31 Aug
Sly and the Family Stone on Bandstand
by Bob Tate, Medford, NJ
The time was around 1967. Dick Clark’s Bandstand was the only afternoon TV show worth watching. Dick Clark would always introduce new talent on his show, but this new band really excited him. And for good reason. When I saw Sly and the Family Stone the first time, I was hooked. In a time when the music for me, a young teenager in Philly, was either Motown soul or British rock-n-roll, this band fused the two perfectly. Their dress, their showmanship, their musicality, was like nothing I had experienced. The funk was born. They performed “I Want To Take You Higher,” and that’s certainly where they took me.