Post by petrolino on May 11, 2019 23:03:30 GMT
Stevie Wonder
'Signed, Sealed, Delivered'
'Donald Fagen's The Nightfly was released on October 1, 1982 on vinyl and cassette. It was also released in its first prerecorded digital form, via half-inch Beta and VHS format cassettes issued by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab. In addition, a matching folio for the album was released by Cherry Lane Music in February 1983. It was first widely available on compact disc in 1984; a reader's poll conducted by Digital Audio magazine the following year ranked it among the best releases of the time, alongside Security (1982) by Peter Gabriel (another fully digital recording) and Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. (1984). Early CD copies, however, suffered from being manufactured from third and fourth generation masters. Nichols discovered this when he received a call from Stevie Wonder, who told him that his CD copy of The Nightfly sounded "funny." Nichols penned an essay in Recording Engineer and Producer, criticizing record companies' apparent carelessness in manufacturing the then-nascent format. The Nightfly was reissued on various disc formats four times in recent years, each time with a multichannel mix: on DVD-Audio in 2002, on DualDisc in 2004, on MVI in 2007 and on hybrid multichannel SACD in The Warner Premium Sound series by Warner Japan in 2011.'
- Wikipedia
'Take Up A Course In Happiness' - Stevie Wonder
'Songs In The Key Of Life' (Released: September 1976 / Label: Tamla)
"Stevie Wonder’s legacy ranks among the most powerful in pop music, though his story remains elusive. His songwriting and his voice echo through virtually all R&B-related sounds that have followed him, from Michael Jackson to R. Kelly to Kanye West, yet there is no major biography, no documentary, nothing that presents the full sweep of the most dominant and defining artist of the 1970s. And make no mistake—it was an era of superstar acts and chart-busting albums, but no one was as universally loved, respected, and honored as he was.
To be sure, Wonder has done himself no favors in getting his story told. Long ago, the media figured out that his world runs on “Stevie Time,” that schedules and deadlines don’t apply to this towering genius, whether that means showing up for an interview or delivering an album.
“You set a goal in your mind,” he told me in 2005, when the record A Time to Love was released after many years’ delay, “and you say, O.K., this is what these songs need to have, this project needs to have, and you don't really settle for anything less than that.” As good as his word, Wonder has not put out a new album since.
But even Stevie Wonder realized that there was one project of his that demanded to be recognized and appreciated while he was still able, and in 2014 he mounted a tour to present, in full, his 1976 magnum opus *Songs in the Key of Life, *which turns 40 next month. The album—two LPs plus an additional four-song EP—was the culmination of a historic period of creativity, a concentrated burst of music matched only by a handful of artists (mid-’60s Bob Dylan, early ’70s Rolling Stones, ’80s Prince). Its ambition and scope were unprecedented, its power and resonance were timeless—and when it was done, he never approached its caliber or impact again."
To be sure, Wonder has done himself no favors in getting his story told. Long ago, the media figured out that his world runs on “Stevie Time,” that schedules and deadlines don’t apply to this towering genius, whether that means showing up for an interview or delivering an album.
“You set a goal in your mind,” he told me in 2005, when the record A Time to Love was released after many years’ delay, “and you say, O.K., this is what these songs need to have, this project needs to have, and you don't really settle for anything less than that.” As good as his word, Wonder has not put out a new album since.
But even Stevie Wonder realized that there was one project of his that demanded to be recognized and appreciated while he was still able, and in 2014 he mounted a tour to present, in full, his 1976 magnum opus *Songs in the Key of Life, *which turns 40 next month. The album—two LPs plus an additional four-song EP—was the culmination of a historic period of creativity, a concentrated burst of music matched only by a handful of artists (mid-’60s Bob Dylan, early ’70s Rolling Stones, ’80s Prince). Its ambition and scope were unprecedented, its power and resonance were timeless—and when it was done, he never approached its caliber or impact again."
