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Stevie Wonder’s “classic period”
- zwischenzug 10y agoThis pales in comparison to Prince's outpourings.
- davidgerard 10y agoI suspect Prince would have looked at you funny if you said that to him.
- zwischenzug 10y agoYeah but he was unusually humble when it came to his music idols :)
- PlugTunin 10y agoEven Stevie Wonder is looking at you funny.
- peterbonney 10y agoI love Prince. Prince was maddeningly talented, shockingly prolific, and produced an amazing and wildly underrated (still!) opus over his career. Prince will be remembered as one of the most important pop musicians in history. Yet there is no 5 year stretch in Prince's career that compares to what Stevie Wonder did from 1972-1976.
- zwischenzug 10y agoPick any 5 years between 1982 and 1989: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_albums_discography https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_albums_discography 7 platinum albums. And bear in mind that gave away whole albums that were hits, and wrote classics like Manic Monday (while asleep) and Nothing Compares 2U and gave them away in this time. If you want a stretch of pure brilliance, I'd pick: Purple Rain Around the World in a Day Parade Sign O the Times Lovesexy During this era he was also responsible for most of The Time's output, The Family, wrote a lot of his later hits, and kept plenty back simply for his own reasons which still may not have surfaced.
- agumonkey 10y agoIf you're into funk, The Time is indeed another shocking output. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUl2Cd7IMms https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUl2Cd7IMms anybody with a taste for beats will go nuts on this. Also, responsible for the background music in this cult movie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOOwGhaFpVk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOOwGhaFpVk [NSFW] For the curious, Victor Wooten, sacred virtuoso bass player said in videos that Prince influenced him on the bass, saying Prince's stuff was unheard of. And Prince isn't even a bass fan, I believe he was more in love with guitar and keyboards.
- Pigo 10y agoI know I will get down-voted for this, but I just never really got the Prince vibe. I can appreciate his work, and the love a lot of people have for him. But I can't name one song that struck a chord with me. Sorry
- eumoria 10y agoI'm with you, friend, no disrespect to the man but I just never got what people get out of his music.
- eweise 10y agoIts all about the funk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQWQD2xQ3QQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQWQD2xQ3QQ
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- dharma1 10y agoPrince wasn't super high on my list until I saw him live twice 7-8 years ago. Blew my mind. Almost entirely different repertoire both times. Completely in a league of his own. Amazing energy, musicianship, really incredible player, and he wasn't young anymore either but just kept hitting it hard. Played a show like that every day in London for weeks. Plus afterparties a couple of times a week where he would play for hours sometimes. It was probably the best live show I have ever been to. Stevie has a special place for me as a songwriter but as a performer Prince was next level. Different artists, love both
- agumonkey 10y agoPrince, even today, is still underrated. He carried mountains of music on his shoulders, while being an overwhelming rock star persona, and a live genius, and quite an ok human being (goofy and a bit precious at times but well). After his passing I saw videos of rehearsal, where he would drive sound stage check calmly with people, dropping jazz classics from his pocket and being cool with the crew. A lot of what he did was so brilliant, for so many years, in so many genre. ps: he also managed to make rock guitarists drop their jaw at the george harrison celebration, all done unrehearsed (for better surprise effect).
- ArkyBeagle 10y agoRemember also that there was still radio then, and Stevie was all over it. That makes it more universal.
- pjmorris 10y agoMany guitarists love Stevie Ray Vaughn's cover version of 'Little Wing', some even more than the original by Jimi Hendrix. However, there is no cover without the original. Prince was certainly original in many ways, but Stevie Wonder is as much a source for Prince as Hendrix was for Vaughn (and for Prince).
- was8309 10y agothe difference for musicians is in aczerepinski's comment above ...harmonically sophisticated and yet singable/relatable to non-musicians
- BillSaysThis 10y agoI love Stevie Wonder's "Classic" work and his early period too but why would you bring in Prince? Is there not room enough for both in your musical heart?
- tclancy 10y agoI don't get the value in a comment like this, especially when without Stevie Wonder there might not be Prince. We all stand on the shoulders of giants. At least most of us (I like to make short people work for it).
- aczerepinski 10y agoThat five year stretch is indeed stunning. So many songs that are harmonically sophisticated and yet singable/relatable to non-musicians. Without any doubt one of the best song writers of all time.
- dharma1 10y agoThis +100. I don't think there has been anyone in recent years who has combined those qualities as well, consistently. Earth, Wind & Fire is in the same category for me but yeah going back decades
- agumonkey 10y agoSimilarly I was very very surprised by Phil Collins - Hello I must be going. The overall big band funk groove in a pop album (and a successful one at that). And then his drumming. It's a bit like The Police, you don't hear the sophistication at first; but it's there.
- xyzzy4 10y agoI don't think many people actually listen to his music since it's never on the radio.
