Every Sunday Chris Clancy takes an irreverent look at the double albums of yore, mercilessly cutting them down to size...
Aren’t we about due for a Stevie Wonder revival?
Okay, judging by the sales (and download) figures of his most recent greatest hits compilation, Number 1’s, the old hits are still managing to find new ears. But has anyone else made as big an impact on popular music in the last three decades? Has anyone else so consistently made his contemporaries sound like musical midgets?
Because, really, one listen to Stevie Wonder’s 1976 double album, Songs in the Key of Life ought to shut down all other pretenders. Within its grooves are the future of rock in the 1980s, hip-hop in the 1990s, and pop in the 2000s.
(Alas, influence has its pitfalls: Wonder is largely to blame for that thing that Christina Aguilera, Beyonce Knowles, and all these 'American Idol' finalists do these days – you know, where they try to sing around a note to come off all soulful, often to the detriment of the song itself.)
But never mind influence. Songs in the Key of Life is not just one of the best double albums ever made, it’s one of the best albums ever made, right up there with the usual suspects (Pet Sounds, Abbey Road, What’s Going On, or Wonder's own Innervisions and Talking Book). Future generations need to hear this.
Having said all that, there’s just got to be a clunker or two somewhere on here:
Grab your Bill Cosby sweater for opener Love’s in Need of Love Today, which starts with the West Angeles Church of God Choir easing Wonder into a plea for universal peace and brotherhood. As far as openers go, it’s perfect.
Have a Talk With God features some serious electronic grit. (Trivia: Snoop Dogg sampled this song for his Conversations.) And it may just have you checking the liner notes to see what year it was recorded. Seriously, take away the vocals and harmonica and it could be a Portishead song.
Village Ghetto Land is next. It’s another message song, rife with arresting images: broken glass, rusted cars, children with sores on their hands. Meanwhile, the instrumentation sounds like something pulled from the Amadeus soundtrack. When people talk about Stevie Wonder being a composer, they’re talking about songs like this.
Jazz-rock instrumental Contusion is so slick and sophisticated, it makes Steely Dan sound like the New York Dolls. (Trivia: Michael Sembello, who would later find chart success with Maniac, can be heard on guitar.) Still, it needs some vocals, and maybe a few killer horn lines.
Hey, maybe Wonder was saving that for Sir Duke, his tribute to the heroes of jazz: Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and ‘the king of all,’ Duke Ellington. Let’s keep this one, since it hit #1 on the Billboard pop charts.
I Wish, the other #1 hit, follows. Funky as all get-out, Wonder is his liveliest yet as he lists his many boyhood glories. But again, the images bare the wounds of inner city poverty: getting nothing for Christmas, graffiti, and hanging out with ‘those hoodlum friends of mine.’ (Trivia: Hollywood movie star Will Smith sampled this for his song, Wild Wild West. Please do not blame Stevie Wonder for this.)
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