The Life and Influence of Musical Innovator Larry Graham

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Larry Graham is a true musical innovator. Graham’s influence on contemporary music is profound, as a member of Sly & the Family Stone, later as founder of Graham Central Station, and a featured musician on a number of influential recordings. Graham is credited as being the inventor of slap bass. This technique has become a basic playing style for most bass players1. Graham’s innovative style of playing is what made Sly & the Family Stone one of the most influential and highly regarded funk bands. Graham’s influence crosses genres and generations. Many highly regarded bass players like Flea, Victor Wooten, Bootsy Collins, Geddy Lee, Marcus Miller and Stanley Clarke cite Graham as a key influence on their playing. Graham’s significance in music history cannot be understated considering the widespread influence he had on a multitude of musical genres from funk to hip hop and rock to pop.This paper seeks to trace Graham’s influence on contemporary music, through analysis of the slap style of bass and its eventual widespread adoption amongst contemporary bass players.

San Francisco in the sixties and seventies was the cradle of hippy culture. From hippy culture came a number of influential and innovative bands. Among this list are the Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Tower of Power, Santana, and Jefferson Airplane. The multi-cultural, highly tolerant and creative buzz that filled the air of San Francisco provided the groundwork for the musical revolution taking place. Out of this air of tolerance came Sly and The Family Stone. Before Sly and The Family Stone, funk music would have been associated with the archaic title of race music. Funk in its infancy was predominately played by Black artists and listened to by Black ...

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...s both played for and wrote with Prince. In return, Prince has co-wrote and produced for Graham Central Station.

From his work with Sly and The Family Stone and Graham Central Station, Larry Graham has left his mark on funk music. Sly and the Family Stone broke ground by promoting tolerance and racial inclusion. In this regard, Sly and The Family Stone were able to make funk transcend the title of race music to a mainstream and racially inclusive genre of music. Graham’s invention of slap bass has profoundly changed nearly all contemporary genres of music. Slap bass has evolved from primitive lo-fi tone heard in "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" to the polished and refined style exampled in “The Jam”. Larry Graham is a true innovator, as it is not that often that an artist is credited which having invented such a monumental and archetypal style of playing.

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