Songs in the Key of Stevie
It's been years. When will the long-awaited new album happen?
Watching Stevie Wonder kill it celebrating a special award for Motown founders Barry Gordy and Smokey Robinson not long ago was joyous. I was reminded again (as when I saw him live about ten years ago at Pine Knob and on other awards show since) how amazing Wonder sounds, even now at 72.
And yet, my second thought immediately went to the second thought I always have when it comes to Stevie in the last few decades: My intense wish that he has one more classic album left in him.
From Fingertips* on through the 60s released a string of classic pop masterpieces — many songs that exuded an incalculable joy that is somehow part of his DNA. And if that’s all he ever did that would be enough to put him in the pantheon of pop music. But that was just the beginning.
Stevie’s run of albums starting in the early 70s is widely (and rightfully) considered one of the best in pop/rock history. That run is usually agreed upon as starting with Talking Book (’72) then Innervisions (’73), Fulfillingness’ First Finale (’74) and culminating with Songs in the Key of Life (’76) — a double album to boot.
I would add 1971’s Music of My Mind to the list, adding to a creative and commercial run that (IMHO) rivals similar runs by The Beatles and Prince. It’s an amazing body of work. 1980’s Hotter than July was no slouch, but things starter to slip after that. There were signs of brilliance, but a sense of diminishing returns followed.
Which brings us to the modern Wonder — which has been scattershot at best. Like many artists of his generation, Stevie was tried to stay current collaborating with younger artists and looking back at his storied career. He’s also released a few mildly promising singles with the promise of a new album that never seems to materialize.
One problem in his more recent works Conversation Peace (’95) and A Time to Love (’05) is his attempt to stay socially-relevant lyrically. Stevie wrote some of the best socially conscious music ever, but his attempts to recapture that style of writing in his fits and starts of new music released in the last few decades has come up cold. Lyrically, it comes off as simplistic and trite. Maybe he can still pull it off, but I kinda wish he’d stop trying and just focus his writing on something else.
I don’t think I’m alone in wishing that Stevie would go back to his roots with a new album grounded in that classic era. Not derivative of it, but inspired by it. I’d hold up his friend Paul McCartney’s 2005 Chaos and Creation in the Backyard as a template. Bring in a producer like Paul did with Nigel Godrich — someone who willing to push a great artist to do what they do best while only minimally chasing the latest music trends. Mark Ronson comes to mind. Or Rick Rubin who has made a second career doing exactly what Stevie needs for similarly talented artists. I want Moog and clavinet. I want Stevie sitting behind a real drum kit. I want horns. I want funk and beautiful ballads. I want something to spark a new generation to dig into Stevie’s amazing body of work in the ‘60s, ‘70’s and into the 80’s.
Through the Eyes of Wonder is a long-gestating album that reportedly focuses on Stevie’s life as a blind man. That sounds fascinating and maybe it will be that album that so many of us are wishing for.
As one of the artists who genuinely deserves the title “genius,” hope springs eternal.
*Fun Fact: Marvin Gaye played drums on this other Motown songs before he became a singer and writer on the label.