Joel Selvin's "Sly and the Family Stone: An Oral Biography" (Avon) may not be the rock book most readers would expect.

Sure, it follows Sly Stone from his early days as a San Francisco DJ, through "Dance to the Music," "Everyday People" and the success at Woodstock, to the drug-fueled craziness that eventually brought the band down. But it does so without a conventional narrative, and without talking to Sly Stone himself.

Instead, Selvin's approach lets the band's members and associates tell the tale in their own words, as they remember it. Though their accounts can be contradictory and self-serving, they paint a vivid portrait of what it was like to be in one of the most freaky, innovative and successful bands of the late '60s and early '70s.

Definitely worth reading.

Pub Date: 9/06/98