I could not possibly add anything to this astounding passage from Alexis Petridis’ recent Guardian interview with funk/soul legend Sly Stone:
“You know what? I’m looking for albino musicians,” he says. “My feeling about it is that it could neutralise all the different racial problems.” At first I think I’ve misheard him, which is remarkably easy to do. At 70, his voice is raspy and slightly slurred, perhaps the result of decades of hard living, or maybe something to do with a bizarre accident some years ago, when he apparently fell off a cliff in Beverly Hills while eating a plate of food: he declined to be treated for the injuries to his neck, a decision that has left him in constant pain unless he hunches over, his chin on his chest. Coupled with a patchy mobile phone signal and a bad transatlantic line, I occasionally lose the thread of what he’s saying entirely. But this time I’ve heard him loud and clear. “To me,” he continues, “albinos are the most legitimate minority group of all. All races have albinos. If we all realise that we’ve all got albinos in our families, it’s going to take away from the ridiculous racial tension, if you’re black or you’re white, blah blah blah. That’s why I’ve been trying to look for albino musicians and organise a group of people that are going to be right. That’s what I’ve been rehearsing for. People will see us, all of us together – a real family, an albino family. People will get happy when they see that! People,” he says firmly, “have got to be happy for that.”
The temptation to make a joke here is powerful, but however much of a head-scratcher that line of thinking is, that the man can go through what he has and still be all about the love is pretty awesome. Albinos or no albinos, I hope he overcomes his saddening Coachella debacle to make one more killer album, however unlikely that seems. Here’s some superb TV footage from his glory days, when it seemed like nothing could derail the “fuck yeah” train.
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
He Ain’t No Joke! Flavor Flav’s awesome cameo in decidely old school 1987 Eric B. and Rakim video
Moog family feud over preservation of synthesizer inventor’s legacy
Rammellzee & Jean-Michel Basquiat’s little-known 1983 underground hip-hop collaboration
The epic funk of the magnificent Bar-Kays
Dam Funk: King Of The Boogie