VOTD 6/03/2023

 Stevie Wonder: Innervisions (Tamla)

Purchased at Dave Kuzy's yard sale

Paul Thompson asked me recently what I thought of Steely Dan. A question like that is sometimes difficult for me to answer. I mean, I don't hate Steely Dan. I bought a $1 CD copy of Aja at a (different) yard sale. I don't especially care about Steely Dan, I don't hate them. I like some of the songs. If you weren't alive or aware to know Aja when it was released, you really have no idea what a sensation it was. I heard every track on the radio, including the most obscure "Home At Last" at least once or twice. I find them a little too tightly wound for my taste, too precious, too perfectionist. I'll admit though that I had "My Old School" running through my head for days after the last (and final) time I drove by my old high school. I'm never going back to my old school...

There's the part of me in which I have to guard against being the self-appointed voice of the avant-garde in Pittsburgh, that I shouldn't enjoy music that is mainstream. In other words, just like what I like, be critical of everything (both the positives and the negatives), and most importantly, don't believe my own bullshit. It's not necessarily good if it's obscure, not necessarily bad if it's popular.

So what do I make of Stevie Wonder? Like Steely Dan, if you weren't around in the 1970s, you don't know how omnipresent his music could be. There was practically a chute from the Grammy awards to his living room; he's won 25 in all to date. I'm recalling this through the gauze of memory, but I seem to recall even AOR rock stations would play his music sometimes. I know I'd hear a piece of his occasionally, and I definitely didn't sit and listen to top 40 radio. It's unimaginable now to suggest Stevie Wonder find airplay on WDVE now. They'd rather play Stevie Ray Vaughan's vastly inferior cover of "Superstition" than the original. God help em if they played any Black artist other than Jimi Hendrix, but that's a rant for another time and place. 

So let's get this out of the way: an album such as this, Music of my Mind, and others of the period are amazing accomplishments. Stevie plays the majority of the instrumental tracks, sings the majority of vocals. It's mostly drums and keyboards, but I have to pay close attention to even hear if it's keyboard bass or not. 

I saw a short clip of Stevie on TV once, in which he was laying down synth voices like a horn section. First of all, no MIDI and all of its editing conveniences. He was playing the parts individually, and talked about hearing some inflection on the middle voice, and added a little pitch bend to it. Such attention to detail! He knows his own pieces at an atomic level. 

The easiest comparison I can make would be to Prince. There are records in which he played most or all of the instruments. He's his own songwriter. I'm going to incur the wrath of the gods (or at least many of my friends) when I say that I have always found Prince to be a little overrated. Let me qualify that statement. The way some people go on and on and on about Prince, it's an almost cult-like fanaticism. I know I can be extraordinarily enthusiastic about my own preferences and likes, but even I can't get that wrapped up in any artist. 

I prefer Stevie. This might in part be generational; his music was a part of my youth, even though I didn't own any of his records then. Prince was a great guitarist, I'll give him that much. If anything, I personally wish he'd focused on that more, but that's just me. But truth is, I like Stevie Wonder's best songs more than Prince's. I find them to be more harmonically rich, for example. I think Stevie has a broader sense of harmony. And talk about funky! "Higher Ground", can't get much funkier than that. Of course Red Hot Chili Peppers wanted to butcher it.

It can't be helped that some tracks stand out. This is the album with "Living for the City" and "Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing", for example. Nothing on it is bad though, no stinkers or clunkers. It's not an easy thing to accomplish, especially considering how much music Stevie was creating at the time. 

I'm going to make one negative point though it's not about Stevie himself; it's that of his legacy. Stevie has a great voice, amazing really. I find many singers since his heyday, particularly those in the r&b world, copy the affectations without the quality. In other words, there or so many copycats, but few match his ability. Lots of screaming, growling, long runs (melismas). Stevie by comparison seems restrained. But that's not a critique of him; he's better for it. 

This is clearly a great album. Now the question is, do I find it to be his best album? Not enough information, yet.