Tracey Thorn at The New Statesman:
Sly and the Family Stone achieved unprecedented success in the late Sixties, with number one records, a star turn at Woodstock, a cover on Rolling Stone magazine. Sly was not just a musical genius but a progressive mastermind, insisting that the band be multi-racial and made up of both men and women. Everything about them embodied the notion of inclusivity, of reaching towards a better world in which – without wanting to sound too blandly idealistic – all people could get along together. In a song like “Everyday People”, he made the impossible sound easy.
Perhaps overwhelmed by his own success, and threatened by the demands it placed on him, from the Seventies onwards he spiralled downwards into such heavy drug usage and unreliable behaviour that his work, and the very existence of the band, was undermined. The film paints an unflinching portrait of how this happened.
More here.
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