Last night we watched Questo's new documentary, Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) on Hulu. It is undeniably worth watching if you have access to it.
I was actually acquainted with much of the early biographical information from A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs's two-parter on Everyday People. And I was at least vaguely aware of his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame appearance—I remember reading an article at some point in the early-to-mid '90s (when I still subscribed to Rolling Stone) that was describing him having to wear a back brace and other mildly harrowing things.
But to see his whole arc, from childhood through today, laid out in one place is pretty wrenching—especially combined with Questlove's conversations with a number of other well-known black musicians of many ages about what it even means and what it implies.
It's also sad to see some of it documented on video. Several chunks are taken from an interview from what I would guess was the early 80s—though I honestly don't know; he was taking so many drugs (at least according to George Clinton) and in so much legal trouble at the time, it's hard to square with him doing what seemed like a pretty vulnerable interview. Anyway, there's several points in the interview that really seemed to bring him some pain—a question would be asked and you can just see him freeze for a second as if he's tamping down the truth to try and come up with something "acceptable" to say.
It got me thinking about a recent topic of interest: self-actualization. This was largely provoked by Philosophy Tube's "Was Nietzsche Woke?" video:
One of Abby's comments is that Nietzsche's "Will to Power" could also be thought of as the "Will to Agency"—the wherewithal to assert your ability to do what you really want.
Perhaps it's just because it's the lens through which I've been viewing a lot of things lately, but I found myself wondering if the burden so many of us carry is that we know what we truly need to do, but despite everything, we don't do it out of fear of what others will think—and how freeing it would be to walk away from those expectations.
Sly Stone, like so many of us, seems to have failed to dispense with those expectations, and it led him down a road to try and drown out his discomfort.