Sly & the Family Stone

Texas-born Sylvester Stewart, a former Bay Area record producer and deejay, had a vision of a psychedelic utopia. His band was a microcosm of this ideal world: men and women, blacks and whites working together, shifting roles and sharing the spotlight. He urged others to do the same in songs such as "Everyday People," "Everybody is a Star," and "I Want to Take You Higher." But his optimism was drained by the end of the sixties. By the 1970s, Stone was increasingly lost in a drug-induced haze and his albums turned to uninspired disco, until he finally withdrew from music completely.