of creating a world where blacks and whites, and men and women, could live together as one ecstatic nation under a groove.

Writing in ROLLING STONE when "Greatest Hits" was released, John Landau pointed out that Sly's "style is so infinite and revolves around so many crucial aspects that it has only come together perfectly on a handful of his singles. The best of it is all present and accounted for on his "Greatest Hits album."

At their best and brightest - "Stand!," "I Want to Take You Higher," "Dance to the Music," "Life" - Sly's songs express the same democratic impulses his racially and sexually integrated band conveyed with its very presence. "Everyday People: and "Everybody Is a Star" make the same telling point from two different perspectives: each person is distinct and shares the quality equally with everyone else. His playful sense of individual identity and generous "diff'rent strokes" philosophy are eloquently stated in the polite wackiness of "Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin." "Fun" and "Hot Fun in the Summertime" seems to be the rewards Sly held out for those who allowed others the freedom they wanted for themselves.

In "Mystery Train," Greil Marcus says of Sly, "If the essence