Today’s Vinyl Vibrations episode features Stevie Wonder in his early years, and more specifically his Instrumental compositions. Stevie Wonder is an international pop icon, a singer-songwriter, a record producer, AND a multi-instrumental musician (for example…harmonica, keyboards, drums, bass guitar, guitar, and an incredibly talented singer. Wonder is an innovator – he pioneered the use of the early analog synthesizer during the 1970s. His albums are individual works of art, carefully crafted and thematic. Stevie Wonder’s influence extends across a range of genres that include R&B, pop, soul, gospel, funk, and jazz. He has often been referred to as a “ONE MAN BAND” because of his broad range of talents in music composition, music production and most of all – – music performance.

Born Stevland Hardaway Morris, Stevie Wonder was born on May 13, 1950, in Saginaw, Michigan. That’s near Saginaw Bay off Lake Huron, about 100 miles northwest of Detroit. In the 1950s, Saginaw County had several General Motors plants and many companies building parts that went down to the big DETROIT assembly plants. It was a booming economic period for the entire US auto industry.

It was a difficult birth. Wonder was born six weeks premature and placed in an oxygen-rich incubator, which  resulted in retinopathy of prematurity – causing his blindness.

When he was 4, his Mother divorced with his father, and along with her 3 kids, moved 100 miles down the road to bustling Detroit…. home of MOTOWN RECORDS.  At age 8, Steveland attended the Whitestone Baptist Church on Detroit’s west side. There, he developed his musical talents — playing piano, drums and harmonica — and he also sang in the choir and there became a soloist. Stevie was quickly recognized as a prodigy.. He further developed his singing talent with a friend …and they performed as Stevie and John on street corners.

When he was just 11, this musical prodigy was discovered by Ronnie White of the MIRACLES, and that in-turn resulted in a meeting with Motown Records founder Barry Gordy, who signed him with the TAMLA label of Motown Records. At that time, he was given the professional name Little Stevie Wonder. That was 1961 and Wonder had a 5-year rolling contract with royalties that were to be held in trust until he was 21. The weekly pay for this young artist was meager – a stipend of just $2.50 a week plus a tutor for Stevie when he was on tour. That $2.50 weekly stipend would be worth about $25 a week today.

At age 12 he enrolled in Michigan School for the Blind in Lansing, Michigan.

BIT BUCKET

Saginaw is also where I was born, just 2 years after Stevie. My family also moved from Saginaw to Detroit, around same year as Stevie – 1954.

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M1 How Can You Believe (Stevie Wonder) Eivets Rednow, Motown Records LP 1968 (3:10)

PLAY BACKGROUND – HOW CAN YOU BELIEVE

To start today’s podcast, I feature the album titled Eivets Rednow. There is some humor in the album title. Eivets Rednow is Stevie Wonder spelled backwards, and on the first release of the album, Stevie’s name did not appear on the cover. The album is also UNIQUE for Stevie as it is an INSTRUMENTAL album. No lyrics. No poetry.

This an easy listening POP and R&B instrumental album, released on the Gordy Records label in 1968. Gordy was one of the four MOTOWN labels – those labels were Gordy, Tamla, Motown, and Soul.

The release I have was released on the MOTOWN LABEL and adds “How do you spell Stevie Wonder backwards?” …on the cover.  Stevie was only 18 at the time of this release, although this is Wonder’s ninth studio album! Prolific. Boundless energy.

Featured on this song is the skillful harmonica melody. Wonder plays the harmonica, drums, piano, but most notably, his harmonica style is unique, very melodic, rich with feeling, and unmistakably Stevie Wonder, listening to it 55 years later.

Have a listen to this wonderful song and Stevie Wonder’s distinctive harmonica line.

And Now

How Can You Believe

PLAY M1

Don’t Touch That Dial

that was M1    M1 How Can You Believe (Stevie Wonder) Eivets Rednow, LP 1968 a short 3:10 in length, a pop tune.

Song credits

Credits go to

Stevie Wonder, music composer arranger and producer

• Stevie Wonder Instruments –
  • Harmonica for the song melody
  • Percussion
  • Piano and Synthesizer
• Benny Benjamin – drums
• James Jamerson – bass guitar
• The Funk Brothers – instrumentation

More on the FUNK BROTHERS later.

M2 Which Way the Wind (Stevie Wonder) Eivets Rednow, Motown Records LP, 1968 (2:40)

PLAY BACKGROUND – WHICH WAY THE WIND

Now from that same album Eivets Rednow, on the track titled WHICH WAY THE WIND, there is a clavinet instrument on this song. The CLAVINET was a new instrument – –  an electrically amplified CLAVICHORD and it was first manufactured by the HOHNER Company in Germany, starting in 1964. HOHNER is known for harmonicas, accordions, and recorders. We all played the recorder in elementary school, remember?

The CLAVICHORD itself is a very old keyboard instrument from the LATE MIDDLE AGES and was used from years 1500 to 1800. Here is a sample of what a CLAVICHORD sounds like. This instrument was made in about the year 1600.    It is an amazing sound coming from this 400-year old instrument….

