Roger O Green

U is for Unique: Sly & the Family Stone

(The second, and final, letter for which I couldn’t find a musical family group.)

Sylvester Stewart was a record producer and DJ in the San Francisco Bay Area; I have a very early Billy Preston produced by him. He changed his name to Sly Stone, and started a band, as did his brother Freddie. The groups merged in 1967 to become Sly & the Family Stone, with sister Vaetta as one of the background singers. The band was unique, in part, because it was racially mixed at a point when that just wasn’t done. Their songs, especially by their third album, Life, was infused with themes about unity and integration.

Sly’s music was so good that it would be sampled years later. At about 40 seconds into that great Fatboy Slim video featuring Christopher Walken, I hear echoes of Sly’s Into My Own Thing [LISTEN to both]. It was clear that the psychedelic soul of Motown, especially by the Temptations producer Norman Whitfield, came from the group’s sound, notably Larry Graham’s bass playing, and the shared lead vocals; George Clinton & Parliament/Funkadelic and many others would also be influenced.

Yet, except for the title song from the second album, Dance to the Music [LISTEN] (#8 US in 1968), the band was not having much commercial success, despite the addition of sister Rose on that second album.

Things changed with the fourth album, Stand!, which made my list of Top 25 favorite albums of the decade 1961-1970 [LISTEN TO ALL]:
I Want To Take You Higher, #60 US in 1969, #38 in 1970 when it was re-released after their legendary Woodstock appearance that I loved watching on the film
Sing A Simple Song, a B-side that got to #89 on the US charts on its own
Everyday People, #1 US for four weeks in 1969
You Can Make It If You Try
and the title track, #22 US in 1969

But the album I would have rather have put on the list, had it been permitted, was their greatest hits album, which featured these songs not found on other albums:
Hot Fun In The Summertime, #2 US in 1969 (“ooo, Lawd”)
Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin), #1 US in 1970 [this is a remake]
Everybody is a Star, its B-side

Unfortunately, members of the band, and especially Sly, got caught up in heavy drug use.

The last Sly album I bought, until considerably later, was the druggy There’s A Riot Going On, with two Top 40 singles in the US, Family Affair, #1 for three weeks in 1971, and Runnin’ Away, #23 US in 1972.

The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, with George Clinton as the presenter.

The Family Stone is still playing together in 2014, alas without Sly.

ABC Wednesday – Round 14

Keats writes the blues

“The blues is truth, truth the blues.”

My near-relative Arnold – he’s my late great-aunt Charlotte’s brother, sent a bunch of us three blues songs he posted on his website:

Insomnia Blues
Cigarette Blues
Statistician’s Blues

One of the recipients was his nephew Jonny Rosen, he of the band Annie and the Hedonists; Jonny is married to Annie. Got to see them perform their “eclectic mix of acoustic blues, vintage jazz and swing, and folk roots Americana.” Check ’em out if they come to your neighborhood. Here they are performing You Don’t Know.

Arnold wrote: “Truth is in the blues and the blues will set you free. Speaking of truth through the blues. wasn’t it Keats who wrote in Ode On A Grecian Urn:
‘The blues is truth, truth the blues,’ – that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. The Mississippi Delta blues singers well understood that.” See, for example, here.

May Rambling #2: New Zealand music

I rant about the JEOPARDY! Million-Dollar Tournament.

Descendants of Solomon Northup, who recounted his story in a memoir, 12 Years A Slave.

The Real Origins of the Religious Right. “They’ll tell you it was abortion. Sorry, the historical record’s clear: It was segregation.”

Dustbury points to an article about how the ineptitude of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and its predecessors, go back nearly a century.

The Worst Argument Ever Made Against Gay Marriage.

Amy Biancolli’s book: To plunge is to live. Also, her parents in love.

Judy Sanders, a former local news reporter and photographer, is dying of ovarian cancer. Confronting the long goodbye from Paul Grondahl, and a piece by her former colleague, Ken Screven.

Diane Cameron’s blog Love in the Time of Cancer has been going on since 2008, but I just discovered it.

Getting kicked out of the prom.

New York Erratic asked: “Have you ever dated anyone who turned out to be gay?” I had a serious relationship with a woman who left me for another woman, with whom she stayed for some time. About 20 years later, she married a man, an old friend of hers.

Dan writes about The Casino And All The Promises, which is both a local issue and a cautionary narrative if casinos are offered to your town.

Lisa has been having the same blog problems I have

Mr. Frog on meeting celebrities

The Good Wife is my favorite TV show. Here’s why I love it, and why I have a difficult time explaining it to others.

Dustbury reminds me why I love word processing, and wish I had a goat.

A great interview with Mel Brooks, who’s promoting the rerelease of Blazing Saddles.

Dead Man Walking, and Burying the Bentley.

Mark Evanier’s childhood, and the color orange. Sweet story of coincidence.

New Paltz Students Find $40K in a Couch; NP is my alma mater, BTW.

Luckiest Unlucky Man or Unluckiest Lucky Man?

You’re Not Here. Abbott and Costello with the famed movie tough guy, Mike Mazurki.

How did Fred Astaire literally dance on the ceiling in the movie Royal Wedding?
.
The Oatmeal cartoon about irony. Is it ironic that the song Ironic is not about being ironic?

LYNDA BARRY SELLS OUT. I love her work.

Irene Vartanoff writes about Marvel Comics’ original artwork in the 1960s. And she would know.

Drawn Out: The 50 Best Non-Superhero Graphic Novels.

The Documentary “Stripped” shows the past and future of comic strips. I supported Kickstarter for this.

Arthur celebrates NZMM: New Zealand Music Month. Lots of good stuff, but I must note #14, “New Zealand’s First Record.”

Tosy: U2 – Ranked 80-71 and 70-61.

