Day 53: Stevie Wonder – Songs in the Key of Life
Album art courtesy of Tamla
There’s no deeper reason to my album choice today, other than the fact that I had Stevie Wonder’s As playing in my head all day, which I’ll take as a sign that my brain is craving a bit of Stevie. And why wouldn’t it be? He’s one of those artists whose music feels a little bit like a gift he’s given to the world. There’s not really anyone like him.
When Stevie Wonder was at the peak of his popularity in the early ‘70s, he was going through what’s been dubbed his “classic period”, as he released a killer run of albums, Music of my Mind in 1972, Talking Book in 1972, Innervisions in 1973, and Fulfillingness’ First Finale in 1974. Despite this, he was ready to retire. He’d been recording music since he was 11, and he had been greatly affected by a recent trip to Ghana where he had done humanitarian work. He wanted to pack it in and move to Ghana to do meaningful work in the place where his ancestors are from.
His contract with Motown Records was ending, he had done a farewell tour, it all looked like Stevie Wonder would retire. That was until he managed to negotiate a very good deal with Motown where he got, at the time, an unprecedented $38 million with a $13 million advance, full creative control of his music, and it even stipulated that if Motown Records was to be sold, the sale would need to have his approval.
Released in 1976, Songs in the Key of Life is Stevie Wonder’s first release after securing the new deal. Reportedly, he’d made anywhere between 100 to 200 songs for it over a period of two years, and whittled it down to the 1 hour and 45 minute behemoth of a record that it is.
For anyone else, an album being an hour and 45 minutes has big “friend who sent link to 8-minute YouTube video must be fucking delusional”-energy, but I’d be sad if it was any shorter. Wonder wanted the album to contain as many things as possible, saying he wanted to “cover as many topics as I could, in dealing with the title and representing what it was about.”
It feels like he took the energy of wanting to do humanitarian work to make the world better and channelled that into his music, with the album containing almost a manifesto of his view of life. From the opener, “Love’s in Need of Love Today”, it’s clearly an album with a message. Stevie Wonder is one of those artists who reach some sort of a higher plane in making music that the rest of us are scrambling to even begin to get to. In the songs, you can hear the fact that he thinks of music differently to most, there’s such a depth to the sound:
I am consumed by music... I can see music. Each instrument has its own colour. It's like a puzzle and when I fit all the pieces together, that's my high.
“As”, “Sir Duke” and “Isn’t She Lovely” are obviously all-time greats, but there are so many incredible songs on here, it’s hard to just choose other favourites. I love “Joy Inside My Tears” and “Love's in Need of Love Today”, those might be my favourites. But they’re all impeccable, no skips on such a long album is a feat.
It’s such a clear 10/10, it’s not even a consideration. If there ever was something I’d describe as high-vibrational, it would be this. I throw the word genius around fairly often, but if not him, then who?
Also, “Have a Talk with God” was apparently nominated for a Grammy for Best Inspirational Performance. I didn’t even know that was once a thing. Apparently it ran between 1962 to 1986. Could we bring that back? That sounds fun. We could use a bit of that.