Truman Thomas = Sly Stone???

By Jonathan Dakss

On Wednesday, July 3, I posted a letter to Usenet in which I made public my "discovery" that Sly Stone had used the name Truman Thomas on various recordings to dodge Uncle Sam and the I.R.S. Since that time I received many responses from fans all over the world, and have done some research of my own. Although the answer to this question is, in a nutshell, "NO," evidence exists to both prove and disprove my theory and this page has been dedicated to our efforts to uncover the mystery of Truman Thomas and his relation to Sly Stone. As of 7/15/96, two former members of the Family Stone have shed light on this "mystery," click HERE to read what they have to say. Otherwise...read on...

Before I begin, I would first like to thank all of the people who have helped this effort. I have tried to credit everyone when appropriate, but if I have missed anyone please let me know ASAP.

What first prompted my interest was an e-mail from David Klanfer ([email protected]) in which he wrote that a Temptation noted in his biography that Sly had collaborated with them on an album and perhaps used an assumed name (I initially thought it was Melvin Franklin, but it turned out to be Otis Williams). Here are Otis' words verbatim (thanks to Maria Granditsky ([email protected])):

"The only track released as a single was "Up The Creek (Without A Paddle)", which Jeffrey cowrote with a couple of other guys, one of them being Sly Stone. When Sly came to the studio, we told him how much we admired his work, and so on. But it was obvious that Sly's day in the sun had come and gone. Because of some legal complication, Sly is not credited on the song, but it is his."

Interestingly enough, the song (which appeared on The Temptations' 1976 album Wings Of Love) is almost a carbon copy of the Sly Stone song "I Get High On You" (released in 1975 on the Sly Stone album High On You) although with different lyrics and some different music. The song is credited to Truman Thomas along with Jeffery Bowen, and Truman Thomas is credited for several other songs. All of these songs feature Truman on clavinet, organ and ARP, and also feature many of Sly's regulars, including his brother Freddie. The songs all sound like they could be Sly material, fitting in between High On You and Heard You Missed Me... released in 1976.

Thus the mystery started. Truman Thomas is also credited on two Sly & The Family Stone albums, keyboards on High On You (although he is mentioned as "Tricky Truman Gov'nor") and on the 1974 album Small Talk credited as assistance on Keyboards by "Truman Thomas A/K/A True Gubmint." Does this comment indicate that "Truman Thomas" was an inception to avoid the taxation of the US Government?

After this I heard from David Lucas ([email protected]) who told me that there is a song on Bonnie Pointer's first solo album (Bonnie Pointer) from 1978 (also on Motown) called "Ah Shoot." This song, written by Jeffery Bowen and Truman Thomas is almost identical to the song "Hobo Ken" from the Sly & the Family Stone album Ain't But the One Way (1982). Except for different lyrics, the music is exactly the same on both tracks. Needless to say, Truman's name does not appear on Ain't But The One Way, while Truman Thomas is credited for many songs on that album, both writing and keyboard credits.

David Lucas also wrote back with more Truman Thomas news that would seem to also support the theory of S.S. and T.T. being one and the same:

"Perhaps you are already aware that he makes a major appearance on Bobby Womack's album from 1974, _Lookin for a Love_, at least on side 2. Two songs are co-written by Thomas, and on a third song he receives sole writing credit. One of the songs is a hit, 'You're Welcome, Stop On By', and the other two songs are more signature Sly numbers. He's also playing piano & clavinet -- there is a special thanks to Truman Thomas listed in the album credits because someone else is the main piano player on the album. This of course fits nicely because of Sly's documented appearances with Bobby Womack when he was touring in the early 80's."

It seemed as though we had cracked the case.

Then, the doubts began to roll in.

First of all, why would Sly credit Truman Thomas on his OWN album?

Then, my friend Maria wrote to me again and called attention to the fact that on Bonnie Pointer's second solo Lp from 1979 (also TITLEd Bonnie Pointer) there are tracks in which Sly Stone is credited for playing instruments on the same tracks that Truman Thomas is! This would seem to kill the IRS theory.