Another great review of the niece’s album: Rebecca Jade & the Cold Fact. (Hey, it’s good!)

Pantheon Songs remembers Marvin Gaye.

Muppet section: Joe Raposo and Roosevelt Franklin and Time In A Bottle. “Today me will live in the moment unless it’s unpleasant, in which case me will eat a cookie.” – Cookie Monster.

What IS a photocopier?

How do you spell the color: grey or gray?
***
The local Jewish Community Center had an ad campaign many found offensive. Several others thought it was poor because they couldn’t even read what it said. In any case, the ad is gone, and a couple of people suggested my blog post on the topic may have helped.

SamuraiFrog said ‘Why Not Ask Me Anything?’ and ~~blames~~credits me for him doing so. He answers my questions about music, and specifically about Billy Joel.

Likewise, Arthur’s Internet wading was my fault, or suggestion.

I rant about the JEOPARDY! Million-Dollar Tournament.

$30,193.86

I HIGHLY recommend that you get a notebook when you go to the hospital with someone – and you SHOULD have someone, if at all possible.

The bill came for the Daughter’s two-day stay at a local hospital:
Over $4,000 for the emergency room
Over $4,000 for the MRI brain scan
Over $12,000 for the MRI spine scan (which they probably didn’t finish when she balked after an HOUR)
Over $4,000 for various labs
Over $4,500 in “accommodation fees”
Plus drugs and physical therapy

The hospital actually got $4,889 from my insurance company, with over $25,000 eliminated by the “Insurance Contractual Adjustment.”

That made the total due from us $100.

THAT is why I LOATHE it when I’m without insurance.

One can argue whether it was all necessary, to eliminate what she might have had, but evidently did not. Had she suffered from Guillain-Barré syndrome, rather than the viral infection she likely had, it would have been terrible.

One more thing on this topic: the Wife and I were at the hospital all the time, but not always at the same time. I HIGHLY recommend that you get a notebook when you go to the hospital with someone – and you SHOULD have someone, if at all possible. You are likely going to see so many different people, it’ll be difficult to keep track of what each one said.

I’m always coming across people – writers, artists, musicians especially – who have no insurance. It’s usually in the context of someone who has had some illness or injury, and is now facing some catastrophic bills. This is why I’ve supported the single-payer insurance plan that never got off the ground in the bulk of the US; Obamacare is definitely a half a loaf, but, I’m hoping, better than nothing for those people going forward.

Cherry Valley and the Limestone Inn 2014

The Limestone Mansion is a happening place.

Back in October 2001, the Wife and I went to Cherry Valley, NY, about an hour west of Albany. It was, of course, a month after 9/11, and I wanted to get away. She had contended then that we could do what is now known as a staycation. As I have noted, she rather sucks at staycation; she now acknowledges this to be true.

And the Limestone Mansion in 2001 was a pretty good place to be: no TV, no Internet, just nice rooms. The owners, Wolfgang and Loretta, also made breakfast, but they had arranged some chef to do dinners, and they were, I must say, fabulous.

It was probably some desire to recreate that time that when we arranged to revisit the Limestone for Memorial Day weekend, that The Wife asked me to leave all of my devices, save for the cellphone, home. Though I found it odd, I did, and not only did I regret it, eventually so did she.

It was a trip that almost didn’t happen at all. The car, in that past week, had an irritating habit of starting only occasionally, having SOMETHING to do with the ignition doohickey. That Friday, the Wife left before 7 a.m., drove from Albany to Sharon Hill (which is near Sharon Springs) to drop off the car, get the rental, drive back to her schools near Albany, and teach. After I left work early – really tired (more on that eventually, probably) – and we packed., we went to Oneonta (pretty much the junction of I-88 and 28), eat dinner at my in-law’s house (my father-in-law’s birthday), leave the Daughter there, and finally get to Cherry Valley at 9 p.m.

This time, we were not in the mansion itself, but in the carriage house behind it. Interestingly, it had Internet connectivity – because the NYC visitors become verklempt without being in touch – but the main house still did not.

Saturday morning, we went down for breakfast in the main building. Wolfgang cooked and Loretta served the breakfast. There was a split of champagne for us to have a mimosa if we wanted. The Wife was, as she put it, a mimosa virgin, and indeed did not know what one was. I poured some of her orange juice into the flute glass, added the bubbly, and we both had a lovely addition to the meal.

Wolfie and Loretta told us great stories about moving from New York City. They’d purchased other properties. One of the two fights they ever had in their marriage was when, in 1995, he purchased the Limestone. There was over $450,000 due on the mortgage, but he bought it for a third of that. Still, it needed a lot of work, and they didn’t take their first reservation until 1997.

They are currently open only between Memorial Day weekend and mid-September. They were open later in the season, but it can snow there in mid-October, and too often travelers would cancel out because of the weather. Given that they have to go all the way to Oneonta, 45 minutes away, for supplies, that would be onerous.

No longer does the Mansion serve dinner. They had a series of chefs, some from the famed Culinary Institute, who were great cooks, but lousy businesspeople. Loretta noted that one was spending twice as much for the same eggs as she did. A few of them had a taste for the booze.

It’s a happening place. There have been baseball stars, current and retired, there for the Hall of Fame events. (Sidebar: President Obama was in Cooperstown the Thursday before, promoting tourism; ironically, his presence made it impossible for a couple from Sweden, staying at the inn, from visiting the Hall.) The location also draws the opera crowd from Glimmerglass, near Cooperstown. People from the TV show Castle, I believe the writer Andrew Marlowe, have stayed. As luck would have it, that weekend, I got to talk with a commissioner from the Public Service Commission, which was to be holding hearings about the proposed (dreadful) merger of Time Warner Cable with Comcast that following Wednesday.

More soon.