PLAY EXAMPLE CLAVICHORD SAMPLE

Also featured on this album is THE FUNK BROTHERS. THE FUNK BROTHERS is a Detroit-based collective of first-call studio session musicians that backed most MOTOWN records in the 1960s. Similar concept to THE WRECKING CREW collective over in LA. The FUNK BROTHERS eventually moved to LA in 1972. You will hear this ensemble on hits like “My Girl”, “I Heard It Through the Grapevine”, “Baby Love”, ” I Was Made to Love Her”, “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone”, “The Tears of a Clown”, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”….

…and of course on this earlier song with Stevie Wonder WHICH WAY THE WIND.

And now,  Which Way the Wind, 1968 with the brass and strings of THE FUNK BROTHES and Stevie drives the Melody on the HOHNER CLAVINET.

Play M2

Don’t Touch That Dial

That was M2  M2 Which Way the Wind (Stevie Wonder) Eivets Rednow, LP 1968

Stevie Wonder also used that Hohner Clavinet in his 1972 hit “Superstition”. Here is a bit from “Superstition”……..

PLAY SUPERSTITION CLAVINET EXAMPLE

Credits

• Stevie Wonder Music composer, arranger and producer, and the Hohner Clavinet
• Benny Benjamin – drums
• James Jamerson – bass guitar
• The Funk Brothers – “instrumentation” session musicians

In 1972, four years after this album’s release, Stevie Wonder toured the US with The Rolling Stones American Tour. I was fortunate to have seen that show at the Rubber Bowl in Akron, Ohio. Stevie did the warm-up show. He was truly a one-man band. He was guided around the stage by his team and played the bass, drums, keyboards, percussion, harmonica vamps – – plus his pop hits… quite a show that evening at the Rubber Bowl. Frankly, I was more impressed by Stevie Wonder’s incredible performance than the main act.

BIT BUCKET

The album failed to get much attention

A single was then released with one of the catchy songs, that is the song ALFIE, by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and the ALFIE single reached number 66 on the U.S. Pop charts.  

M3 Contusion (Stevie Wonder) Songs in the Key of Life, Motown Records 2LP, 1976 (3:45)

PLAY BACKGROUND – CONTUSION

The double album- Songs in the Key of Life, was released in September 1976. This double album has many different styles and is complex. Some find the album hard to absorb, but I believe this is one of the three best Stevie Wonder albums. The marketplace responded …. this album became the first by an American artist to debut straight at No. 1 in the Billboard charts, where it stood for 14 non-consecutive weeks.

On this instrumental, Stevie is the composer, however the musical performance features Philadelphia session guitarist MICHAEL SEMBELLO. Sembello was featured on the earlier album, FULFILLINGNESS FIRST FINALE (1974) and also is A CORE ARTIST on this album, SONGS IN THE KEY OF LIFE.

And now Contusion

Play M3

DON’T TOUCH THAT DIAL

That Was M3 M3 Contusion (Stevie Wonder) Songs in the Key of Life, Motown Records Inc, 1976

Credits M3

CREDITS

• Gregory Phillinganes – Keyboard
• Mike Sembello – Lead guitar
• Raymond Pounds – Drums
• Nathan Watts – Bass
• Stevie Wonder – Composer Producer Arranger

BIT BUCKET

• Michael Gray, Josie James, Shirley Brewer, Artece May – Background vocals (doo sound)

M4 Easy Goin’ Evening / My Mama’s Call (Stevie Wonder) A Something’s Extra for Songs in the Key of Life, Motown Records 7”EP, 1976 (3:58)

PLAY BACKGROUND – EASY GOIN’

And now, one more from the SONGS IN THE KEY OF LIFE album.

The other very cool thing about vinyl records was that some artists went the extra step of providing liner notes. These liner notes would include things like music and production credits, maybe the lyrics, and maybe some analysis or critique. These notes are informative, and the idea is that you are captivated while listening and reading the notes on these new songs. In this case, Wonder went overboard, and added a 22-page booklet with all the song lyrics and song credits. So Songs in The Key of Life is a treasured collectible.

Another great thing about Wonder is that he is so prolific that he published in double album sets. That’s a LOT of new music to absorb. The records were numbered to accommodate a stackable record player so that songs were heard in the intended order. But Stevie did not stop at 2 LP records, there was more … there was a BONUS 7” record! It looks like a 45-rpm disc, but it plays at LP speed of 33-1/3. Because of this slower speed, 4 bonus songs easily fit on this small format. One of the songs on the bonus disc is titled  Easy Goin’ Evening, a harmonica song composed by Stevie. The bonus 7” EP was produced arranged and composed by SW.

And now M4  Easy Goin’ Evening

Play M4

DON’T TOUCH THAT DIAL

That was M4  Easy Goin’ Evening (Stevie Wonder) and the 7” disk is titled “A Something’s Extra for Songs in the Key of Life”, Motown Records Inc, 1976 (3:58)

Credits

• Stevie Wonder produced arranged and composed the 4 songs on this bonus disc.
• Stevie Wonder on
  • Harmonica
  • Electric piano
  • Drums
• Nathan Watts – Bass

NEWS

• Songs in the Key of Life became the second-best selling album of 1977 in the US (behind only Fleetwood Mac’s blockbuster Rumours).
• And the album won Album of the Year and two other Grammys. The album ranks 4th on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

BIT BUCKET

• Liner notes are a thing of the past.