"Vince, a Funkadelic" ([email protected]) wrote:

"Anyhow, Truman Thomas is credited as playing the piano on Aretha's _Aretha Arrives_ from 1967 and as the electric pianist on Aretha's _Live at Fillmore West_."

"Truman Thomas also appears on King Curtis' "Live At Fillmore West" album (Atco SD 33-359) recorded at the same time as Aretha's. He appears in the album's back cover photo, and he sure don't look like Sly!"

"Truman Thomas is a real person.
His name came up on my working vacation to NYC when one of my friends mentioned his name to Billy Bass because Billy knew Truman, and my friend is related to Truman... I was surprised that my friend had been hiding this connection to Billy (Truman played with Billy on some sessions, namely the 2nd Temptations album Billy did). I had never heard of Truman before, and then it comes up in NYC, and then it is on the internet - now that's real irony, Morrisette"

Here are other documented appearances of Truman Thomas:

• The Isley Brothers song "3+3" ([email protected])
• Isley Brother's _Brother, Brother, Brother_ features Truman on Hammond Organ (Oscar R Williams)

• BILLY PRESTON: _A Whole New Thing_, A & M SP-4656, 1977
  ("it's probably just co-incidental that the first Sly & The Family Stome album had the same TITLE!")
  
• RUFUS: _Numbers_ ABC 1098, 1979
  
• LEON & MARY RUSSELL: _Wedding Album_ Paradise/Warner Brothers 2943, 1976

"Hounsome also lists Thomas as appearing on BOBBY WOMACK'S albums _Communication_ (United Artists 5539, 1971) and _Understanding_ (United Artists 5277, 1972). I have both of those, on both LP and CD, and neither of them lists Truman Thomas in the personnel, so does Hounsome know something that the rest of us don't know, or is it just a mistake?
(Interestingly, there is a thank-you note to Sly in the credits).
Thomas definitely does appear on Womack's _Looking For A Love Again_ album, and also on the followup, _I Don't Know What This World Is Coming To_ (UA-LA 353, 1975), performing on all but one track. The latter album has some session photos on the inner sleeve, but I can't see anyone who resembles the gent on the King Curtis album - nor can I see Sly, for that matter!"

On an additional note, Peter Wermelinger located a Truman Thomas solo album! Truman Thomas - Groovin - 1967 - Veep VPS16517 It includes songs like Cold Sweat by J.Brown, Respect by O.Redding and more.

The band member said that Truman Thomas was a real guy, a skinny session cat who was a serious coke fiend and has since passed away (1981). He was on the road with Sly in late '74 and early '75 (between the albums of Small Talk and High On You) and did play on the two Sly albums on which he is credited.

The former band member said that (and keep in mind, this is 20 years ago, so their memory is not all that great) that a year before Wings Of Love was pressed, Jeffrey Bowen and Motown tried to lure Sly over to their label. Supposedly, they wined and dined Sly for awhile (you can draw your own conclusions about what "wined and dined" meant back then). Sly basically teased them by doing some music stuff but mostly seemed to be almost using them for the money and perks he was getting. Motown didn't mind becuase it was all a public affair and they enjoyed seeing Sly (who was a hot item at that time) associated with the label. This went on for about 3 weeks and, after tapping them of about 60K, Sly disappeared on them. In early '75, the Wings of Love sessions were done, and this band member doesn't recall Sly's presence there. He said that while Sly may have done some of the writing ("Up the Creek" reflects this), Truman Thomas was at the sessions and did play on the tracks which he is credited for. According to the band member "Truman was good at imitating Sly" and thus the Horn Arrangements credit is to Truman Thomas, although they sound an awful lot like a Sly arrangement.

The member of the Family whom R9 spoke with confirmed that Truman Thomas was a real person who died of an overdose of drugs in 1981. They said he was a singer and a writer who mimicked Sly quite a bit.

Therefore the only remaining mystery regards the correlation between Thomas/Bowen's "Aw Shoot" and Sly's "Hobo Ken."

If You Know More About Truman Thomas, E-MAIL ME!!!

PS: Thank you to: [email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected], [email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected], Oscar R. Williams, and Neal Austinson!!

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Creator and Webmaster: Jon Dakss