"Comes a time, when a blind man takes you hand,
says: "Don't you see, gotta make it somehow,
on the dreams, you still believe..."
Just tell your brother you were quoting The Byrds, not the bible. 
"Bah-Bay!!"
"Everythang is alright!!"
"UPTIGHT - OUTASIGHT!!!"
-LSW
Isn't it amazing that a blind man can see so clearly?
my favorite comment on stevie wonder came from paul simon as he accepted the grammy for "there goes rhymin' simon." he said:
i'd like to thank stevie wonder for not releasing "Songs in the Key of Life" until this year which made this award possible for me."
Aw, *man*, I wish I'd known. Stevie's another artist I'd like to see live before one of us dies.
Sheeee-it, I am now sadder than ever that I couldn't get tix for this. PRINCE standing in? Yowza.
And "Songs in the Key of Life" is a constant on my iPod. "Another Star" is my "get my ass moving so I can get dressed and get my makeup on and my hair waxed out and get to work ANYWAY" song--kind of a Psychic 911 Emergency Alarm to be pulled on days when I would call in sick/dead/demoralized otherwise.
"Reggae Woman" is the funkiest tune in the world. Period.
Of course I mean that in a good way.
Prince playing guitar on "Superstition"?
They better release that concert on DVD.
LM,
Why isn't At the Close of a Century a decent Wonder retrospective? Not being snarky, just honestly wondering.
“LM,
Why isn't At the Close of a Century a decent Wonder retrospective? Not being snarky, just honestly wondering.”
Well...virtually every music “head” I know, especially the Stevie nuts while acknowledging “Close Of a Century” as being very good, still doesn't quite cover the bases as it could for an artist of Stevie's caliber.
As one of those old-school Stevie “nuts”, I own virtually every album of his—including a rare vinyl of his pre-emancipation “Let's give the kid some breathing room” instrumental “Eivets Rednow” album from '68. Stevie's put out SO MUCH quality music that his first decent greatest hits compiliation, 1977's now out-of-print (stupidly, I might add) “Looking Back” anthology album consisted of three albums in itself—and ended the selection of hits at 1970.
That's a three LP greatest hits package of Stevie—with every cut included a winner—that doesn't even go into the so-called “classic phase” of his career.
We then got in '82, “Original Musiquarium” which kind of picked up where “Looking Back” left off, including the big hits—but not the B-sides and non-radio monsters—from the “Innervisions”-through-“Hotter Than July” golden period. Two discs that package was, and it was nowhere near as compleat as the previous compilation was. So, for all the incredible music it had, it left out maybe just as much.
No “As”, No “Love Is In Need Of Love Today”, No “Pastime Paradise” “Come Back As A Flower”, “Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing” or “All In Love Is Fair”.
Even with that—we now stand at five LP's worth of greatest hits material with no repeats. (!) Damn!
“Close of a Century” does a good job of fusing the “Looking Back” anthology with “Musiquarium” while filling in “Musiquarium's” blanks, but what it lacked for me, and a lot of others was the care it needed insofar as research and better-quality liner notes, and yes...even alternate takes, demos and extra goodies from that legendary “magic trunk” of Stevie's. The things I found out separate from the liner notes from “Century”? His version of “Until You Come Back To Me” while recorded in 1966, was shelved as a demo, and becaame a legendary “vault” song in the industry. Aretha heard about it, recorded it in '73 and took it to #1 on the Soul chart.
Stevie's version wasn't released until '77 as a throw-in on “Looking Back”, and it fit right in with the material from it's original time-frame when you heard it in context. It too became a radio hit 11 years after it's recoding date.
And get this, his “All I Do” from the 1980's “Hotter Than July” was already a 12-year-old chestnut. He wrote that song in '68 for the late Tammi Terrell, who recorded a magnificent, moody version of it that never got released—not until five years or so ago on the wonderful (pun accidental) British Motown “vaults” compilation “A Cellarful of Motown”.
Turns out he was a big-time song contributor to the Hitsville Soul assembly line for far longer than we originally assumed. “Century's” notes could have given us more about that—and as to the selections themselves, while they do the job and spackle over the previous rough spots (What the hell was up with the awful “Song Review” mish-mash from a few years back?), some special extra treats would have been the thing that would have truly iced the cake for the “heads” out there.
For example: There's a track on '68's “Signed, Sealed Delivered” album called “Sugar”.
Stevie is the drummer on it. And it is an amazing song—a funk/James Brown workout with the little kid from Saginaw channeling his idol Benny Benjamin amd taking an A-bomb to the drum kit. The rest of the Funk Brothers race after Stevie, matching his pace, resulting in an electric piece of music that is not just a “filler” track, but a harbinger of what was coming a few years later from a then-freed “Genius”.
But it didn't make the cut—along with a few other seminal and equally important B-sides. It really just may be that it's too difficult to do. Even with his relative descent from the firmament since the 90's began, he operated at such a high level for so long that it's probably hard to cull a definitive “best of” with the proper “extra” accoutrements out of that body of work.
I mean Dylan's “Biograph” good as it is, misses things and is mow dated.
Those infamous Beatles “Red” and “Blue” sets, while covering the hits, never did it for the hard-core fans.
And the Sinatra catalogue just got fixed up, and has so many compilations that cover so much ground, you can't make everyone who digs him happy.
Problem is, with R&B/Soul, when certain elements go out of print as they often do—you don't see 'em for years—and in some cases, decades.
The Stevie stuff I want to see 'em get right—with one master set, great notes, and the extras before they fade back into the haze of the vault.
I'll gladly take “Century”...but dammit, I want more! 
I have somewhere a record my uncle left behind because it had no sleeve. It was called something on the order of "Little Stevie Wonder, 12 year old miracle blind boy plays piano and sings!" Who needs a sleeve when that kind of hype is on the center label?
"Golden Lady" is the song I use to get out of my deep funks and depression. My very best friend introduced me to Stevie Wonder when we were about 10 years old and I'm a fan 38 yers later!!
I can't understand why more Stevie Wonder songs have not become jazz standards. Many are suitable, and have wonderful melody and changes, and they would swing.
I'm sure they will.
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