- thelock85 10y agoIt is sampled so much, that people do hear his music even if they don't know it is from him. [0] [0] http://www.whosampled.com/Stevie-Wonder/ http://www.whosampled.com/Stevie-Wonder/
- Pigo 10y agoAs a kid in the 80's I always knew he was special. I loved the hits I'd hear, and his appearance on the Cosby show was one of my favorites memories. But I haven't heard much of his music honestly, I really should give it a chance.
- zild3d 10y agoObviously it won't be played on top 40 radio stations, but he is certainly still played on the radio. Besides that aren't we past radio being a critical data point? His music is on spotify, itunes, youtube, etc with hundreds of millions of listens
- apercu 10y agoI couldn't agree more. Those albums are some of my favourites.
- Lio 10y agoI remember "discovering" a second hand copy of Innervisions whilst at university in the early 90s. Up to that point I knew Stevie Wonder as the guy who recorded "I Just Called to Say I Love You", a song I hated as a kid. Well that opinion changed pretty sharpish I can tell you. I've bought so many albums and singles since that I really, really like but I don't think Innervisions has ever been bettered. Just my humble opinion of course.
- purple-dragon 10y agoVery similar experience here with that same album except I was in high school and it was 1999. That album, from "Too High" all the way though "He's Misstra Know-It-All", is a piece of perfection.
- mti27 10y agoAh, that song is one of Jack Black's "Top 5 Crimes Perpetrated by Stevie Wonder in the 80s and 90s" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjRqwUfwp7s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjRqwUfwp7s
- donretag 10y agoMy first rule of music is that any artist that became popular before the '80s, was terrible in the '80s. Look at Aretha Franklin. Who's Zoomin' who? What? Aretha darling, what were you thinking? There are a few exceptions to the rule, like Michael Jackson.
- Lio 10y agoOh that works really well, I'm going to add that to my own first rule of music: Any "band" completely made up of singers is probably rubbish[1][2]. [1] there may be a few exceptions but they're Higgs-Boson rare. [2] feel free to take it with a pinch of salt if you actually like that kind of "music". :P
- KingEllis 10y agoI didn't know this for many years of listening to that album. But I was blown away when I found out that on many tracks, Stevie is basically playing every instrument. It's quite astounding. I found out by being really drawn in by the drum work of "Too High". I looked it up. Well damn, that's Stevie. Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innervisions#Track_listing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innervisions#Track_listing
- ilamont 10y agoSynth whizzes Bob Margouleff and Malcolm Cecil co-produced the album with Stevie and would continue to work with him through Fulfillingness’ First Finale The involvement of Margouleff and Cecil needs to be further highlighted. They were not only talented musicians, they were also engineers, producers, and pioneers in early synthesizer experimentation. They patched together a massive electronic synthesizer dubbed TONTO that consisted of various components including a Moog, which Stevie Wonder heard on their avant-garde 1971 synth album Zero Time. He literally showed up at their studio with the album under his arm and asked how TONTO worked. The story is told here (1): So he takes my elbow and I escort him to the studio. We went down to the studio and I showed him the instrument. I put his hands over it and he realized that it wasn’t something that he could easily play. He tried to play it, but he couldn’t get it to sound like a normal keyboard, because in those days you could only get one note at a time. He asked me, “What is wrong with this keyboard?” I told him, “That’s how it works. It only plays one note at a time.” And then he got it. He asked me if we could record. I went upstairs and got my test tape and we put it on the two-inch machine. At this time, the Moog had been moved to Studio B in the basement. We ended up recording the entire weekend. I had to break into the tape store, and I had no authority to do it, but I did it anyway. I told Stevie, “Someone is going to have to pay for this tape at least.” He said, “Oh, don’t worry. I just got money put into my trust fund from Motown because I just turned twenty-one. I don’t have any contracts.” He explained the whole thing. He told Bob and me that he wanted us to be musical directors for his company and to help him get his music out there. He liked working with us, and we liked working with him. We got seventeen songs done that first weekend. And that’s how it all started. In films from that era, you can see Wonder performing with TONTO in the background, with Cecil or Margouleff patching together components on the fly. I saw an interview with one of them (see Soundbreaking, below) who says that they recorded something like 250 songs with Wonder, and they picked the best ones to go on the albums. I would love to hear some of the stuff that didn't make it onto vinyl! PBS recently released an eight-part series on music production called Soundbreaking that includes clips and interviews with Cecil and Margouleff. It was co-produced by the late George Martin, and includes so many stories about the production of pop music from the 1950s to the present, including early multitrack recording with Les Paul, The Beach Boys and The Beatles, the synth era, disco, sampling, rap, the impact of music videos, EDM, laptop-based production, and more. It's amazing. Some short clips are here (2) but I urge readers to seek out the full program! 1. http://www.waxpoetics.com/blog/features/articles/malcolm-cecil-stevie-wonder-classic-innervisions/ http://www.waxpoetics.com/blog/features/articles/malcolm-cec... 2. http://www.pbs.org/show/soundbreaking/ http://www.pbs.org/show/soundbreaking/
- dominotw 10y agoI learnt the other day that Stevie Wonder inspired Kurzweil to create one of the first synthesizer . "In 1982 Stevie Wonder invited Raymond Kurzweil to his new studio in Los Angeles, and asked if "we could use the extraordinarily flexible computer control methods on the beautiful sounds of acoustic instruments?"[2] In response to this query, Raymond Kurzweil founded Kurzweil Music Systems, with Stevie Wonder as musical advisor.[1] A prototype of the Kurzweil K250 was manufactured for Stevie Wonder in 1983." [1] 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurzweil_K250 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurzweil_K250
- stonogo 10y agoThat is not even close to being 'one of the first synthesizers'. It's probably the first digital piano anyone took seriously, in addition to introducing sampling keyboards into the world, but synths had been around for more-or-less thirty years by 1983.
