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Synopsis:

Not many memoirs are generational events. But when Sly Stone, one of the few true musical geniuses of the last century, decides to finally tell hislife story, it can’t be called anything else.

As the front man for the sixties pop-rock-funk band Sly and the Family Stone, a songwriter who created some of the most memorable anthems of the 1960s and 1970s (“Everyday People,” “Family Affair”), and a performer who electrified audiences at Woodstock and elsewhere, Sly Stone’s influence on modern music and culture is indisputable. But as much as people know the music, the man remains a mystery. After a rapid rise to superstardom, Sly spent decades in the grips of addiction.

Now he is ready to relate the ups and downs and ins and outs of his amazing life in his memoir, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) . The book moves from Sly’s early career as a radio DJ and record producer through the dizzying heights of the San Francisco music scene in the late 1960s and into the darker, denser life (and music) of 1970s and 1980s Los Angeles. Set on stages and in mansions, in the company of family and of other celebrities, it’s a story about flawed humanity and flawless artistry.

Written with Ben Greenman, who has also worked on memoirs with George Clinton and Brian Wilson, and in collaboration with Arlene Hirschkowitz, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) is a vivid, gripping, sometimes terrifying, and ultimately affirming tour through Sly’s life and career. Like Sly, it’s honest and playful, sharp and blunt, emotional and analytical, always moving and never standing still.

Review:

Sly Stone has had a storied life, through being one of the best artists in the world to losing it all to being the influence of many new artists making music today. Now in his eightieth year, Sly has released his memoir that follows him from his early years as a DJ to his later years of watching television and staying clean. To tell the story about Sly Stone is to tell the story about genius that is dampened by drug use. 

His music is incredible. His songs are in the soundtrack to the zeitgeist of the 60s and 70s, and even if you do not know the lyrics, you can recognize the melodies. From songs covered by Madonna, the Jackson 5, Joan Osborne, and Fishbone to songs samples by Arrested Development, The Beastie Boys, and Kanye West, it is hard to even consider the scope of the influence that Sly and the Family Stone had on the culture.  

I started listening to Sly and the Family Stone because I listened to countless hours of Red Hot Chili Peppers. I was in high school when their album Bloodsugarsexmajik came out. I listened to it countless times, sometimes three or four times a day. I decided to get another of their albums, and without any research, so I bought Freaky Styley. Produced by George Clinton, a very close friend of Sly Stone, their version of “If You Want Me to Stay” made me seek out the original, which led me to much of Sly and the Family Stone’s catalog. 

I knew little about Sly outside of his music. This memoir Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) shines a light on the genius of Sly Stone, along with the message that he was trying express, and the drugs that muddied it all. When he started Sly and The Family Stone, he made hit after hit, not only for his band but writing songs for others. The more successful he became, the more drugs were readably available. His drugs of choice were cocaine and PCP (angel dust), and doing these separately makes a person unpredictable. Doing them together makes a person unbearable. It is shocking that his story did not end much earlier in tragic death. Many of those around him doing the same things did, like Jimi Hendrix (whom he knew well) and Janis Joplin (whom he did not know well). Unlike most of the artists that he worked with or wanted to work with, he is still alive. He has been sober for four years now, and to think someone was smoking crack and PCP for decades and is finally recovering is worth celebrating. This memoir does not feel like a victory lap for his sobriety as much as the beginning of a new, bright appreciation of someone who had disappeared from the limelight a long time ago. 

The memoir moves fast, goes through some very good times and very tumultuous times, but there is no time when he gets caught up on the good or the bad. It is like he needs to move as quickly as possible through his story because that is how he lived his life. Some of the writing is clever like lyrics or song titles. It shows that his brain will always work in a certain, lyrical, clever way, and even in his later years, this sharpness has not changed. Hopefully this memoir will help Sly Stone come back into the spotlight, at least enough for his to get the recognition that he deserves. 

I received this as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.