By StephanieLee Elliott
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Sylvester Stewart (born March 15, 1943), better known by his stage name Sly Stone, is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer who is most famous for his role as frontman for Sly and the Family Stone, playing a critical role in the development of funk with his pioneering fusion of soul, rock, psychedelia and gospel in the 1960s and 1970s. AllMusic stated that “James Brown may have invented funk, but Sly Stone perfected it,” and credited him with “creating a series of euphoric yet politically charged records that proved a massive influence on artists of all musical and cultural backgrounds.” Crawdaddy! has credited him as the founder of the “progressive soul” movement.
Born in Texas and raised in the Bay Area city Vallejo in Northern California, Stone mastered several instruments at an early age and performed gospel music as a child with his siblings (and future bandmates) Freddie and Rose. In the mid-1960s, he worked as both a record producer for Autumn Records and a disc jockey for San Francisco radio station KDIA. In 1966, Stone and his brother Freddie joined their bands together to form Sly and the Family Stone, a racially integrated, mixed-gender act. The group would score hits including “Dance to the Music” (1968), “Everyday People” (1968), “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” (1969), “I Want to Take You Higher” (1969) “Family Affair” (1971) and “If You Want Me to Stay” (1973) and acclaimed albums including Stand! (1969), There’s a Riot Goin’ On (1971) and Fresh (1973).
By the mid-1970s, Stone’s drug use and erratic behavior effectively ended the group, leaving him to record several unsuccessful solo albums. He toured or collaborated with artists such as Parliament-Funkadelic, Bobby Womack, and Jesse Johnson. In 1993, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the group. He took part in a Sly and the Family Stone tribute at the 2006 Grammy Awards, his first live performance since 1987. He released the autobiography Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) in 2023.
Stone was born in Denton, Texas, on March 15, 1943, before the family’s move to Vallejo, California, in the North Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. He was the second of five children born to K.C. and Alpha Stewart, a deeply religious couple. As part of the doctrines of the Church of God in Christ (COGIC), to which the Stewart family belonged, the parents encouraged musical expression in their middle-class household. Sylvester and his brother Freddie, along with their sisters Rose and Loretta, formed “the Stewart Four” as children, performing gospel music in church. They recorded and locally released a 78 rpm single, “On the Battlefield” b/w “Walking in Jesus’ Name”, in August 1956. Only their eldest sister Loretta did not pursue a musical career; the others, including youngest sister Vaetta or “Vet”, would later adopt the surname “Stone” and pursue musical interests.
The nickname Sly was a common one for Sylvester throughout his years in grade school. Early on, a classmate misspelled his name “Slyvester,” and ever since, the nickname followed him.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
Ember Days happen four times a year at the start of each season. Traditionally observed by some Christian denominations, each set of Ember Days is three days, kept on a successive Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday.
These three days are set apart for fasting, abstinence, and prayer. The first of these four times comes in winter, after the Feast of St. Lucia, December 13; the second set comes with the First Sunday in Lent; the third set comes after Whitsunday/Pentecost Sunday; the four and last set comes after the Feast of the Holy Cross. Their dates can be remembered by this old mnemonic:
“Sant Crux, Lucia, Cineres, Charismata Dia Ut sit in angaria quarta sequens feria.”
Which means:
“Holy Cross, Lucy, Ash Wednesday, Pentecost, are when the quarter holidays follow.”
In Latin, Ember Days are known as the quattuor anni tempora (the “four seasons of the year”). Folklore has it that the weather on each of the three days foretells the weather for three successive months.
As with much folklore, this is grounded in some common sense since the beginning of the four seasons cue the changes in weather as well as a shift in how we keep harmony with the Earth and respect our stewardship of the Earth, our “garden of Eden.”“
The Ides of March has long been considered an ill-fated day. Julius Caesar was assassinated on March 15, 44 B.C. Historians note that it is likely that a soothsayer named Spurinna had warned Caesar that danger would occur by the ides of March. William Shakespeare included the phrase Beware the ides of March” in his play Julius Caesar.
