I love Questlove’s mission. The amazing musician is also at this point a brilliant moviemaker, intent on showing us parts of music history he thinks are important. After showcasing the Summer of Soul, Questlove pivots the story from an event to an artist. Sly Lives! is Questlove’s jaunt to elevate Sly Stone from a washed up has been to one of the true geniuses of his time, reframing him in our minds accordingly.
Questlove meticulously takes us piece by piece through Sly Stone’s life. From his early days as Sylvester Stewart winning high school band competitions, becoming his true self as a West Coast DJ, supernovaing across the late 60’s/early 70’s, then his long, precipitous fall from the top. Interspersed like in Summer of Soul are people influenced by/worked with Sly: Andre 3000, D’Angelo, Nile Rodgers, Ruth Copeland, Grace Slick, Clive Davis (Sly’s producer), etc.
The Black Genius framing of Sly Stone by Questlove works most effectively during those amazing ascension years. Unlike many bands that take time to get ahead, Sly was ordained early and often, with everyone in the doc including most of the Family Stone eager to talk about his incredible ear for great music. Questlove’s best addition is how Sly transcended one genre of music: he never fit easily into one box, and happily worked across all types of genres (R&B, pyschedelic, pop, funk, etc). Any minor “failure” was because of promotion, not because of his music, which he quickly would pivot upon and deliver hits like Dance to the Music and never looked back. Every one of his peers talks reverentially about those years, and how the long hours never felt as long because everyone knew they were working around someone special.
Where the doc struggles is dealing with Sly’s descent. For a genius of a musician, this drop is, frankly, pretty traditional and cliche, fueled by drugs and untethering from reality. The doc smartly uses these moments as backdrop for the “Black Genius” concept Questlove wants to explore, as each artist comes on and talks about the pressure of race representation and the lack of opportunity to be imperfect and even simply musically evolve. The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, hell even Maroon 5 got chances to try new stuff musically, but when Sly did, the records didn’t sell, and newcomers like Stevie Wonder and Prince just usurped his spot, relegating him to irrelevance. Questlove makes a great case we got robbed of an interesting decade of genius work from Sly because of the combination of societal and personal factors that got in his way, but as a story, it’s not the most riveting dynamic experience.
But you did win me over Questlove! I always loved Everyday People and Dance to the Music, but even I have a greater appreciation about how talented a musician Sly Stone really was. I can’t wait to go down a rabbit hole of his music for a little bit, and more importantly, I REALLY cannot wait to see what part of music history Questlove wants to jaunt to next.