- mgkimsal 10y agoI first thought of the Abbey Road usage of the Moog (in 1969), and that certainly couldn't have been the first synth use (although probably one of the more popularizations of it). (maybe my def of 'synth' is a bit loose though)
- woofyman 10y agoWendy Carlos "Switched On Bach" released in 1968 probably launched synthesizers into the mainstream consciousness. https://youtu.be/o95yZCnGVAw?list=PLD3973AC7BFE489A4 https://youtu.be/o95yZCnGVAw?list=PLD3973AC7BFE489A4 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switched-On_Bach https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switched-On_Bach
- brandall10 10y agoStevie had used the Moog extensively during his golden period and was very familiar with the capabilities of synthesizers of the day. I believe his complaint was essentially boiled down to: while they provided new sonic vistas, they did a terrible job of reproducing the sounds of real instruments. Samples were poor and lacked dynamics. What he wanted from Kurzweil was a synth to mimic an actual piano. He wanted to play a 'piano' on stage without the heft and burden of an actual piano. Further down in that wiki: "The Kurzweil K250 is generally recognized as the first electronic instrument to faithfully reproduce the sounds of an acoustic grand piano."
- frankosaurus 10y agoOn Talking Book's album opener (and #1 hit), You Are the Sunshine of my Life, Stevie let background vocalists sing the opening lines. That always seemed incredibly cool and selfless to me.
- justinator 10y agoTo amazing effect too. The two singers style take you off your guard (this... isn't... Stevie?) and then he comes in, singing slightly louder, and stressing the start of each word - the song changes from something super cool and easy, to something a lot more funky. By the end of the verse, you realize how great Stevie's singing is, even though he's holding so much back.
- agumonkey 10y agoHe also propped Minnie Riperton who was barely a vocalist at the time, into full fledged solo career (well deserved considering her vocal skills)
- 501startups 10y agoI've always loved Stevie Wonder. It's a show of how far we can go when we apply ourselves.
- pcsanwald 10y agoI love the linked article on Stevie's drumming prowess: he is indeed a fantastic drummer, one of the best. Stevie also had the great bassist James Jamerson on many of these tunes: check out Jamerson's amazing lines on "For once in my life"!
- midgetjones 10y agoAbsolutely! There's a great visualisation of his line here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At3OP5CvIRY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At3OP5CvIRY
- pcsanwald 10y agoI forgot about this! So cool! also forgot that Joe Dart from Vulfpeck put this together. very, very cool.
- midgetjones 10y agoI think it's Jack playing on this one. He's still pretty handy, even if he isn't Joe Dart :)
- agumonkey 10y agoJamerson's tl;dr: he's the Alan Turing of the bass. Similarly everwhere foundational, quite unknown and a ~dramatic end.
- midgetjones 10y ago> Wonder negotiated a new contract with Motown that would grant him full artistic control over his music, his own publishing company, and an unprecedented royalty rate I wonder if this could ever happen again, given the state of the music industry now.
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- metaxy2 10y agoStevie is amazing, but for "greatest creative run in popular music history," I feel like we still have to give that to The Beatles, no? In 5 years they released Help, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Magical Mystery Tour, Sgt. Pepper's, The White Album, Abbey Road and Let it Be.
- fil_a_del_fee_a 10y agoBeatles had Lennon, McCartney writing, and George Martin composing, also the engineering of EMI. Stevie did everything himself, writing & playing ALL instruments. Beatles had several session players.
- rmason 10y agoDid you know that Stevie got a street named after him in Detroit today? Just off Woodward near the Motown museum. http://www.wxyz.com/news/region/detroit/city-of-detroit-to-unveil-stevie-wonder-avenue-today http://www.wxyz.com/news/region/detroit/city-of-detroit-to-u...
- leoc 10y agoTFA appears to be following the conventional wisdom when it describes "Higher Ground" as a "reincarnation meditation". But while it seems Stevie Wonder did himself connect the song with ideas about reincarnation, at least tentatively https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Higher_Ground_(Stevie_Wonder_song)&oldid=754320225#Subject https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Higher_Ground_(St... , the one thing which the lyrics really plainly make reference to is Apocalypse 22:10-12 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+22%3A10-12 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+22%3... : > And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. > And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. Which admittedly is an slightly odd fit with the sense of having himself been given a second chance and a change of life which SW expresses in the song (and apparently in the NYT interview), but so it goes apparently.