Insane Musk E-mail Sets Off Furor

Plus: When Sly Stone produced hits for white groups, and the usual dozen hot cartoons.

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The new “Sly Stone Lives” doc on Hulu reminded me of something I’d long 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).

The Beau Brummels had two smashes with “Laugh Laugh” in 1964 and then “Just a Little,” both of which I loved at the time. I probably thought, like most others, that they were Brits in the post-Beatles invasion. Then Sly lost interest and they faded. He then produced the original and fine version of “Somebody to Love” for the rather inept The Great Society, written by Grace Slick’s brother-in-law Darby Slick, which bombed—but then Gracie quit and joined the Airplane who turned it into a hit, launching their career. Sly by then had formed the Family Stone.

Here are the two Beau Brummels:

…..and the Great Society “Somebody to Love.”

You have probably by now read the news, oh boy, set off by this:

Musk indeed did get his DOGE boys to send an email to most employees—we might call it “The Sent of Musk”—though clearly illegal, and imagine finding someone to read 2.4 million responses every week. Note: In the first evidence of Musk backlash, the heads of many large federal agencies—including Patel at FBI—have ordered staffers to ignore the emails for now. Anyway, we like this reply from the head of AFGE, the largest union of gov’t workers:

“It is cruel and disrespectful,” he said, “to hundreds of thousands of veterans who are wearing their second uniform in the civil service to be forced to justify their job duties to this out-of-touch, privileged, un-elected billionaire who has never performed one single hour of honest public service in his life.”

And love this new Goris cartoon illustrating the growing spirit of Resistance.

Musk We Go On This Way?

Steve Brodner: