3. Sly & The Family StoneThere’s A Riot Goin’ On
The beginning for me of my love of funk. And the key thing for me was the lyrics – they’re so dark, but so direct. “Looking at the devil grinning at his gun / Fingers start shakin’, I begin to run” – these were lyrics that hit you right between the eyes. Larry Graham is credited with creating that bass sound that later on Jaco Pastorius would perfect to a tee, and Marcus Miller later as well – that was hugely important to me as a bass player. For me it seemed Sly was trying to do the same thing as Jimi, and when you saw footage of them live they were just astonishing.
Selected in other Baker’s Dozens: Baxter Dury
