Which bassist led Graham Central Station after leaving Sly and the Family Stone? Larry Graham did. He played with Sly and the Family Stone from 1967 to 1972, then founded and fronted Graham Central Station after departing the group.
Graham Central Station’s name is a playful reference to New York’s Grand Central Station. The band became a major vehicle for Graham’s bass-led funk, releasing its debut album in 1974 and scoring an R&B hit with “Can You Handle It?” that same year. Graham’s commanding vocals and rhythmic bass made him more than a sideman: he was the project’s central songwriter, singer and bandleader.
Graham is also strongly associated with the slap-and-pop approach to electric bass. He developed the percussive technique partly because his mother’s band stopped using a drummer, prompting him to imitate drum sounds on bass. Bootsy Collins and Louis Johnson later became famous slap players, but neither led Graham Central Station. Graham reunited the band in the 1990s and continued performing with it in later decades.