I’m Just Like You: Sly’s Stone Flower 1969-1970

Outside of a few long-deleted single releases, these songs took decades after they were recorded in 1969-70 to be heard. In hindsight, I’m Just Like You lays out a considerable amount of pop music’s future. Sly Stone wrote and produced these songs, with vocals on some performed by collaborators. For Sly, this was a dry run for There’s a Riot Goin’ On in 1971. “Just Like a Baby” and “Africa Talks to You” appear in embryonic form, stripped to the bone and leaving just a rattling and ghostly drum machine and minimal instrumentation backing Sly’s voice. The Maestro Rhythm King MRK 2 was one of the earliest electronic percussion instruments, and it is all over these songs, anticipating the complete and permanent mechanization of pop music. Another idea that would fully bloom later was the Joe Hicks-sung “Life & Death in G & A (Pts. 1 & 2),” which found immortality as an absolute masterpiece of psychedelic soul on the 1974 Skin I’m In album by R&B greats Chairmen of the Board.