Sly Lives! (aka the Burden of Black Genius)

This fascinating look into the musical career of Sly Stone. The genius gets overused, but it should be applied to Stone, a DJ, arranger, producer, songwriter, and performer. His Family Stone is one of the few projects that was wildly inventive and insanely catchy. And the reification of a specific social ideal of unity that transcended pablum. Yet, the pressure of success, the increasing availability of drugs, and the special burden placed on Black artists (too successful - you're not legit, not successful enough - you out) led to Sly becoming a parody of himself. While the film doesn't shy away from the downside, there is more disturbing material that could have been included. Those stories have been told, and it is time to focus on a particular moment in music history that was defined by Sly.

A current documentary airing on Hulu from Oscar winner Questlove. Following the rise & eventual fall of Sylvester Stewart (Sly) & his band, we get a hallucinatory ascent of a mixed raced band who wowed audiences at Woodstock w/their mixture of rock & R & B which carried over to their many appearances on television at the time. Of course, one's demons reared its ugly head for Sly as his upward success came hand in hand w/his increasing drug use which by the time the late 70's rolled around the band were soon relegated to the past their prime heap but w/Questlove's expertise w/archival footage & interviews as well as modern takes on the band's output & influence from current songsmiths (Andre 3000 from Outkast, D'Angelo, Q-tip from A Tribe Called Quest) who put Sly & the Family Stone's music into righteous perspective.

This is fine and will do the job as placeholder. It's in the standard format of blending clips, stills, archive footage, with contamporaries being interviewed, to take us through a famous life, the ups and downs and perhaps lessons involved.

Here it's Sly Stone, who oould have been a Prince of sorts. Theatric, multifaceted, but it was the civil rights years, and his creative life mirrors that trajectory; ebullient hope to transcend boundaries, to bitterly dashed dreams.

One lesson, and it's generally offered, is that there was no scaffold, blueprint, on which to know what to do build next, how to play the role of superstar. He, along with everybody else, had to make it up as they went along. Another talking point here is 'black' genius, the particular tolls of it in a world where boundaries are drawn starkly against you.

There may be parallels with someone like Brian Wilson; 'genius' in being able to perceive music as visual world, as shared streets you explore, but limited in the means, work, and focused commitment required to consistently bring it to life.

At least his Riot album is as important as anything from the time, a dissonant extended improvisation on previous fabric of soul music, and that as mirroring a dissonant collapsing America. It's probably a cornerstone for all black music that followed.

My own takeaway is of a man who in terms of vision was second to none of the greats of the era; adept at improvising self, savvy enough to be able to see the larger fabric.

But there's no real stage for him to move to, fails to transcend, and probably had plenty of reasons against him. The drugs were probably ways to dissociate, make believe he was what he couldn't summon. So he periodically returns as caricature of himself, clowning it for the camera, unsure how to be the next version of himself.

Meanwhile, just as he was cratering, Bronx and Harlem youths were rediscovering him in record stores, and were about to speak once more about what he used to; the world of stark limits, and yet somehow joyful dance, ironically cruising through cracks. Interestingly, the new music, hip hop, would eschew the whole band format, and pare it down to narrator and rousing, sometimes soulful breaks that suggest world.

As "Sly Lives! (aka the Burden of Black Genius)" (2025 release; 112 min) opens, talking heads are gushing about how revolutionary Sly & the Family Stone was (multi-racial! Multi-gendered! Irresistible music!). The film's director then asks prominent Black artists what they think about the burden of Black genius. We then go to "San Francisco 1964", where Sly is a well-known and beloved DJ. At this point we are 10 minutes into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this is the second documentary from musician Questlove, whose first documentary "Summer pf Love" won the Oscar for best documentary. Here the Roots drummer assesses the life and times of Sly Stone, who in the late 60s shot out of nowhere like a comet to the very top of the music world and stayed there for a couple of years, only then to fade away rather quickly. (Sly & the Family Stone also feature prominently in the "Summer of Soul" documentary.) One of THE highlights for me was to see how the song "Everyday People" evolved from a slow and quiet song in its early stages to the exuberant iconic singalong as we all know it now. The film features tons of obscure footage, as well as plenty of comments from various talking heads (including Sly's 3 children and several of his ex-es). For a couple of years, Sly & the Family Stone ruled the airwaves and the concert scene. As the movie makes clear, with Sly & the Family Stone, there likely would not be Prince & the Revolution. And without "Thank You", there would be no Janet Jackson's "Rhythm Nation". And that's just 2 examples how influential Sly has been. If you have seen "Summer of Soul", one of the finest music documentaries I have ever seen, beware that "Sly Lives!" is quite good, but not the truly gold standard that was/is "Summer of Soul".

"Sly Lives! (aka the Burden of Black Genius) premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival to immediate acclaim. It started streaming on Hulu just last week, and I watched it the other night. This is currently rated 80% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, a tad too generous in my book. All that aside, if you are a fan of Sly Stone, or liked "Summer of Soul", I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusions.

Sly Stone is an infinitely fascinating character and musician. His music will be around forever.

Qwestlove's obsession with Sly being a black genius is grating and he's projecting too much of his own outlooks instead of trying to find out and express just what Sly Stone's outlook was/is.

Most of the musicians interviewed in the doc, do not hold a candle to Sly's talent or achievements, so their opinions don't hold much weight.

The only interviews that were interesting were his band mates. And how could they not a find any of his contemporaries? How could they basically ignored his discography after Fresh? Or the quirky side projects he did.

This documentary had too much of a personal agenda that wasn't about Sly Stone. Still, the man was just that interesting that he shines through despite the negative issues.