Thankful n' Thoughtfull: The Sly Stone Dedicated Chronological Listening Thread

Sounds like they probably spent more on the bus fares to the studio than the actual recording - if it was recorded in a studio, the vocals sound like they were recorded in a bathroom.

not sure what quality studios were available in the Sacramento/Vallejo corridor at the time, probably not a lot if any

4. The Viscaynes (or Biscaynes?) - Yellow Moon (1961)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYO307vnrH0

this feels like pretty straight doo-wop, his voice in fine form. Interesting how different all these tracks are, stylistically.

A lot of the details around these early singles - date of release, titles, names of artists, etc. - seem pretty fluid and hard to untangle.

That you're making the attempt at all is a public service, and I thank u.

I'm just making it up as I go along.

Martini says that track was released under the Viscaynes (and he gets the backing band right) but the label says "Biscaynes" and it's shown up on comps under both names so... whatever

according to discogs "biscaynes" was a misprint on this single which was reissued with the name corrected to viscaynes.

I prefer his earlier material.

I was thinking "How on earth does Sly Stone make it through this?" but then the fact that he's still alive speaks to something about his resilience. Love "Free Advice."

the discography in the back of "Sly and the Family Stone: Off the Record" seems exhaustive, also details what he did on various productions, I'm going to lean on that pretty heavily. He had a handful of singles out in 1961, the chronology of which I am not clear on, so I'm just going to go through the remainder of them this week.

5. The Viscaynes - Heavenly Angel (1961)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAtVkphZE0k

I'm a sucker for these 6/8 doo-wop ballads, and the arrangement actually sounds pretty dense - there's clearly different vocal tracks overdubbed (listen to that echo!), plus the saxophone augmenting the standard guitar-bass-drums-piano combo. I feel like this would have been in Lou Reed's 45 collection.

This is nice, and I'm glad I have an excuse to hear this stuff, but I confess I'm getting a bit anxious to get to the Family Stone.

yr gonna have to wait a couple weeks :)

Can't say I much care for the juvenilia so far.

Not a great fan of doo-wop so I'm not getting much out of any of this tbh.

I used to have a comp of pre-Family Stone stuff and I don't remember any of it being much good. I'm prepared to change my opinion though.

for my part I can't say I love any of this either, they're basically curiosities, not bad but not really absorbing either.

but these threads are about being completists, goddammit, you can't bail at the beginning!

buncha whiners imo

for real

I'm here till the bitter end!

Not going anywhere; just not finding a whole lot to say about these songs yet.

yeah this is interesting, good work Shakey

"Yellow Moon" is great. Sly!

Re. earlier discussion: other rock bands he produced were the Vejtables and the Mojo Men.

And Psyrkle aka Crazy Horse

Wow, that's an obscure one. Neither the band nor that entire record label (apparently a subsidiary of Autumn) seem to be on Discogs.

6. The Viscaynes - Stop What You Are Doing (1961)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg_LeUbz9ts

The Viscaynes second single. Around this same time, Sly put out a couple 45s under his own name (or some variation thereof), which we will get to shortly. That kinda doesn't sound like Sly singing lead to me on this one. Fine but not particularly remarkable doo-wop imo.

That kinda doesn't sound like Sly singing lead to me on this one.

You don't say? I would have thought this stuff was maybe a bit out of date in 1961?

not really, doo-wop's peak is late 50s/early 60s. Dion was killin it in 1961 for ex.

For what it's worth: there was definitely a revival around that time--probably the commercial peak, yeah--but I think most of the greatest doo-wop was the first wave in the early/mid-'50s: "In the Still of the Nite," Moonglows, Flamingos, Drifters, Nolan Strong, "Earth Angel," etc.

yeah, quality is a different argument. Commercially it was still a viable form in 1961.

Not coincidental to the commercial peak: it definitely got a lot whiter during the revival. Some of which--Dion, the Diamonds' "Little Darlin'," the Capris' "There's a Moon Out Tonight," etc.--was pretty great.

Maybe it was a west coast thing, but this record is 1963 and this was a black group.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq0I8MAz3H4

I'm sure it was still popular in the west coast Latinx community even later than that. Something like "Sad Girl" by Thee Midnighters still has that 6/8 groove going.

1963:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ_unB6ODy8

And if you guys will indulge me (sorry, I love this stuff), one more. Black group, L.A., 1962.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe1d0b4Y--I

You know, I think when it comes to someone like Zappa, this is something that's misunderstood. When the Mothers started out playing in this style, it was not actually some archaic, defunct form of music. It was current. (See also Beefheart's "I'm Glad.")

7. The Viscaynes - I Guess I'll Be (1961)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv0lkEkKUQ0

The b-side to "Stop What You Are Doing" (both tracks also credited in some places to the Viscaynes and the Ramblers).

hard to detect Sly in this mix, although I assume he had a hand in the writing/arrangement but who knows.

i really like this one !

kinda has a “dream lover” lite vibe

def a bit of the Bobby Darin version in that guitar pattern

Was just reading about how Jeff Miller, one of the students killed at Kent State, was a big Sly and the Family Stone fan and would travel to see them play. His brother wrote this letter for this year's commemoration, which is tomorrow, the 50th anniversary.

https://www.kent.edu/sites/default/files/file/russ_miller_letter_0.pdf

Still no sign of Shakey.

yeah, strange.

8. Danny (Sly) Stewart - Do You Remember aka I'm Just a Fool (non-album single, 1961)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXAyOIzOLKs
The first appearance of the ""Sly"" moniker and his initial foray as a solo artist. Continuing in the doo-wop vein of previous one-offs, he delivers a controlled and stylized lead vocal complete with vibrato and few of the idiosyncratic tics that he would develop later, although in the bridge his voice becomes more recognizable as it hits his upper register. Otherwise the song is fairly standard 6/8 ballad with a conventional instrumental and vocal backing arrangement.

That you, Shakey?

I fear it may be some time before we have an interesting song to listen to.

After listening to Questlove's podcast with the autobio writer, I listened to 'Life of Fortune & Fame', which is pretty striking and was apparently on a comp of unreleased '60s tracks that came out in the '90s called Funkmeister. Curious if One Child had heard these?

Also at the very end there's a clip of an actually unreleased '80s Sly song, just a DX7 and drum machine. It's very Prince-y, really something.

Nice clip, thanks for sharing.

BTW it’s kind of nuts that OneChild started this thread 3 1/2 years ago and finished the 208th and last entry the day before his memoir was released.

Autobio is great!

I downloaded Small Talk prompted by this thread - had never heard it - and it's absolutely blazing my Saturday, "Can't Strain My Brain" is wildly, weirdly great. Thank you Sly and Shakey.