Stevie Wonder's "Classic Period"

Has anyone ever created a better string of five consecutive albums?

-Music Of My Mind
-Talking Book
-Innervisions
-Fulfillingness' First Finale
-Songs In The Key Of Life

When I think that this guy was only in his early 20's when he started making these albums, and hadn't even hit 30 by the time they were all released, I am a bit floored.

The depth of these songs is amazing. From the experimental sounds on Music Of My Mind... the talkbox, the synths... "Superwoman" sounds like it could have been a James Taylor classic. Not something typical of a young black R&B/Funk artist at the time.

"Maybe Your Baby" oozes funk and is a precursor to some of the stuff our good buddy Prince would later do (btw.. I love the live version of this track Prince and Stevie do together. I believe you can find it on Youtube).

"I Believe When I Fall In Love (It Will Be Forever)" mixes a bit of R&B with a soft rock chorus.

Innervisions contains scathing political rants wrapped in beats that almost make you forget the lyrics, and "All In Love Is Fair" and "Golden Lady" are two of the most beautiful ballads to ever grace my ears.

FFF expands on Innervisions and widens the sounds. More funky in spots ("You Haven't Done Nothin'... which features the Jackson 5) more abstract in others ("Smile Please") and more haunting in "They Won't Go When I Go" (very Donny Hathaway-esque).

And what is there to say about "Songs In The Key of Life" that hasn't already been said? The scope of talent who worked with Stevie to bring this together... form Michael Sembello to Herbie Hancock.. the engineers, the backing vocalists (Shirley Brewer in particular stands out with her co-lead on "Ordinary Pain")

That's not even taking into account that three out of four albums prior to the classic five - For Once In My Life, Signed, Sealed & Delivered and Where I'm Coming From were great in their own right and saw Stevie slowly moving out of the Motown grasps and implementing more funk into his arsenal.

I am not a singer or a musician (I can play air guitar and air keyboards), but I would love to pick Stevie's mind for a few hours.
[Edited 8/22/09 21:26pm]

Well said

Stevie's 70s albums are mindblowing.'Songs In The Key Of Life' is my all-time favorite album.Absolutely amazing!

they are essential recordings that if you never heard them or don't own them you have to get/buy them RIGHT NOW!

stevie is my favorite artist.

seems like MOST great artists do their best, most lasting work around that age.

errant said:

And its amazing how Stevie played so many instruments... percussion, drums, keyboards... and how he could work the synths and do the bass and other tracks on them.

Also, if you listen to "Maybe Your Baby", you can hear Stevie doing some "Hee-Hee!"s before Mike took them to another level.

Music of My Mind is probably the most underrated of the "classic period" albums.

stevie's music takes you on a journey even when you don't play an instrument but when you do, and you see how complex and how he throws in 9th 11th and 13th chords, and then the chord progression, it really makes you appreciate it on another level.

stevie's chords never go the way you'd expect them to go.

Stevie predated Peter Frampton and Roger Troutman when it came to the talk box (just like Sly predated people with the vocoder).

Timmy84 said:

Marrk said:

Timmy84 said:

Music of My Mind is probably the most underrated of the "classic period" albums.

Not by me.

But this period, yeah never bettered by anyone i think.

It was like clockwork Stevie won album of the year at the Grammy's. Didn't Paul Simon thank Stevie for NOT releasing an album the year he won?

I love this one (love the whole album anyway) but it's just stevie singing and playing with basic instrumentation, yet the playing is rhythmic almost percussion-like. great to play when you just woke up and hear the birds and all.

This song I'm convinced inspired the Gap Band and Charlie Wilson in particular:



Stevie never gets credit for vocally and musically inspiring Charlie Wilson/The Gap Band. They spent years trying to create something similar to this!
[Edited 8/23/09 2:14am]

Timmy84 said:

Marrk said:

Not by me.

But this period, yeah never bettered by anyone i think.

It was like clockwork Stevie won album of the year at the Grammy's. Didn't Paul Simon thank Stevie for NOT releasing an album the year he won?

Yeah he sure did.

And yeah, you NEVER hear Music of My Mind mentioned as much as the other four. That and Fullfillingness' First Finale. That one is probably the most underrated even with a Grammy win.

Timmy84 said:

NMuzakNSoul said:

Timmy84 said:

This song I'm convinced inspired the Gap Band and Charlie Wilson in particular:



Stevie never gets credit for vocally inspiring Charlie Wilson/The Gap Band. They spent years trying to create something similar to this!

a lot of charlie's riffs are typical stevie.

Timmy84 said:

NMuzakNSoul said:

a lot of charlie's riffs are typical stevie.

I put it more bluntly: Charlie Wilson's a Stevie Wonder clone.

this ballad is underrated also. a lot of people don't even know this song.

NMuzakNSoul said:

Timmy84 said:

I put it more bluntly: Charlie Wilson's a Stevie Wonder clone.

and i love the haunting feel of this song. let's just add this album to the classic period çause there's a lot of great stuff on it.

Timmy84 said:

NMuzakNSoul said:

and i love the haunting feel of this song. let's just add this album to the classic period çause there's a lot of great stuff on it.

Yeah most of the tracks had a psychedelic soul/Tempts approach to it. This was the album Berry did NOT want released. Stevie did this as a response to What's Going On. I'm glad he basically told Berry to fuck off when he made his "comeback" so to say on Music of My Mind.

As for Where I'm Coming From, "I Wanna Talk to You", "I Never Dreamed You Leave in Summer" and "Do Yourself a Favor" are the cuts.

Don't forget "if you really love me".

NMuzakNSoul said:

Don't forget "if you really love me".

"Do Yourself A Favor" is ridiculously funky. Why the hell is the CD version of that album out of print?

One thing I love on Songs In The Key of Life is the contrast of music to lyrics. He has two songs like this:

"Joy Inside My Tears" is a song of joy, but the melody sounds sad. "Another Star" is a tale of heartbreak, but the melody is incredibly upbeat and groovy.

Pardon my stupidity, as a noob, am I not allowed to post Youtube vids?
[Edited 8/23/09 2:38am]

Superstition said:

What I meant was I couldn't figure out how to do it, but of course as soon as I ask, I see the "Code help" button

Superstition said:

What I meant was I couldn't figure out how to do it, but of course as soon as I ask, I see the "Code help" button

stevie pretty much dominated the 70s and shaped and changed music forever that age. so versetile , so unique . no wonder people said they where glad he didnt have an album out so they could stand a chance on the grammys

Great timing. I was actually going to ask this on a new thread.

Does anyone know if Stevie has a vault of unreleased tracks?

I have heard this rumor a number of times before and find it hard to believe he has anything even remotely close to Prince's catalog of unreleased material.

My main basis for this opinion is none of his reissues (or the 4 CD box set) have extra tracks, and I have seen/heard very few bootlegs or outakes of his studio work.

For the reocrd, I would LOVE to be wrong about my presumption...