Review by Booklist Review
Funk pioneer Sly Stone famously retreated from public life, so his memoir is a gift to fans, a forthright telling of his extraordinary rise from musical prodigy to genre-bending superstar, followed by a decline wrought by the intense pressure of success and heavy drug use. The ascent of Sly and the Family Stone is joyous. Stone writes about the band's deliberate embodiment of integration, "White and Black together, male and female both, and women not just singing but playing instruments." After a string of unforgettable hits like "Dance to the Music" and "Everyday People," the band reaches new heights with an electrifying performance at Woodstock. In describing these heady years, Stone's language is vibrant, laced with playful rhymes and clever turns of phrase: "when a song is knocking at your head, you have to open as many doors as possible to try to let it out." He addresses the escalating drug-fueled chaos of his later life as best he can, with coauthor Greenman's expert backing, and the account of Stone's decline is painful, with arrests, unsuccessful rehabilitation, and creeping paranoia. But the book ends with 80-year-old Stone in a comfortable apartment, gold and platinum records on the wall, finally free of drugs and enjoying visits from his grandchildren. Thank You is as complicated and beautiful as Stone himself.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Not only does the great Sly Stone tell his story for the first time, but his memoir is also the first book in a new imprint directed by the multitalented, Academy Award--winning Questlove.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Funk legend Sylvester "Sly Stone" Stewart revisits the ups and downs of his life in this electric tell-all. One of the most creative and controversial musicians of the 1970s, Sly went from singing gospel in his Vallejo, Calif., church ("My mother said that I really came alive in front of a crowd. More than that: If they didn't respond I would cry") to getting married on the main stage at Madison Square Garden in 1974. With a unique groove and swooning swagger, his band--Sly and the Family Stone, formed in 1966 and disbanded in 1983--revolutionized popular music and helped shape funk, soul, and R&B with such hits as "Everyday People," "Stand!" and "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)." Though the narrative sags when Sly rehashes variety show interviews verbatim, readers will be captivated by the candid renderings of his struggles with a range of mind-altering drugs across a 50-year period and his accounts of interactions with the likes of Muhammad Ali, Doris Day, Jimi Hendrix, and George Clinton. By the end, this chronicle of how a man can go from being "High on life. High on coke. High on everything" at Woodstock through living in his car "by choice" to now, in his 80s, keeping "my ears open for songs that connect back to my music" strikes a melancholy and poignant note. It's unadulterated, unapologetic Sly. (Oct.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Stone created one of the most influential and revolutionary groups of the 1960s and '70s, Sly and the Family Stone. His story of music and fame is at the heart of this engaging memoir, coauthored with Ben Greenman, who also cowrote Questlove's Mo' Meta Blues and Brian Wilson's I Am Brian Wilson. Stone, born Sylvester Stewart in 1943 in Denton, TX, moved with his family to Vallejo, CA, in 1950. As a young adult, he became one of the most popular DJs and songwriters in the Bay Area. In 1966, he assembled a multiracial group of talented men and women musical artists to create Sly and the Family Stone. Their music incorporated funky beats, candid wisdom, and playful wordplay, all of which united masses of people and fans. This book is full of remembrances of songwriting, performances, and collaborations with other musicians such as Bobby Womack and George Clinton. The authors also offer much insight and do not shy away from stories about Stone's many years of excessive partying and drug abuse. VERDICT Stone's memoir will certainly appeal to curious readers and fans of this icon of rock and soul music.--Leah K. Huey
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
An autobiography by the recording artist who scored numerous hits with his band, Sly and the Family Stone. Sylvester Stewart (b. 1943) was born in Texas but moved to California at an early age. In this memoir, written in collaboration with Greenman and Stone's manager, Arlene Hirschkowitz, Stone writes about his upbringing in a musical family, chronicling his experiences singing in church with his parents and siblings and teaching himself to play instruments. Bored in school, he began to focus entirely on music, writing songs and working as a session player with other musicians. Stone adopted his stage name while working as a DJ at a local radio station. "I went on the air and introduced myself as Sly Stone," he writes. "I was cooking with a bunch of ingredients. It sounded right. I was already smoking marijuana. And there was a tension in the name. Sly was strategic, slick. Stone was solid." Along the way, he met various musicians who would become members of his band, which began playing gigs in 1966. At this point, too much of the text becomes a list of venues with vague comments on events the author remembers from several decades earlier. Stone offers interesting commentary on individual songs the band recorded, and his recollections of various offstage incidents offer insights into the era--especially given the band's racially mixed personnel. The author is candid about his full embrace of the rock-star lifestyle and time lost to jail or rehab. After the mid-1970s, when the hits were slower to appear and the original personnel began to fall away, the book becomes unfocused. Stone's voice isn't sufficiently compelling to compensate for the shift to largely non-musical material, too much of it finger-pointing at those he blames for his troubles. Questlove provides the foreword, and the book includes a discography. An inside look at an important band and its music, but it loses interest when the music is no longer central. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
