Legacy Recordings

Like a sing-along balm, “Everyday People” eased a country torn by war and reeling from the death of the dream. Musical adventurer Sylvester Stewart traded his home in the deep South for a hipper name and a taste of San Francisco sunshine. Sly’s integrated band stormed the gates of Motown, Stax and Muscle Shoals, rocking soul giants off their throaty thrones with a fusion of psychedelia, electric funk and sanctified R&B. Playing to Woodstock and nursery school kids, “Everyday People” ushered in an era of message music, full-blown Afros and a platform of racial and gender equality that stood four inches high. There was no place to go but higher.

(S. Stewart); Produced and arranged by Sly Stone; Sly Stone, lead vocal, guitar, keyboards; Freddie Stone, guitar, vocal; Rose Stone, piano; Gregg Errico, drums; Jerry Martini, saxophone; Cynthia Robinson, trumpet; Larry Graham, bass, vocal; Rec. Los Angeles and New York, 1968-1969. From Stand!, Epic 26456; Originally Released 1969

Everyday People (Single Version) by Sly & the Family Stone

It was, as an early album title put it, a whole new thing: flamboyant funk played by an interracial outfit led by the irrepressible and unpredictable Sylvester Stewart. Sometimes there was a message in the music, sometimes it was a freaky electric circus, and sometimes it was just the hippest hybrid of rock, pop and soul imaginable. Of all the memorable early hits “Everyday People,” “Dance To The Music,” the Woodstock rallying cry “I Want To Take You Higher,” “Hot Fun In The Summertime” shows Sly at his most infectious, a last burst of 60’s celebration before his stringent 1970 masterpiece, “There’s A Riot Going On.”

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