To The Wonder
December 19, 2016 4:50 AM   Subscribe

 
"At Least We Still Have Stevie"
posted by Huffy Puffy at 5:07 AM on December 19, 2016


"At Least We Still Have Stevie"

Keep it down! 2016 will hear you!
posted by Strange Interlude at 5:08 AM on December 19, 2016 [29 favorites]


I just called
posted by infini at 5:43 AM on December 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


Huh, I actually knew what they where talking about before clicking on the 'Jammin' on the One' link. And I have not seen or thought about the Cosby Show for 30 years or so.
posted by signal at 6:42 AM on December 19, 2016


I'm Overjoyed.
posted by leotrotsky at 6:45 AM on December 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


One thing I've always loved about Stevie Wonder is the genuine warmth, positivity, and generosity he gives off, both in his music and in his life.

We need more of that in the world.

That he's a musical virtuoso is just icing on the cake. (I have to confess, there's been many times when I've been like, "Who is that?" on the radio, and it's been Stevie. Oh he wrote that too.)
posted by leotrotsky at 7:01 AM on December 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


Even if he's not really blind. /s
posted by leotrotsky at 7:01 AM on December 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


"Superstition", live on Sesame Street.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:06 AM on December 19, 2016 [9 favorites]


Well, that was a lovely start to a Monday morning. I confess, though a Stevie fan from the early 70s, I had no idea he played drums, much less that he's a virtuoso.

Excuse me, I gotta go groove.
posted by corvikate at 7:07 AM on December 19, 2016


Don't SCARE me like that, AlonzoMosleyFBI!
posted by SansPoint at 7:08 AM on December 19, 2016 [6 favorites]


Thank you for reminding me of that Sesame Street performance, Halloween Jack. Sad to say, this episode aired six months before I was born, and I only discovered this phenomenal performance about five years ago.

And yet, despite having missed it, I like to think about the little kids who did catch it when it first aired and having their Minds. Fucking. Blown.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 7:50 AM on December 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


God help me, I so, SO love Stevie Wonder! Thank you for this post!
posted by magstheaxe at 8:01 AM on December 19, 2016


RE: Wonder's legendary Sesame Street performance - that kid in red in the background is fuckin' epic.
posted by magstheaxe at 8:04 AM on December 19, 2016 [3 favorites]


I preferred George Clinton's Captain Kangaroo performance
posted by thelonius at 8:24 AM on December 19, 2016


Keep it down! 2016 will hear you!

Superstition ain't the way.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 9:42 AM on December 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


"Listen to more Stevie Wonder" was a new year's resolution of mine a few years ago (I like fun, attainable and "hey, I learned something new I like"-type resolutions) and that was a GOOD fucking year to be me.
posted by ersatzkat at 10:16 AM on December 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


STEVIE WONDER IS A GIFT FROM GOD THAT WE MORTALS DO NOT DESERVE
posted by tristeza at 10:24 AM on December 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


Nooo! What are you doing, bringing the baleful eye of 2016 on another potential victim?

...okay, cool links though.
posted by tavella at 10:34 AM on December 19, 2016


Don't worry: as everyone knows, on Saturn people live to be 205.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 11:25 AM on December 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


Our HS biology teacher played The Secret Life of Plants during botany lab work (not my fave Stevie, but it went well as a lab soundtrack;)
posted by ovvl at 4:34 PM on December 19, 2016


Whee!

I was in a music appreciation class as an elective my freshman year of high school to get an easy A. I knew we'd be listening to a lot of classical, folk, bluegrass, and all the other stuff the teacher liked, but one day she played this about music that was written to protest something. And at the lines "Jackson 5 sing along again, say ("doo de wop...") Sing it loud for your people! Stand up, be counted!" my eyes welled right up. Nothing oblique here: Stand up! Be counted!

Stevie openly included in his exhortation to Sing it loud for your people! the kids that Berry Gordy meant to be the extension of the saccharine, toothless pop he would try to continue to sell to white America, and Stevie's like, N'uh-uh. "Jackson 5, join along with me...!" And so they did.

If he had only written and performed just this song and that had been the only one of his career, that's enough for him to be in my personal musical pantheon.
posted by droplet at 5:34 PM on December 19, 2016


I've seen a lot of live performances over the years but seeing Stevie crash Janelle Monae's Hollywood Bowl show a couple years ago was one of the best ever. I learned all the words to "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" to sing to my second baby when he was born.
posted by potrzebie at 9:57 PM on December 19, 2016


Hotter Than July came out when I was 14, and it was one of the first albums (except maybe for the Star Wars soundtrack) that worked its way so deeply into my consciousness that it probably physically changed my DNA. For a white kid in (very, very white) rural Oregon, it was also my first window into racism, civil rights and privilege. "Cash in Your Face" and "Happy Birthday" and the album liner notes were as educational as any social studies class I took in high school. The album also included incontrovertible evidence that Stevie is a ballad master.
posted by vverse23 at 9:16 PM on December 20, 2016


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