- Alan Light, Pitchfork
"Songs In The Key Of Life is a hard, bold swing for the fences, employing more than 100 backing musicians and working on a canvas that incorporated pop, jazz, rock, and classical music. Wonder fearlessly wrote about inner-city degradation, both with a stately synthesized string-based backing on “Village Ghetto Land” and a relentlessly funky snap on “Black Man.” He’s religiously pious on “Have A Talk With God,” and lightly romantic on “Knocks Me Off My Feet.” He delves into jazz-rock jamming on “Contusion,” and then pulls back for the disciplined, feel-good pop of “Sir Duke.” Many of the songs leisurely run into the six, seven, or even eight-minute range, but they’re always guided by Wonder’s unerring sense for hooks. Wonder had the power and prestige to fully bend the ’70s superstar machine to satisfy his every creative whim, and he was determined to pull off a supremely grand gesture on a very large and public stage. Songs was the rarest of beasts: It was expected to be nothing short of a masterpiece that also did blockbuster numbers, and it absolutely delivered on both counts."
- Steven Hyden, The A.V. Club
Stevie Wonder performs in Harlem, New York
'Journey Through "The Secret Life of Plants"' (Soundtrack Released: October 1979 \ Label: Tamla)
"The most problematic aspect of this album is the way it’s been presented: as Stevie Wonder’s first major studio release since Songs in the Key of Life in 1976. Well, yes and no. Most of the music here is from the soundtrack for a three-year-old film, The Secret Life of Plants, which was, in turn, based on a best-selling book.
As movie music, the LP succeeds, sometimes to mesmerizing effect. The entire first side, for example, coheres as a musical-botanical Talking Book of Genesis. The opening cut is called “Earth’s Creation,” and for once such a presumptuous title doesn’t overreach. Out of a cool, primordial silence emerge the wet, squeaky sounds of seeds thrusting up and out, like one of those Walt Disney nature documentaries in which stop-action photography shows a tulip blossoming in seconds.
Stevie Wonder creates sounds that are impossible to identify: the high, wafting trills that float through Journey through the Secret Life of Plants‘ four sides might have been made by synthesizers, a string section, clarinets, any combination of these or none at all. Wonder’s technical mastery (he produced the disc and plays almost every instrument) works well in the service of the all-suggestive mysticism at the center of both the film’s subject (plants’ secret lives as a key to human knowledge) and his own career.
But Wonder is caught in a dilemma. He’s too passionate to follow fully the old adage that good movie music stays in the background, repeats itself and guides the observer from scene to scene in an unobtrusive, reassuring manner. Sometimes he will and sometimes he won’t."
As movie music, the LP succeeds, sometimes to mesmerizing effect. The entire first side, for example, coheres as a musical-botanical Talking Book of Genesis. The opening cut is called “Earth’s Creation,” and for once such a presumptuous title doesn’t overreach. Out of a cool, primordial silence emerge the wet, squeaky sounds of seeds thrusting up and out, like one of those Walt Disney nature documentaries in which stop-action photography shows a tulip blossoming in seconds.
Stevie Wonder creates sounds that are impossible to identify: the high, wafting trills that float through Journey through the Secret Life of Plants‘ four sides might have been made by synthesizers, a string section, clarinets, any combination of these or none at all. Wonder’s technical mastery (he produced the disc and plays almost every instrument) works well in the service of the all-suggestive mysticism at the center of both the film’s subject (plants’ secret lives as a key to human knowledge) and his own career.
But Wonder is caught in a dilemma. He’s too passionate to follow fully the old adage that good movie music stays in the background, repeats itself and guides the observer from scene to scene in an unobtrusive, reassuring manner. Sometimes he will and sometimes he won’t."
- Ken Tucker, Rolling Stone
'Other surprise to Hawkwind's "Levitation": The album was recorded digitally. This was back in 1980, digital recording was still in its infancy, Stevie Wonder (starting with "The Secret Life of Plants"), Ry Cooder ("Bop Till you Drop"), and a little known Canadian prog act named TRUE MYTH were all recording digitally around this time, and HAWKWIND were obvious early newcomers to this technology. That gives "Levitation" a clean sound, but at least it doesn't have that synthetic and sterile sound that you might come across with too many digital recordings a few years later (specifically the mid-1980s and onward), no big '80s drum sounds, no synthetic-sounding synthesizers here. And at least Tim Blake was still using his old Mini Moog and Synth "A" synthesizers, plus a polyphonic synth (which I believe he also used on Blake's New Jerusalem). So what you have, thankfully, is HAWKWIND still remaining true to themselves, although this one is a bit more song-oriented than they often do, making it one of their more accessible albums.'
- Prog Archives
Stevie Wonder performs in Detroit, Michigan
