Precious Stone: In the Studio with Sly Stone 1963-1965

Performer: Various Artists/Sly & the Family Stone
Artist: Billy Preston
Producer: Alec Palao (Compilation)
Distributor: E1 Distribution (USA)

Notes: Personnel includes: Sly Stone, Freddie Stone, Rose Stone. PRECIOUS STONE's 28 tracks include demos, finished songs, alternate takes and a radio jingle recorded between 1963 and 1965. Liner Note Author: Alec Palao. Before forming the Family Stone, Sylvester Stewart (aka Sly Stone) paid his dues as a radio DJ and producer for the West Coast indie label Autumn Records, where he oversaw hits by artists including Bobby Freeman, and the Beau Brummels (along with flops by the Great Society, featuring a young Grace Slick). PRECIOUS STONE collects a nice cross section of Stewart's mostly previously unreleased productions, both for himself and other artists. The album makes for an interesting snapshot of an early '60s pop moment, running the gamut as it does from derivative R&B and pop-rock, to folk-rock, to a flat out rip-off ("Buttermilk Pt. 1") of the Rolling Stones' album track "2120 South Michigan Avenue." There's also an embryonic version of Sly Stone's later '60s innovations in "Can't You Tell I Love Her," a mutated gospel number done as a duet with Billy Preston.

Q (12/94, p.170) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...one can follow his development from raucous R&B dance crazes through British-influenced beat pop to some pretty innovative stuff even then...the innocence is irresistible, the sheer energy uplifting..."

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