It's easy to see now that Sly and the Family Stone was one of the most important groups of all time. In some ways, in fact, they might be at the top of the list. Their attitude was to synthesize all the disparate elements that had come before them, not only the musical ones, but also in terms of race, gender and outlook, and to provide a model of what an intelligent, inclusive, fun-loving society might look like in the future. It could be argued that philosophically speaking, no one tops them. It could also be argued that very little of today's pop music, rock and roll or r&b hasn't been influenced by them. The song that exemplifies all of this best is probably "Everyday People", from Stand!, their masterpiece from 1969 (link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hcgoLojOVo). Tomorrow, another of their great succession of singles, but one of a considerably different tone.