Forget Reachin’ Me by Phone

So Sly Stone died. I had no idea he was 82 years old. He always had a child-like face and demeanor. I’m surprised he lasted as long as he did. Drugs are bad, m’kay?

If You Want Me To Stay was my favorite song of his. I think it might have been his favorite, too. He seemed to perform it at the drop of an enormous, sequinned hat. There are many versions of it on these here intertunnels.

Lots of people have tried to be like him. Prince is (was) a wan example. Wasn’t his fault. Sly was sui generis. I don’t think it was an act. He was what he was. That’s rare in this world. He seemed friendly to everyone. I remember being home sick from school, propped up in bed and watching a little TV at the end of my bed. There’s Sly hanging with Mike Douglas, perhaps the squarest person extant at the time, and they’re thick as thieves. Sly changed from his On the Corner Suit into a Reynold’s Wrap ensemble, and got Richard Pryor, the other guest, to play drums along with him.

Sly was friendly with Terry Melcher, the record producer, for instance. So they were hanging out at Melcher’s house with Charles Manson one time. Later they went over to Melcher’s mom’s house. Melcher’s mom was Doris Day. So Sly sat at the piano with Doris and sang Que Sera, Sera together. Man, the sun shines on fewer people than Sly Stone did.

He seemed completely unable, or perhaps more accurately, unwilling to live in any sort of grown-up world. He was famously unable to show up for much of anything. I have a very white-bread musical friend who went to see Sly and the Family Stone at the Cape Cod Coliseum back in the day. He struck me as the last person on earth who would want to see a funk show, but Sly was universal. He said Sly showed up hours late, and the crowd resembled a lynch mob after a while. Then Sly came out and had them eating out of his hand in half a song, and demonstrated why people called him The Riotmaster. When a Jimmy Buffet fan like him tells you Sly Stone was the best show he ever saw, take it to the bank.

Being airy fairy was part and parcel of Stone’s lifestyle. I read once that Sly once lived in a gigantic Beverly Hillbillies type mansion, but couldn’t keep the lights on or the water running. Then again, there’s a reason why toddlers are more fun than tax collectors.

Somehow or another, he was a philosopher king anyway:

If you want me to stay
I’ll be around today
to be available for you to see.
But I am about to go
and then you’ll know
for me to stay here I got to be me.

You’ll never be in doubt
that’s what it’s all about
you can’t take me for granted and smile.
Count the days I’m gone
forget reachin’ me by phone
because I promise I’ll be gone for a while.