By November of the same year, Sly Stone seemed to pose an answer: “There’s a Riot Goin’ On.” At the time that album was released, Stone, who died this week, at the age of eighty-two, was facing a make-or-break career inflection point.

The boundary-breaking, fashion-forward leader of Sly & the Family Stone, who has died at age 82, made an indelible impact on music through his soulful, socially conscious records of the 1960s and ’70s.

Cultural historian and music journalist Chris Williams talks about Sly Stone's legacy.