Sly and the Family Stone: Everyday People

SONG Everyday People

SONGWRITER Sylvester Stewart

PERFORMERS Sly and the Family Stone

APPEARS ON Stand! (1969), Greatest Hits (1970), Essential (2002)

NOTES 1. Billboard #1 from 2/15/69-3/14/69. 2. "Thank You (Falletin Me Be Mice Elf Agin)" (1969) and "There's A Riot Goin' On (1970) also reached #1. 3. "Hot Fun In The Summertime" (1969) reached #2.

1969 was a great year for Sylvester Stewart and Sly and the Family Stone. The band charted two number ones and a number two, and made a show-stopping appearance at Woodstock. The Family Stone's innovative blend of funk and R & B crossed over easily and gained wide appreciation by white and black audiences.

Writing a plea for tolerance, Sly Stone eschewed the emotional resonance of movement songs like "We Shall Overcome" in favor of a danceable confection that hit #1 on the Billboard charts for four weeks. "Everyday People," probably the first popular hit to celebrate diversity for its own sake, made multiculturalism fun.

The kaleidoscopic lyrics joyfully summon forth an assortment of lovable humanity -- a blue one, a green one, a yellow, a red one, a white one, a black one -- of sundry occupations and socioeconomic brackets. The nursery-rhyme melody and lyrics --

There is a blue one who can't accept the green one
For living with a fat one trying to be a skinny one

-- mock prejudice by illuminating its essential silliness, finally pointing out that

I am no better and neither are you
We are the same whatever we do

Moreover, Sly Stone did not merely talk the talk: When it came to diversity, he danced to the music. The integrated Family Stone featured white males on saxophone and drums and an African-American woman on trumpet and backing vocals.

It's been said that African-American popular music can be divided into two categories: pre- and post-Sly. While that's an exaggeration, there's no question about Sly Stone's importance and influence. Almost all of the music Sly made in the six years spanning 1967 to 1973 is worth listening to. Stand! and There's A Riot Going On are acknowledged classics, and Life isn't far behind. Although Stewart's drug use would eventually destroy the band, Sly and the Family Stone remain with good reason one of the most important and beloved groups of the Sixties.

LYRICS

Sometimes I'm right and I can be wrong

My own beliefs are in my song

The butcher, the banker, the drummer and then

Makes no difference what group I'm in
I am everyday people, yeah yeah

There is a blue one who can't accept the green one
For living with a fat one trying to be a skinny one
And different strokes for different folks
And so on and so on and scooby dooby doo-bee
Oh sha sha - we got to live together

I am no better and neither are you
We are the same whatever we do
You love me you hate me you know me and then
You can't figure out the bag l'm in
I am everyday people, yeah yeah

There is a long hair that doesn't like the short hair
For bein' such a rich one that will not help the poor one
And different strokes for different folks
And so on and so on and scooby dooby doo-bee
Oh sha sha-we got to live together

There is a yellow one that won't accept the black one
That won't accept the red one that won't accept the white one
And different strokes for different folks
Oh sha sha-

I am everyday people.

Bonus Video: Sly and the Family Stone's brilliant performance at Woodstock. Boo-lacka-lacka boo-lacka-lacka!