One of the shows I absolutely love is TVOne’s “Unsung” show, and now that they’re back, I stayed up kind of late last night watching the show about Sly and the Family Stone that we’d DVR’d.
Find only a couple of videos from their YouTube channel and the link below to hopefully more that they’ll upload.
But the Sly and the Family Stone one almost made me want to cry, especially when they showed Sly singing “One child grows up to be somebody who just loves to learn. Another child grows up to be somebody you’d just love to burn…” from the Family Affair
They said that was either the saddest song you’d ever heard or a happy one, depending on how you look at it. But now, looking at this song from my 43-year-old perspective and actually listening to his lyrics, it is kind of sad.
I always interpreted “It’s a family affair” to mean like a family reunion or picnic was going on, but now I see it’s so much deeper.
I like the way Sly’s ex-wife sad you had to live the lyrics like that — you couldn’t just come up with them off the top of your head. They had to come from inside you.
Watch video: Music mogul Clive Davis talks Sly & The Family Stone
And that drama with Sly’s ex-wife (a Hawaiian model whom he married and had a son with) and the tragic attack from Sly’s dog on his son. Thank God his son looks great and healed now. The dog had Sly’s son’s head in his mouth and was wagging it back and forth like a rag doll, his mom said — and after that attack is when she knew she needed to leave that environment.
Meanwhile, Sly said — through the mumbling that I could hear — subtitles, please! — that he looked to see if the dog would apologize through sulking behavior and whining, but instead, he said the dog growled, so he took him out right there with a shotgun blast to the chest.
I don’t blame him.
His kids look great. And there was the drama with his ex-wife finding out Sly had fathered a child with a woman in his band who said that Sly was her man, astutely saying that she may not have been his woman, but that’s her man! Drama, drama, drama…
I’m glad they were able to show Sly singing at his daughter’s birthday party — and the lawsuit going on and stuff — but he looks much older than a 70-year-old or whatever, and when some spoke of drug abuse and hoping he’d be better, they didn’t talk about how many years sober he was. I hope he’s okay.
What a talent.
Angela Bofill is next on TV One’s Unsung show…
…and boy, I should tell my sister about that one because we LOVED her and thought she was so pretty and talented when we were growing up listening to “This time I’ll be sweeter…our love will run deeper…I won’t mess around…I won’t let you down…Have faith in me…have faith in me…”
Wow, I still remember those lyrics off the top of my soul!
Watch video: Don’t underestimate the power of teen-age love. Angela’s biggest hit was written at the age of 17 about her first real love.
Find more TV One videos here on their YouTube channel, and check the TVOne website.