In Sly & the Family Stone’s prime, from 1968 to 1973, the Bay Area band was one of music’s greatest live acts as well as a fount of remarkable singles including “Everyday People” and “Hot Fun in the Summertime.” Behind it all was Sly Stone, the visionary who died Monday at 82.

Stone, who was born Sylvester Stewart and grew up in Vallejo, created a sound whose influence is so vast it’s hard to measure — you can hear it in the music of Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock to the Talking Heads, Prince, Public Enemy, Beastie Boys, Tricky, Outkast, and many more. Here are some tracks to remembr him by.

“Everyday People” (1968): This perfect, concise unity song, which popularized the phrase “different strokes for different folks,” is built on simple layers like Larry Graham’s one-note bass line. “I kept it short with the idea that it would have a long life,” Stone said in his memoir.

“Stand!” (1969): For those who chose to sit rather than stand at this precarious moment of protest, Stone had a message: “There’s a permanent crease in your right and wrong.”

“Sing a Simple Song” (1969): Though Sly was the group’s mastermind, Freddie Stone was a world-class guitarist whose dynamic funk licks added hooks and percussive cross-rhythms. Jimi Hendrix borrowed the riff from this song for Band of Gypsys’ live recording of “We Gotta Live Together.”

“Hot Fun in the Summertime” (1969): This laid-back song about nostalgia for the carefree days of childhood rises on Rose Stone’s minimalist, single-chord piano part and her explosive singing voice. Sly slips in a bittersweet note — autumn will arrive soon, he sings, and it’s time to brace for a chill.

“Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” (1969): One of the funkiest songs ever recorded, thanks to the “thumping and plucking” bass style Graham credibly claimed to have invented. “Lookin’ at the devil, grinnin’ at his gun,” Stone sings in a clipped voice, and in the following verses, he quotes from his own hits and shares lead vocals with all six other band members.

“Plastic Jim” (1968): Stone borrows a melody from the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby” to decry an untrustworthy square who “will take a blind man’s glasses.”

“Don’t Call Me Nigger, Whitey” (1969): The title makes this woozy mid-tempo number sound like a Black Power statement, but its lyrics also ask African Americans to stop using insulting terms for white people. There’s a breathless mood in the music, thanks to Stone’s distorted harmonica, which he played through one of the first commercially available talk boxes.