Rob Sheffield, writing for Rolling Stone, on Sly Stone:

Nobody ever sounded like this man. Sly could write inspirational songs of unity, anthems like “I Want to Take You Higher” that would turn a live crowd into a euphoric tribe, or uplifting hits like “Stand!” or “Everybody Is a Star” that can catch you in a lonely moment and make you feel like the rest of your life is a chance to live up to the song’s challenge.

And:

“The concept behind Sly and the Stone,” he told Rolling Stone in 1970, “I wanted to be able for everyone to get a chance to sweat. By that I mean … if there was anything to be happy about, then everybody’d be happy about it. If there was a lot of money to be made, for anyone to make a lot of money. If there were a lot of songs to sing, then everybody got to sing. That’s the way it is now. Then, if we have something to suffer or a cross to bear — we bear it together.”

Sly and the Family Stone was a staple in our homes. Almost any track would spark adults and children alike to leap from our seats and shimmy around the living room: “Hot Fun in the Summertime,” “Everyday People,” “Dance to the Music”…. I was too young to understand the meaning behind the music, of course—they were just all high energy bops.

(So embedded in my brain is his music, that the phrase “it’s a family affair…” is only ever voiced in the style of the chorus.)

I was also quite unaware of his drug use and reclusiveness—he was just the funky frontman for the songs of my youth.

Joe Coscarelli’s New York Times obituary ends:

Asked in the final pages of his autobiography if there was one thing that people could take from his life, Mr. Stone replied, “Music, just music.”

Thank you for the music, Sly.