We lost two music luminaries this past week.

Sly Stone and Brian Wilson died two days apart, both 82 years old, geniuses of vastly different musical persuasions whose periods of greatest flourishing melded into one another.

That their disparate sounds — psychedelic soul-funk and California surfer pop-rock — could be so popular and so influential during the same era is more proof that the stretch from the mid-60s to the mid-70s was our greatest period of music.

Unfortunately, their brilliant careers peaked far too soon. Wilson, the creative force behind The Beach Boys, suffered from mental illness. Stone, founder and frontman of Sly and the Family Stone, developed a serious drug problem and a history of erratic behavior. And yet, their music lives on seemingly as fresh and relevant now as it was more than a half-century ago when the vast bulk of it was recorded.

One hopes that in the end, understanding that they had left such rich legacies was a comfort. That’s really how it........

© Newsday