The ides were the 15th days of four months (Martius, or March; Maius, or May; Quintilis, or July; and October) in the ancient Roman lunar calendar; they were the 13th in all other months (originally, Aprilis, or April; Iunius, or June; Sextilis, or August; September; November; and December. Ianuarius, or January, and Februarius, or February, were added later).
The word ides comes from the Latin word idus, which is possibly derived from an Etruscan word meaning “to divide.” The ides were originally meant to mark the full Moon (the “halfway point” of a lunar month), but because the Roman calendar months and actual lunar months were of different lengths, they quickly got out of step. The ancient Romans considered the day after the calends (first of the month), nones (ninth day before the ides, inclusive), or ides of any month as unfavorable. These were called dies atri.”
Question of the Day
Baby rabbits are called kits.
Advice of the Day
“No one wants advice—only corroboration.” —John Steinbeck
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Puzzle of the Day
Born
- Andrew Jackson (7th U.S. president) –
- John Snow (physician) –
- Liberty Hyde Bailey (botanist) –
- Marjorie Merriweather Post (businesswoman) –
- Harry James (trumpet player) –
- Norm Van Brocklin (football player) –
- Rita Joe (Mi’kmaq poet) –
- Judd Hirsch (actor) –
- Mike Love (singer) –
- Phil Lesh (rock bass guitarist) –
- Sly Stone (musician) –
- Ry Cooder (guitarist & composer) –
- Eva Longoria (actress) –
- Kevin Youkilis (baseball player) –
- Sean Biggerstaff (actor) –
- Caitlin Wachs (actress) –
Died
- Aristotle Onassis (shipping magnate) –
- Dr. Benjamin Spock (pediatrician) –
- Sylvester “Pat” Weaver (creator of NBC’s Today and Tonight shows) –
- Ron Silver (actor) –
- Eugene Parker (American astrophysicist; proposed the idea of solar wind in 1958 ) –
Events
- Sister St. Stanislas Hachard became the first Catholic nun ordained in America –
- Maine was admitted to the Union as the 23rd state –
- Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York, John McCloskey, was named the first American Cardinal by Pope Pius IX –
- The first escalator was patented by inventor Jesse W. Reno of New York City –
- Woodrow Wilson held the first presidential press conference after being in office for only 11 days –
- U.S. troops entered Mexico in futile search for revolutionary bandit Pancho Villa –
- The American Legion founded by war veterans in Paris –
- The first motion picture, My Little Chickadee, featuring both Mae West and W.C. Fields, was released –
- The King Cole Trio led by Nat King Cole had the first #1 LP on the first Billboard magazine top-selling record album chart –
- Lerner and Loewe’s play My Fair Lady started what became a 2,717-performance run in New York –
- Police in Orangeburg, SC, arrested more than 350 African Americans as sit-in demonstrations and sporadic racial violence spread throughout the South –
- Basketball star Wilt Chamberlain scored his 4,000th point of the season, averaging 50.4 points per game –
- Actress Elizabeth Taylor married Richard Burton (for the first time) on the 8th floor of the Ritz-Carlton in Montreal –
- U.S. government eased restrictions on travel to China by U.S. citizens –
- The film The Godfather premiered in New York City –
- The family drama Eight is Enough premiered –
- Martin Buser captured his second Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in the record time of 10 days, 13 hours, 2 minutes and 39 seconds –
- Highway line painting apparatus patented –
- Due to President Barack Obama’s presidential proclamation (issued on February 28, 2011), flags were flown at half staff on this day of the internment of Army Corporal Frank W. Buckles, the last surviving American veteran of World War I, and in remembrance of the generation of American veterans of World War I –
Weather
- A tornado hit McPaul, Iowa –
- Blizzard in North Dakota and Minnesota, 71 killed –
- Dr. Wallace E. Howell was hired by N.Y.C. to make rain –
- Boston broke its record for snowiest winter on record when 2.9 inches fell on this day, bringing the winter total to 108.6 inches –
COURTESY www.almanac.com
