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By Root 296 0

Hotel for years. So there I was at the desk, wavering more than a little bit ... `Good afternoon, Mr. Kapralik!' [said the bell captain], and then, to the bellman, `Bungalow A'. Now, Bungalow A was where Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor had their first honeymoon. And it's a scene, in pink satin and gilt, everywhere, in the furniture, in the ceilings. And that's all I had on me: guilt, guilt, guilt, for all that had and hadn't happened in my life."

Why did David blame himself for what he'd perceived as an unanticipated spoiling of his plans for Sly? It was "the thought that before Sylvester's eyes I had dissembled, disintegrated, fallen apart emotionally ... and [it was] exacerbated by seeing this image, this vision, this expression of my heart-song to the world [that is, Sly] crumbling before me.

"So I tipped the bellman, was all alone in the bungalow, which had a big, big living room and a big, big bedroom. And I was sitting at this ivory and gilt desk, writing a suicide note, and taking a fistful of Nembutal.... I was in a lot of pain. And suddenly I say to myself, `I'm hungry.' So I reach for the telephone. I'd been there numerous times in the past, so I could do this with my gut overflowing with the Nembutal, beginning to take its effect. `Mr. Kapralik in Bungalow A, service for one.' Final exit time, right? Would you like to know the menu of my last supper? Nova Scotia lox, bagels, whitefish, Bella Sol Beluga caviar, with quail eggs. And then champagne, Neuf de Chandon 1952. Of course, that's every Jew's comfort food I'd just ordered. And I think it was my mother's voice I heard from beyond: `Don't forget your buttermilk!' I'd always loved buttermilk. But let me tell you, it saved my life. Because, the food came, I ate it, champagne and all, with a ritual toast for the big exit, right? And I took the glass of buttermilk and went into the bedroom to expire. Then, the buttermilk curdled in my stomach, with the lox and the whitefish and the new pickles. I ended up at the UCLA emergency ward, they're pumping my stomach, bringing me back to life, and I'm cursing the doctors and Sylvester Stewart/Sly Stone."

After David had returned to responsibility in his life, including the financial, he found himself facing a fee of five thousand bucks for clean-up of the bungalow bedroom's Persian rug. Not long after, he abandoned show biz to raise onions and flowers on the island of Maui. He left plenty of people on the mainland who were ready to share, and further, his former client's obsessions, but few who could reach David's level of fervent inspired devotion. Sly, though he'd come under the watch of Ken Roberts, continued to wear a Star of David necklace (visible in photos) in tribute to the man who helped launch his career.

The challenges of traveling alongside Sly in the coke-powered fast lane separated out those companions who wanted to help him get back on the right track from those who wanted to speed along beside him, scoring pieces of him in the process. One of his most famous partners in infamy was jazz trumpet titan Miles Davis. More than for his imprint on Stevie Wonder, Sly gained credit beyond his own work for his musical impact on Miles, particularly as evidenced on Bitches Brew, recorded in 1969 and'70 for Columbia. The album infused elements of rhythmic funk and electrified instrumentation, and was seen as heralding the jazz-rock amalgamation that came to be called "fusion," a breakthrough in the ears of many younger jazz fans and a bane in the estimation of others. In time other jazz-rock stylists adapted the hybrid textures to popular acclaim: Weather Report, Return to Forever, and Herbie Hancock, who'd dropped in at the Riot house and whose 1973 album, Headhunters, featured a track called "Sly."

Miles had earlier been curious about Jimi Hendrix's musical inventiveness and commercial success, and had heard Sly wow the crowd at the '69 Newport Jazz Festival. But he was more fully exposed to the seductive sounds of the Family Stone and to Jimi's Experience by his girlfriend and short-term wife, Betty (Mabry)