Greg Mitchell is the author of more than a dozen books and now writer/director of three award-winning films aired via PBS, including “Atomic Cover-up” and “Memorial Day Massacre.” Now watch trailer for acclaimed 2025 film “The Atomic Bowl” coming to PBS in July. Before all that, he was a longtime editor of the legendary Crawdaddy. You can still subscribe to this newsletter for FREE. Sustain this newsletter by ordering one of his books.
With the Trump-fueled crisis in L.A. still hot, see many cartoons below, and an especially strong Colbert monologue last night:
Then there’s this fake but credible headline from topical comedian Andy Borowitz:
Trump’s Military Parade Canceled After Hegseth Accidentally Invites Houthi Rebels
And from The NY Times:
James Woods, the actor who has become known for spreading conspiracy theories, used his account on X to rail against the state’s elected officials, especially Mr. Newsom, a Democrat. He also reposted a fabricated quote, attributed to former President Barack Obama, discussing a secret plot to impose socialism on the country, as well as a video of burning police cars that was from 2020.
Now, on to the passing of funkmeister Sylvester “Sly” Stone, who did it all and then threw most of that all away. Here’s one of my faves, “Everyday People,” and live on TV with none of today’s embellishments, back when everybody must get Stoned:
The first issue of Crawdaddy in spring of 1971 (after I revived it) featured a fantastic if scary interview with Sly by my friend and colleague Peter Knobler which was most prescient about how the ultra drug use would soon wreck his career (it’s featured in our collection of Craw pieces “Very Seventies” and not online). But here is an excerpt from a piece from nearly three years earlier also from Crawdaddy with an early response to Sly as he approached his peak, by David Henderson (this medley clip captures the 1969 excitement) :
Sly plays a Beulah Baptist organ. His white Gabriel cape gleams like the full moon. He riffs Egyptian chromatics with the ease of a jacklegged preacher. You begin to think he can heal people right onstage. He throws fire and he holds it back—all under control—behind the urban Baptist beat. He rides along solidly. Larry on the bottom with the bass interplays with Sly’s organ.
In Sly’s tunes I hear James P. Johnson, Jelly Roll Morton, and some James Cleveland too. Rural black lands and the southern crossings of freight trains, the transcended peoples of Africa tuning their symphony banjos of Euro-America to the pitch of their voice, their rap. Voices like instruments, instruments like voices.
The seven members of Sly and the Family Stone fill the stage. Their movements cinemascope human harmonics in dance and jig. The three brothers pony and hucklebuck in popeye-leg motions, shake down and ball the jack. Sly, Freddy, and Larry get into some fantastic harmony and rhythm things with their voices. Like for instance their boom-boom vocal harmonics which made “Dance to the Music” an instantly recognizable hit.
The passing of “Sly” also reminded me of something I’d forgotten: He got his start in the record biz by producing hits by San Francisco groups The Beau Brummels and The Great Society (with Grace Slick), including the original version of “Somebody to Love.” Sly then formed the Family Stone.
Here are the two terrific Beau Brummels hits:
From Tunes to Toons
And Steve Brodner looking ahead to this Saturday’s nationwide protests:
I was lucky to be at Sly's wedding in June 1974. It was a casual, simple
affair - at MSG in NYC - just me and 20,000 other fans!
If this had been the only concert I’d ever attended in my entire life, I would have been a happy man. God bless, thank you and rest in peace.
Thanks for the music memories. I was just a kid but music was always playing in the house. Cartoonists are nailing it.