Larry Graham was the man who invented the “slap bass” technique. Or, as he preferred to call it: “thumpin’ and pluckin’.”

He came to fame with psychedelic funksters Sly & the Family Stone, broke away to form Graham Central Station, and went on to become Prince’s favoured bass guitarist.

I have to admit I know embarrassinglly little about Graham Central Station. But I know a funky bassline when I hear one, and that’s why I’m choosing this tune – Hair – over the one I was going to post, which was Sly’s classic Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin). 

Graham is widely credited as the originator of the percussive groove which typified the progressive funk sound of the Seventies, and was taken on by bassists like Louis ‘Thunder Thumbs’ Johnson, Bootsy Collins and Lequeint ‘Duke’ Jobe of Rose Royce.

Born in Texas and raised in Oakland, California, Larry Graham started out playing guitar, bass, harmonica and drums – a veritable one-man band – and began performing at 15 with his mother’s lounge act, The Dell Graham Trio.

Remarkably, while still at college he performed onstage with John Lee Hooker, Jackie Wilson, Jimmy Reed and The Drifters, before graduating and joining the Sly & The Family Stone, contributing his cavernous baritone as well as his enormously influential bass style to albums including There’s A Riot Goin’ On and Stand!

He left in 1972 and joined another propulsive funk ensemble called Hot Chocolate – no relation of the British band – before renaming them Graham Central Station and enjoying a minor hit with their first single, Can You Handle It.

They never really made it and split up in 1979, Graham going solo and moving from funk to soul ballads; again enjoying minor success with his first solo single One In A Million You.

By the mid-Eighties he was largely forgotten, despite another minor hit with Aretha Franklin – If You Need My Love Tonight – and concentrated on songwriting and performing as a side man, including a stint with The Crusaders.

In 1993 he re-formed Graham Central Station, attracting former Family Stone bandmates Cynthia Robinson (trumpet) and Jerry Martini (sax), and by 1997 they became the favoured support act of one of their biggest fans, Prince, who readily acknowledged their influence on both his music and flamboyant stage show.

Graham would go on to become Prince’s own bass guitarist, touring with him for several years and recording an album with him, GCS 2000, at Paisley Park.