I Want to Take You Higher_ The Life and Times of Sly & the Family Stone - Jeff Kaliss [14]
Some white rockers, most famously the Beau Brummels, were in tune with their young black producer. The Precious Stone liner notes by Alec quote a couple of women who'd sung for Sly at the Coast studios, back when they were teens in Catholic school. "Here was this very flashy black man, dressed in Beatle suits and this weird pompadour," said Catherine Kerr. "He was strange! But he was always very sweet to us, always very protective. You know, `Make sure you call your mom!"' Her schoolmate Melinda Balaam added, "Sly was always smiling. I've never been around someone who was so `up' all the time." In those times, it still would have been a pretty natural high.
With other rock acts, like the Great Society and the Warlocks (antecedents of the Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead, respectively) and the Charlatans, there was friction and sometimes open hostility. "They had their own ideas, but they didn't have the chops to back them up," says Alec about such groups. "As far as [Sly] was concerned, they were amateurs, and as far as they were concerned, he was Mr. Plastic-Hey-Baby-Soul. But at the same time, a lot of rock groups benefited from Sly being in the booth, because of his enthusiasm," not to mention the erudition the producer had absorbed from his teacher David Froelich. "That's why, when you listen to some of the Beau Brummels' session tapes [rough cuts], and you hear [Sly], you know he's focusing on getting them to sing right, have a great performance," Alec points out, "even though the group already had the goods and a style."
In the case of the Great Society, Sly reportedly put the group and its lead singer, Grace Slick, through two hundred takes of "Somebody to Love" and attempted to position himself on lead guitar. Grace ended up taking the song on to another group-the Jefferson Airplane-and to legendary rock status a few years later. The Beau Brummels, though, stayed with Autumn and scored the label's next (and last) national big hits, "Just a Little" and "Laugh, Laugh," both produced by Sly, with a deceptive sound evocative of the Beatles even though the Brummels were strictly Bay Area.
Sly's Autumn output was, in Alec's opinion, "more vanilla than you'd expect." It's revealing to listen to the Brummels' delivery of Sly's "Underdog" from their debut disc. It's reminiscent of the Rolling Stones' "Get Off of My Cloud" and far more upbeat than the Family Stone's version of the tune several years later. Like the racial makeup of the stellar band he'd later form, Sly created music in different colors, favoring elements from the white side of rock when it pleased him (and clients like the Brummels), but equally ready to deploy R & B (as he did on the Family's "Underdog"), and to meld the two influences with jaunty syncopation, at odds with standard R & B rhythmic patterns. Sly's youthful and multifaceted talent is also in evidence on his own recorded performances for Autumn. His "Scat Swim," one of several follow-ups to Bobby Freeman's big hit, didn't go very far, but it revealed a jazzy, scatting style of the vocalist perhaps unfamiliar to later fans and probably encouraged by David Froelich. Within the tracks of Alec's Autumn compilation, you can sense Sly seasoning his chops for what would be the Family Stone, and in the process helping prepare a couple of the future band members (his brother and sister) and an important collaborator (Billy Preston) for their work on major labels.
Some of Sly's early efforts show he was listening closely to, and borrowing some from, established rockers. His Autumn single "Buttermilk," says Alec, "was just a rip-off of the Stones' `2120 South Michigan Avenue' . . . and he'd quote `Satisfaction' in other songs." His gifts as songwriter and arranger and as a tasteful blender of influences would blossom with the Family Stone, and he'd