Sometimes death, as life, brings strange symmetries. Two music revolutionaries, Sly Stone and Brian Wilson, both died within two days of each other. Each was 82.

Two of music’s powerful visionaries died this week. The songs they meticulously constructed offered an escape their makers struggled to realize in their own lives.

Based in San Francisco, Sly and the Family Stone was responsible for some of the biggest anthems of the late ’60s and early ’70s, including “Everyday People,” “Hot Fun in the Summertime,” and the double A-side release “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” and “Everybody Is a Star.”