11.21.2004

My only weapon is my pen and the frame of mind i'm in..what I bang my flesh on everyday..all relfects in what I say..I"m a songwriter..a poet..

The picture on the left that used to be me is now a picture of one of the greatest musicians, songwriters, and performers of all time..SLY (Sylvester Stewart) STONE. I found this picture and thought to myself, Sly was one of the coolest mf's on the planet and still is. Many people think he's dead but he's not. I think a movie should be made about his life it is so interesting and bizzare. He made some of the most uplifting and powerful songs in his early career. "Everyday People", "Stand", "Everybody Is a Star", "You can Make it if you try". Then after making one of the greatest albums of all time "Stand", he hit his fans with something that would blow their minds.."There's a Riot Goin' On". The album was slow with murky drum beats with Sly mumbling most of the words and a totally revamped thank you retitled "Thank You For Talking To Me Africa". Larry Graham and others have commented that nobody really knows who played on that album. There's a rumor Miles Davis is on it. Larry said that the family stone is barley on it and it's mostly Sly and anybody who stopped by his house when he recorded it. During this time Sly supposedly got heavy into drugs and got notorious for not showing up for concerts. Sly then released a series of similar style albums mostly done by himself and then was never heard from for years. He dissapeared only showing up to the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame induction where he said about two words. A couple years ago, a Sly superfan named Jonathan Dakass who ran the unofficial Sly website got a call at like 3 in the morning from Sly himself who said he dug that somebody made a website about him and invited him to come hang at his house. Mr. Dakass wrote an article on the experience for Rolling Stone a couple years ago that you can find on the Rolling Stone website. The article talks about how Sly has thousands of songs that he has recorded at his home but he's too afraid to relase them because he's afraid the public will reject them. And he never leaves his house. Whats even more bizzare then that is a few months after the article was printed, Jonathan Dakass's Sly Stone site dissapeared and nobody heard from him again. I hope one day that Sly releases the music he has been recording because he is truely one of the greatest songwriters of all time.

SLY