GIVING IT UP FOR THE GREATS #1

Buck in Fudgy's Page of Fame: Sylvester Stewart a.k.a. Sly Stone 1944 - ?

For some of the most funked up sounds of the 1960s and 1970s. For one of the most beautifully wasted songs of all time, 'If you want me to stay'. For taking us higher. For not following the slick, souled out path of those who followed (Vandross, Jackson, Pendergrass - you know who you are). As Sly said himself, 'Dying young is hard to take but selling out is harder'. For teeth the size of igloo bricks and hair so huge that he was able to clean out his private jet just by walking down its aisle. For the visionary first ever recording of a drum machine. For possessing a voice like a totally spaced / class 'A' hyped Cheshire Cat receiving copious sexual gratification whilst dripping with honey AND making it sound cool. For gathering together the funkiest multi-racial male/female septet the world had ever heard. For influencing Miles. For making Woodstock's mud caked, brown acid hairies shake their rumps, whilst shamelessly dressed in a white, sequined jump suit. For reaching the pinnacle of his popularity and then disappearing into a coke-fried silence, emerging one year later with the peerlessly dark funk paranoia of 'There's a Riot Going On'. For taking black music onto another level. For getting married on stage at Madison Square Gardens. For growing old disgracefully: the repeated prison sentences, the welfare checks, the house in the projects. And finally, for the demented belief that now, aged 57, he has created a revolutionary new music that will change the course of the planet. Sylvester Stewart, may the funk be always with you.