Sly Stone, the legendary bandleader of Sly and the Family Stone, has died at 82. These five songs show the power of his influence.

Sometimes death, as life, brings strange symmetries. Two music revolutionaries, Sly Stone and Brian Wilson, both died within two days of each other. Each was 82.

Stone had a capacity for summing up the zeitgeist of an America in social transition, from collective joy to racial harmony, and from the search for transcendence to the broken idealism in which the 1960s ended.

The legendary group, which fused funk, rock and soul into a new form, charted three Hot 100 No. 1s among 10 top 40 hits.

As the leader of Sly and the Family Stone, Sly Stone changed the face of popular music in the late ’60s and early ’70s.

According to his family, the legendary funk-rock pioneer died after a prolonged battle with COPD compounded by other health issues.