Well, I attended Sly Stone's first announced concert appearance in 25 years, a benefit show at a park in San Jose. I'm not a huge fan, but do have a few of his CD's. The good news: he showed up! The band came on two hours later than scheduled, but it was a festival, and the band preceding Sly were themselves about an hour late (AWB -- great band, kind of boring songs). I don't think it helped matters that in the break between, they showed footage of Sly in his prime. Then, they started a countdown clock on the video screen. No pressure there, right?
If Sly was responsible for the delay (maybe an extra half hour, because it usually takes at least a half hour to switch bands), I think it may have had to do with not wanting to appear in daylight. He must be very self-concious of his appearance, which now includes being bent over from some kind of back problem (a dowager's hump is what it appears to be). He came out wearing a heavy sweatshirt and a baseball cap, which he never took off. He came in after the band had done a few songs already. Sly sang "If You Want Me To Stay" and "I Want To Take You Higher." He then departed. As the band jammed out on the ending of higher, he came out to tell the crowd the only reason the show was ending was because the police asked them to. Which was credible, because the show was supposed to be over by 8:00, and it was then 9:00 and dark out in a public park setting. Sly has this weird energy about him in spite of his non-confident appearance. He sang pretty well, and improvised on the keyboard a bit. It's a good step, at least. Although I wonder how fans in Europe will feel if he continues to appear so briefly in the shows, since they're buying tickets to see him, presumably. I don't know about his future in live performing, but maybe the fact he's singing okay and playing keyboards on stage might be a sign that there might be something in his studio work. It remains to be seen.
Here are clips on YouTube of Sly's two songs:
If You Want Me To Stay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FKJ3nHxJuII Want To Take You Higher
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvz-9Z4olV0
Author