M5 The First Garden (Stevie Wonder) Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants, Motown Records 2LP, 1979 (2:32)

PLAY BACKGROUND – THE FIRST GARDEN

Now for a “mostly” instrumental album, a soundtrack album, a thematic album.

Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants is Stevie Wonder’s creation in 1979. Another Double LP set.

It is the soundtrack to the documentary THE SECRET LIFE OF PLANTS based on a 1973 book by the same name by Peter Thompkins and Christopher Bird. The documentary featured time-lapse photography of growing plants.

We hear Stevie’s harmonica lead the melody in this first song THE FIRST GARDEN.

A key fact –  this album features the invention of modern-day SAMPLING. This is an early experiment.

Wonder composed with a music sampler called a Computer Music Melodian. This device was invented by Harry Mendel in 1976. It is an analog to digital sampling synthesizer. With this collection of hardware, you could record any sound, the recorded sound would be stored in memory, and you could play it back instantly, but change it to play back at different pitches or speeds for example. That was the beginning of SAMPLING. Many of the NATURE SOUNDS in this song are from this sampler. Stevie recorded and transformed sounds.  Here are some sample sounds…the animal sounds in particular

PLAY EXAMPLE SAMPLED SOUNDS

– interlude section with chirping animal sounds and storms ¾ into the song

Quite a leap in the use of technology in music. Over the years, many competitors emerged and improvements evolved the process of sampling. Today it is all digital and amorphous, sampling.

… and now….

The First Garden

Play M5

DON’T TOUCH THAT DIAL

That was M5 The First Garden (Stevie Wonder) Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants, Motown Records Inc, 1979 (2:32)

Credits:

• Stevie Wonder-Music and All Instruments, Arranger, and Producer
  • Sampler – Computer Music Melodian
  • Harmonica
  • Synthesizer
  • Bass

BIT BUCKET

The Computer Music Melodian was invented by Harry Mendel.

M6 Voyage to India (Stevie Wonder) Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants, Motown Records 2LP, 1979 (6:23)

PLAY BACKGROUND – VOYAGE TO INDIA

JOURNEY THROUGH THE SECRET LIFE was also one of the earliest popular albums to use DIGITAL RECORDING technology, which Wonder used for all his subsequent recordings. Stevie was definitely an early adopter of technology in music production with DIGITAL SAMPLING and DIGITAL RECORDING.

Another cool thing about this album …the front cover lettering was embossed. Interesting. Stevie’s recent LPs were also printed with Braille captions and messages for blind readers, as it was on this album. Feel the embossed letters and the braille on the front and back covers.

Voyage to India is our next song. Here is longer song set of Stevie Wonder. The LP is a bit tricky because on Side 1 there are 6 songs arranged on 7 tracks! Despite the extensive liner notes, I am left guessing that the VOYAGE TO INDIA draws from two tracks.

The first part begins with a western classical string introduction – – violin strings, a double-bass, a cello. No doubt, it was all synthetic, because there are no credits for those instruments. This ends with a crashing sound of thunder…here is a bit of that intro.

PLAY EXAMPLE BALLAD intro to the song

The second part features a melody led by a sitar. The sitar is played by Ben Bridges. Bridges replaced guitarist SEMBELLO whom we heard on CONTUSION. Bridges was a sideman for Wonder from 1975 to 1992 and played rhythm guitar. Here is that sitar sound

PLAY EXAMPLE SITAR 50% in to the song

And Now: Voyage to India 1979

PLAY M6

Don’t Touch That Dial

that was M6 Voyage to India (Stevie Wonder) Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants, Motown Records Inc, 1979 (6:23)

Credits

• Stevie Wonder-Music and All Instruments except Sitar, Arranger, and Producer
  • Piano
  • Synthesizers
  • Bass
• Ben Bridges – Sitar

BIT BUCKET

• Wonder toured briefly with an orchestra in support of the album, and used a newer sampler/synthesizer, the 1979 Fairlight CMI sampler onstage.

M7 Tree (Stevie Wonder) Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants, Motown Records 2LP, 1979 (5:55)

PLAY BACKGROUND – TREE

And now our last song is titled TREE from the JOURNEY THROUGH THE SECRET LIFE OF PLANTS album.

TREE evokes the feelings of strength growth longevity beauty.

Wonder uses upward key changes to add sound and power.

Also he uses the Computer Music Melodian digital sampler and synthesizer to compose some of the songs sounds.

And now M7 Tree – – Stevie Wonder, 1979

Play M5

DON’T TOUCH THAT DIAL

That was M7 Tree (Stevie Wonder) Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants, Motown Records Inc, 1979 (5:55)

Credits

• Stevie Wonder-Music and All Instruments, Arranger, and Producer
  • Piano
  • Synthesizers
  • Bass 

CONCLUSION

That concludes our show today  ….  I hope you enjoyed listening to a different aspect of Stevie Wonder – namely  his instrumental music.

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