‘Sly Lives’: Five Takeaways from Questlove’s Sly Stone Documentary
Yesterday, Hulu premiered the long-awaited Sly Stone documentary Sly Lives (aka The Burden of Black Genius. I’ve been looking forward to it, and I’ve actually been preparing for it for a few weeks. I have always loved Sly & the Family Stone’s music. But unlike most artists who I am a fan of, I really didn’t know much about their story.
So, I read Sly’s memoir, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin): A Memoir, which was published on Questlove’s book imprint in 2023 (Questlove also wrote the foreword). I followed that up with Sly & The Family Stone: An Oral History, written by Joel Selvin (who is interviewed in Sly Lives) in 1998. The book’s title is a bit misleading in that Sly didn’t speak to Selvin at all for the book; instead, we get the perspective of the other members of the band – guitarist Freddie Stone, trumpet player Cynthia Robinson, saxophone player Jerry Martini, bass player Larry Graham and drummer Greg Errico (keyboardist Rose Stone wasn’t interviewed for the book). The book also interviews other insiders and collaborators.
RELATED: Sly & The Family Stone: 15 Essential Tracks (And Who Sampled Them)
The term “musical genius” is thrown around a lot, but after reading both books,I know that the term is absolutely fitting when describing Sylvester Stewart, aka Sly Stone. Of course, Listening to the first six Sly & the Family Stone records, you’d have to realize that someone involved is a genius. In Sly Lives, many of the other artists who are interviewed, including Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Nile Rodgers and Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid, back that point up.
Sly Lives has a running time of two hours, so there’s no way it could include everything in both of the aforementioned books (although I’m curious if there will be an extended cut). Questlove’s approach was to look at the music and not to dive too deeply into a TMZ-esque deep dive into the sex and drugs and guns. He was mostly concerned with the music’s impact and exploring the concept of Black genius, using Stone as a jumping-off point. If you’re interested in learning more about the band’s music, Sly Lives is worth the two hours.
Five other points about the documentary
1: Questlove is very good at this. His last major documentary, 2021’s Summer of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised), won an Oscar and a Grammy, among many other awards.
He also recently directed the Ladies and Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music doc. In each of these films, he brings an authoritative amount of knowledge that draws from decades of being a fan. But of course, as a musician and a well-known all-around good dude, he can get interviews with people that other directors might be able to book.
2: Sly Stone didn’t do an interview for the film. I was surprised about this, given that, as I mentioned, Questlove’s publishing company put out Sly’s memoirs. But as Questlove’s co-producer Joesph Patel said at a recent screening of the film, per People, “He doesn’t have the motor function… He can’t speak in full sentences. His eyes reveal a precociousness and a lucidity that’s there, but his motor function doesn’t exist…. Ahmir’s [Questlove] first thing he said was, ‘Let’s tell this story with a lot of empathy.’ That’s not empathetic.” We do hear from Sly via archival interviews. There are also new interviews with Larry Graham, Gregg Errico, and Jerry Martini, as well as Rusty Allen, who eventually replaced Graham in the band, and an archival interview with Cynthia Robison (who is also the mother of one of Sly’s three children); Robinson died in 2015.
3: There’s a lot of deep dives into the music, but it’s not alienating to non-musicians. Larry Graham explains how he developed funk bass as we know it today (without putting too fine a point on it, he’s basically saying that he is one of the most influential bass players ever). Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis explain in detail how Sly and the Family Stone influenced Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation.” And we see how Gregg Errico’s quitting led to Sly coming up with some creative ways of using primitive drum machines. It would have been cool to hear from drummer Andy Newmark, who replaced Errico (he auditioned for Stone during an intermission at a Carly Simon concert when he was in her band).
4. Put Vernon Reid in every documentary. I can say this from personal experience: the guy is one of the best interview subjects and is great at not simply explaining things, but contextualizing them. I’ve interviewed Vernon extensively about Living Colour’s their underrated classic album Stain, and again about debut album, Vivid. As an interviewer, the man gives you all the answers you need, and far more. In fact, I would say that I wish that Questlove would focus on a Living Colour documentary next, but apparently, W. Kamau Bell is working on one.
5. Black genius is… complicated. Questlove asks most of the artists about the concept, eliciting laughs and smiles. The deepest answers come from Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest, Outkast rapper turned flute player Andre 3000 and D’Angelo. D’Angelo noted “Some people want to put you on a pedestal like you are the spokesperson for all Black people. It’s enough just navigating and coping through the change in your life that happens when you become a celebrity. Just that, in itself, is a huge paradigm shift.” Andre 3000 also discusses the addictive nature of fame. This topic could surely use its own documentary.
Sly Lives (aka The Burden of Black Genius is now streaming on Hulu.
