Album: Stand!
Year: 1968
. . .
One thing that the multi-instrumentalist, flash-dressing, master-songwriter, conceptualist-bandleader Sly Stone was not: everyday people. Not only was he about to have one of the greatest — and weirdest — two-album runs in music history, flanked by three #1 singles (and a #2), when he got married, it was at Madison Square Garden in front of 21,000 people. Of course, that was six years later, by which time the illusion of his everydayness was long shattered.
But not in 1968. As the tumultuous 1968 — look it up — crashed into 1969, “Everyday People” probably felt like an optimistic up in the same way that watching Apollo 8 circle the Moon did. That’s a guess, of course, because I was six, and don’t have any specific memories of “Everyday People” like I do of Apollo 8, though on the other hand, it’s not like I remember a time before this song was on the radio, either.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #2254: Sly & The Family Stone – “Everyday People”