In Wonder-land: A life in 'Songs'
Stevie Wonder makes a rare appearance at the Wells Fargo Center Sunday.
Stevie Wonder — just announced as a 2014 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient — makes a rare appearance at the Wells Fargo Center Sunday. Better still, he'll devote the gig to recreating his 38-years-young "Songs in the Key of Life" mega-album. Helping him out, expect singer India.Arie, a large string section and at least 20 other musicians. How great is all this? Let's count the ways.
After seizing artistic control of his career from Motown in the early 1970s, the former “Little Stevie” Wonder set out to prove his mettle. In an amazing four-year stretch, he delivered five classic albums, starting with 1972’s “Music of My Mind,” that would mark him as a true innovator in jazz-funk-pop fusion and a vital voice for social justice.
Also in this killer LP run were “Talking Book,” “Inner Visions” and “Fulfillingness’ First Finale.”
“Songs” was the capper and crown jewel of the series, with many a smash and rarely a misstep in its 21-song, 85-minute double-album (plus bonus EP) marathon. Here are more reasons why we love this set.
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Fave Stevie Wonder quote: “Just because a man lacks the use of his eyes doesn’t mean he lacks vision.”
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By the numbers: Released on Sept. 28, 1976, “Songs” debuted the following week at No. 1 and would achieve exceedingly rare “Diamond” status for 10 million domestic sales. It won four Grammys, including album of the year.
It was cited by the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry for its cultural, historic and aesthetic accomplishments.
It continues to have a spot on lists of greatest albums of all time and desert-island essentials.
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Singer/Songwriter Syndrome: Wonder recorded most of the album at Crystal Sound, an L.A. studio where Jackson Browne and Carole King had waxed their classic debut sets.
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Radio friendly: Progressive-rock radio DJs, who’d largely ignored Wonder’s earlier discs (except for “Superstition,” from “Talking Book,” and “Living for the City,” from “Inner Visions”), jumped on such “Songs” mood setters as “Love’s in Need of Love Today,” “Sir Duke” and “Saturn.”
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No compromises: “Isn’t She Lovely” quickly became the album’s biggest “turntable” hit and inspiration for other artists’ cover versions. But Wonder refused to cut it to 2:45 minutes for a single. Celebrating the arrival of his daughter Aisha, the production featured happy baby sounds, mixed with Wonder’s harmonica riffing. We wonder what’s in store for the 64-year-old artist’s newly revealed, “on the way” ninth kid!
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Protest songs: Wonder was so annoyed by mid-’70s U.S. domestic and foreign policy that he was threatening to move to Ghana. Instead he vented on this protest-minded set originally called “Let’s See the Way Life Is,” obsessing over the project for two and a half years.
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“Paradise” found: One of the most potent pieces on the album was “Pasttime Paradise,” meditating on people who romanticize the past. Two decades later, it inspired West Coast rapper Coolio’s Grammy-winning rewrite, “Gangsta’s Paradise,” which led to Weird Al Yankovic’s doofy “Amish Paradise.”
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The Philly Connection: Some pretty cool cats — Herbie Hancock, George Benson and Minnie Riperton (Maya Rudolph’s mom) — sat in on “Songs.” But nobody laid more jazzy licks than Michael Sembello, the Philadelphia-born-and-raised guitar player, who studied with Pat Martino and first worked with Wonder, at age 17, on “Fulfillingness’.” A member of Stevie’s touring Wonderlove, he played lead or rhythm guitar in the studio band for “Songs.” (He’d later have a hit of his own, “Maniac.”)
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Afterlife: Whitney Houston cited Wonder’s singing in “Songs” as highly influential on her own style. Another devotee, Alicia Augello Cook, changed her last name to Keys. Michael Jackson said it was his favorite Wonder album and covered several tunes on tour (“Love’s In Need of Love Today,” “Village Ghetto Land,” “Pastime Paradise,” “Knocks Me off My Feet”). Elton John has opined, “For me, it’s the best album ever made, and I’m always left in awe after I listen to it.”
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Takiff remembers: Always on his own time schedule, Wonder once kept me waiting almost three hours for a press meet at the Freedom Theatre. More amusing was a private phone chat with the guy that started, on time, at 1:30 in the morning. Stevie was getting his hair braided and kept punctuating the conversation with “Ouch!"
Concert details: Wells Fargo Center, 3601 S. Broad St., 8 p.m. Sunday, $49.50, $79.50, $149.50, 800-298-4200 comcasttix.com.
On Twitter: @JTakiff
Online: ph.ly/Tech
