Family Affair – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

“Family Affair,” was on the album There’s A Riot Goin’ On and the last Sly & The Family Stone song to hit #1.

The song’s rhythm was provided by a drum machine, making it one of the earliest hit recordings and the first #1 single to use such a device. The song peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, #15 in the UK, and #11 in New Zealand.

Sly did not use the Family Stone for this recording. His friend Billy Preston played the keyboard lines in the song with Sly also playing keyboard as well as guitar, bass, and programming the rhythm box. His sister Rose sang with him and Bobby Womack played rhythm guitar.

From Songfacts

According to Dave Marsh’s book 1001 Greatest Songs, Sly Stone’s manager told Rolling Stone that Family Affair was the story of Sly’s own life, which was being cut up by the factions that surrounded him in his stardom. Chief among those factions, David Kapralik hinted, was Sly’s own family. Sly denied this. He told Rolling Stone, “Song’s not about that. Song’s about a family affair, whether it’s a result of genetic processes or a situation in the environment.” There was a rumor at the time that Stone had written it in response to demands made on him by black nationalist groups, who didn’t approve of his integrationist sensibility.

According to the Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs, when There’s A Riot Goin’ On came out in 1971, a reporter mentioned the rumor that Sly Stone had played all the instruments himself, and he asked Sly just how much he played. “I’ve forgotten, man,” Stone said. “Whatever was left.”

Family Affair

It’s a family affair, it’s a family affair
It’s a family affair, it’s a family affair

One child grows up to be
Somebody that just loves to learn
And another child grows up to be
Somebody you’d just love to burn

Mom loves the both of them
You see it’s in the blood
Both kids are good to Mom
“Blood’s thicker than mud”

It’s a family affair, it’s a family affair
Newlywed a year ago
But you’re still checking each other out
Nobody wants to blow

Nobody wants to be left out
You can’t leave, ’cause your heart is there
But you can’t stay, ’cause you been somewhere else!

You can’t cry, ’cause you’ll look broke down
But you’re cryin’ anyway ’cause you’re all broke down!

It’s a family affair
It’s a family affair

Anissa was on the popular family comedy called Family Affair. Everyone knew her as Buffy and her TV brother (Johnny Whitaker) as Jody. I watched the show in the early seventies. I watched in syndication and I grew up with Buffy and Jody. It seemed unreal in 1976 when I heard on the news that Anissa Jones had died at the age of 18.

At eight years old, Anissa was cast as Buffy on Family Affair, which aired from 1966 until 1971. Just a year before she started on Family Affair, her parents had gone through a terrible divorce with a long and bitter custody battle for her and her little brother. Sadly, her father died shortly after he was awarded custody in 1973.

She did appear in an Elvis movie “The Trouble With Girls” in 1969. Family Affair was the last thing she did besides a Dick Cavett appearance.

She was known to be a caring person as a kid up until she died. Earl Graham was the janitor on the set of the show Family Affair. When he passed away during the third year of the show, the cast and crew attended his funeral. By the following Monday, everyone was ready to get back to work. To Anissa, it seemed like everyone was acting like Earl had never existed at all. Anissa went to her mother and asked if she could take an ad out in Variety saying goodbye to her good friend. The ad cost Anissa $400.00. Anissa’s Mom said that was one of her proudest moments as a mother.

She was up for the Regan MacNeil part in The Exorcist but the director was fearful that people would think “Buffy” had been possessed. Her friends and family said she was relieved when she was turned down because she wanted to be with her friends in school. She was also invited to try out for “Easy” Steensma in Taxi Driver but turned it down. She was very intelligent but fell into the wrong crowd.

In 1975 she started to skip school and take drugs and ended up in a juvenile hall for a bit. She eventually dropped out of high school working at restaurants until she was 18 in 1976 and she gained control of 180,000 dollars she got from Family Affair. She fell into the drug culture.

On August 28, 1976, Anissa died of a drug overdose. It was ruled an accidental with cocaine, PCP, Seconal, and Quaaludes found in her system. She was at a party with friends. The coroner would call it one of the most massive overdoses he’d ever seen.