This magic moment occurred on Soul Train on January 13,1972. Stevie , who can make even a grand piano sound funky, plays an impromptu tune about Soul Train and the Soul Train gang. Lovely the way the audience members sing along.
Posts tonen met het label Stevie Wonder. Alle posts tonen
Posts tonen met het label Stevie Wonder. Alle posts tonen
vrijdag 11 januari 2013
zondag 28 oktober 2012
Here is my music. It is all I have to tell you how I feel. Know that your love keeps my love strong.
—Stevie
—Stevie
Talking Book begins with one of the most generous gestures in music history. The first two voices you hear on Track One, the future #1 hit "You Are The Sunshine of My Life", belong to back up singers Jim Gilstrap and Gloria Barley.
For the most part, Talking Book is an album of lost love -- a reaction to Wonder's failing marriage to Syretta Wright. There's a song called "Tuesday Heartbreak" but heartbreak can be heard in half the songs ( "Blame It On The Sun", "Maybe Your Baby", "You And I" etc.)
For the most part, Talking Book is an album of lost love -- a reaction to Wonder's failing marriage to Syretta Wright. There's a song called "Tuesday Heartbreak" but heartbreak can be heard in half the songs ( "Blame It On The Sun", "Maybe Your Baby", "You And I" etc.)
Experimentation with the Moog and other synths isn't as heavy as on Wonder's early 1972 album, Music Of My Mind with the exception of "Maybe Your Baby". The funkiest song on the album, "Maybe Your Baby" could be the blueprint for Prince's entire career. Listen about 4:45 in, when Wonder's piling on the vocals --including some sped up--and you can't fail to hear his Purple Majesty. It has been suggested that Talking Book is a response to Sly and The Family Stone's There's A Riot Goin' On . Probably not. But "Maybe Your Baby" shares the same laid back funky groove as "Poet".
A week before Talking Book came out, Motown released the future #1"Superstition" as a single. There may have been some hurt feelings here as Wonder had originally offered the song to Jeff Beck who plays some sweet guitar lines on "Lookin' For Another Pure Love". ( Beck's version appears on the 1972 album Beck, Bogart and Appice) The song showcases Stevie's clavinet and his drum playing. His vocals earned him a Grammy. And those lyrics offer some insight to Wonder's personal woes as well:
Rid me of the problem, do all that you can,
Keep me in a daydream, keep me goin' strong
You don't wanna save me, sad is my song
As a whole the album's only weakness is that too many songs sounds a bit too middle of the road and mainstream. Stevie Wonder's follow-up, 1973's Innervisions, would offer a whole 'nother kind of ride.
Rid me of the problem, do all that you can,
Keep me in a daydream, keep me goin' strong
You don't wanna save me, sad is my song
As a whole the album's only weakness is that too many songs sounds a bit too middle of the road and mainstream. Stevie Wonder's follow-up, 1973's Innervisions, would offer a whole 'nother kind of ride.
zaterdag 3 maart 2012
[Buy It]
On his 21st birthday Stevie Wonder finally inherited a million dollars ( of the $30 million he made for Motown) and declared independence. Within weeks he was in mid-town New York City, recording years of pent-up music in a whirlwind weekend with Bob Margouleff and Malcolm Cecil, the duo who made esoteric electronic albums as Tonto's Expanding Headband. Their instrument was an entire room of synthesizers. By plugging jacks into sockets and flipping dials, Margouleff and Cecil found new sounds Wonder could funkify. Wonder recorded 17 tracks from Saturday afternoon to Monday night. Six of them are on Music of My Mind including "Girl Blue", "Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You)", "Seems So Long", "Keep On Running" and "Evil".
There are earlier Stevie Wonder albums worth owning ( 1970's Signed Sealed Delivered is an amazing collection of songs) but Music Of My Mind is an artistic statement--a true coming of age. What's missing is a classic Stevie Wonder single. "Superwoman" eventually got slashed from its 8 minute running time and sneaked into the Top 40.
Wonder played virtually all of the instruments on the album, including the drums. Music Of My Mind kicked off a string of great Stevie Wonder albums that would only get better, including Talking Book ( released in October of 1972), Innervisions and Songs In The Key Of Life. But don't take my word for it.
While running for President in 2008, then Senator Barack Obama told reporters why he had so much Stevie Wonder on his iPod:
"Stevie had that run with Music of My Mind, Talking Book, Fulfillingness' First Finale and Innervisions and then Songs in the Key of Life. Those are as brilliant a set of five albums as we've ever seen."
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