Losing he and Sly two days apart was a gut punch of sorts (clearly more serious things to worry about in the world). Growing up in the 1960s and hearing what was coming out of the post-surfer Beach Boys and Sly and the Family Stone was such a delight. Wilson was an absolute technician and I know there are critics who thought his obsession robbed the Beach Boys' sound of its buoyancy (even his cousin Mike Love thought they should go back to singing about cars), but what he accomplished in the studio--especially during Pet Sounds--was revolutionary on so many levels.
Without Sly, one has to wonder if there would ever have been Prince. Sly slid from soul to funk to mainstream AM radio seamlessly and was also a studio wizard.
