A Toast to Alternative Black Musicians: Together

This week, we continue our Black History Month tribute in the 1960s with a rallying call for harmony and love in the face of disparity. Here is "Everyday People" by Sly and the Family Stone."


Sly and the Family Stone, formed in 1966, was a representation of the socially conscious counterculture movement. The band consisted of both black and white, men and women, all working together to share their message using a driving union of rock and soul. In this, they practically became an embodiment of the change-seeking youth and became a voice for their beliefs.

The band's album Stand (1969) came at a vital time, at an hour of turbulence in America. This was an era of racial struggles, violence, voices unheard, and pushes for equality that seemed at times to go nowhere despite laws passed years before (how times never change, I must say...). Amidst this, Stand delivered an array of messages, all important and timely, from comfort in times of trial to calls to action to pleadings to work together. In a nation moving towards rigid division, the album "was an exhortation for American society to change direction," as Eddie Santiago wrote for the National Registry. 

Although I originally intended to write on the album's titular trales I switched my focus to "Everyday People" (a mid-tempo, less funk-driven track released as a single a year before), as I strongly feel the message is something so important to share, especially today with the whirlwind of chaos and perplexity that engulfs our world. This song calls for unity and tolerance within our diversity and urges us to look past barriers in order to realize that, as humans, we are all cut from the same cloth. 

As always, and especially today as a belated Valentine's Day (or Friendship Day, Ystävänpäivä, in Finland) wish, I send my love to all my readers and friends and encourage everyone to show compassion to one another. As Sly Stone says, "We got to live together."



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