presence on the remake of \u201cHot Fun in the Summertime\u201d helps create one of the disc\u2019s strongest tracks. He got on board with the project the same way as everyone else \u2013 Cleopatra Records called him \u2013 and he jumped at the chance. \u201cAbsolutely! Jimi<\/strong> [Hendrix<\/strong>] and Sly were really my main heroes, besides James Brown<\/strong>. It\u2019s an honor for me to be involved in doing something with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Perhaps surprisingly, a careful look at Bootsy\u2019s long list of credits doesn\u2019t reveal any previous sessions with Sly Stone. But they have in fact worked together before. \u201cThis is the first time something we\u2019ve done has been released<\/em>,\u201d Bootsy says. \u201cIn 1981, we actually stayed in Detroit. George Clinton was there, too. We stayed in the studio for seven, eight months. Just recording stuff. There\u2019s a lot of stuff that was in the can \u2013 that\u2019s still<\/em> in the can \u2013 that we recorded.\u201d<\/p>\n

But for his track on I\u2019m Back<\/em>, there was no face-to-face time with Sly. Bootsy\u2019s parts were flown in. \u201cThat wasn\u2019t my call,\u201d he says. \u201cIf it was my call, I really would have wanted to get together and lay it out with him. Because I know<\/em> how he works in the studio, and I know<\/em> what he brings to the table.\u201d Bootsy reflects on the man-behind-the-curtain approach to I\u2019m Back<\/em>. \u201cI think it might have been Sly\u2019s choice as well, because he\u2019s been an inward kind of artist, I guess, after the heyday of Sly & the Family Stone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI would have liked to bring more to the track,\u201d Bootsy admits. \u201cBut because I didn\u2019t have creative control\u2026I had to just try and do what would get away. I would have really loved to have gotten in there and banged it out for real<\/em>. I really would have liked to produce the session,\u201d he admits. \u201cI actually asked to do that, but by the time they got to me — as far as recording on the record \u2013 there were a lot of things that didn\u2019t fall into place like we would have hoped.\u201d In the end, he thinks, \u201cwe kind of fell short.\u201d He characterizes the I\u2019m Back<\/em> project as \u201ca step in the right direction,\u201d but notes that the budget precluded taking it to the next level.<\/p>\n

Still, Bootsy speaks of the elusive Sly Stone and his artistry in the present tense. \u201cYou\u2019ve still got an incredible artist\/musician\/entertainer right there that everybody wants to see and hear. I just wish we could give him more props; he\u2019s one of the groundbreakers.”<\/p>\n

So Is He Back or Isn\u2019t He?<\/strong>
\nThe remake sessions took place in 2009-2010 in Austin TX with a pair of German producers J\u00fcrgen Engler<\/strong> and Chris Leitz<\/strong>; Sly\u2019s level of involvement in the production is not commented upon in the liner notes. Those notes deftly skirt the issue of the development of the three so-called new songs on I\u2019m Back<\/em>, other than to note that they were \u201cat least partially completed\u2026on old analog tapes\u201d between 1988 and 1989, thus hardly qualifying as new. Still, author Dave Thompson<\/strong> argues in his liner notes that \u201cit doesn\u2019t matter that even the most recent compositions on this album were written twenty years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thompson\u2019s lengthy liner notes make for an unfulfilling read, but this is through no fault of his. Any chronicle of Sly Stone and\/or his music must, by definition, leave one frustrated. Missed opportunities, poor choices and wasted talent are the hallmarks of the man. It\u2019s not inappropriate to mention Sly in the same breath as Brian Wilson<\/strong>, Syd Barrett<\/strong>, Skip Spence<\/strong>, Arthur Lee<\/strong> and Roky Erickson<\/strong>. All created work of enduring beauty and value, but all suffered from something deep inside them that kept them from fully realizing on their talent.<\/p>\n

In total, what we have with I\u2019m Back! Family & Friends<\/em> is an album that features little or no family (Stone), and not too many friends. (Acquaintances, yes. People-he\u2019s-heard-of, yes.) We have remakes of hit songs from Sly & the Family Stone\u2019s classic era, redone to varying — if generally high — degrees of success. One could argue that the remakes are in and of themselves pointless, since none takes the listener higher, as it were. The three remixes are certainly pointless beyond argument, and the \u201cnew\u201d tracks pale in comparison to the songwriting and arrangement on display within the remakes.<\/p>\n

But if the listener is willing and able to set all of the baggage aside \u2013 ignoring Sly\u2019s reputation, ignoring the question of just-how-involved-was-he on any of these recordings, ignoring the dubious enterprise of essentially crafting a self-tribute \u2013 and simply take the songs (except those remixes!) simply as songs, then I\u2019m Back! Family & Friends<\/em> is a damn fine album. Those are an awful lot of ifs, however, and the listener\u2019s enjoyment of this — Sly\u2019s latest of comebacks \u2013 is wholly dependent on the ability to embrace those conditional statements.<\/p>\n

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\nwhen new features, reviews and essays are published.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One, in which Ann Wilson and Johnny Winter discussed their roles in the new sort-of-tribute album from Sly Stone. Ray Manzarek \u201cI used to play in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interview","cat-41-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591","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=591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}