Stevie Wonder

OnstagewithMick Taylor and a creambespatteredMick JaggeratMadison SquareGarden, July1972

“Motown was trying to break Stevie bigger than he’d ever been,” says Chess. “It was a great thing for the Stones, because Mick and Keith just loved Stevie. It was a great thing for Stevie because it showed him to this whole other white audience, the Stones’ audience.”

Prior to the Stones tour, Wonder had faced some difficult audiences as he struggled to redefine himself, introducing longer, heavier, funkier songs to his setlist. “Sometimes we would get these gigs at supper clubs, and we’d show up in bellbottom jeans and fringe jackets,” recalls David Sanborn, who played saxophone in backing band Wonderlove. “Everybody else would be in tuxes and tails. Stevie was adamant about playing the new stuff, so it could get tense at times. Sometimes the audience was just not having it. They got restless because they weren’t hearing what they wanted to hear, what they had paid their money to hear. We understood that, so we did play ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours’ and ‘If You Really Love Me’. We always played the shit out of them.”

Winning over Stones fans wasn’t much easier, but Wonder drew on 12 years of experience – more than half his life – working crowds as part of Motown package tours with The Temptations, The Supremes, and other label acts. When the Stones were arrested in Rhode Island after Richards assaulted a journalist, Stevie and Wonderlove played a double set in Boston that night to calm the audience – who grew rowdy when the Stones looked like no-shows.

The STP tour was such a success and the chemistry between the two acts so palpable that they collaborated on a joint double live album, with one LP devoted to Wonder’s set and the other to the Stones. Even though the record never materialised, the tour did exactly what he needed it to do.

“That’s when his popularity just jumped,” confirms Deniece Williams, who toured as a member of Wonderlove. The Stones tour helped usher in a new imperial phase in Stevie Wonder’s career, as he transformed himself over a string of bold and progressive albums beginning with 1972’s Music Of My Mind album and culminating in 1976’s Songs In The Key Of Life. Together, these albums are as much about Wonder’s creative development as they are, from another perspective, about his attempts to defy the Motown assembly-line approach to writing, recording, and touring. “At Motown, Stevie never really got a chance to be himself,” says Robert Margouleff, who played a crucial role in Wonder’s transformation from “HECOULDBE teen idol to visionary rock star. “He was on a quest to be his own man.” TOUGH,BUT HECOULDBE LOVING” DENIECE WILLIAMS STEVIE Wonder signed to Motown when he was only 10 years old; it was the only life he’d known. Precocious is how most of his fellow musicians remember him, an impression he struggled to outgrow. Otis Williams, co-founder of The Temptations, remembers Little Stevie Wonder’s immense musical curiosity and boundless energy, which didn’t always sit well with the older artists on the Motown package tours. “We would be riding down the highway, one or two in the morning, everybody on the bus trying to get some rest,” recalls Williams. “Stevie would be in the back of the bus with whatever new instrument he’d just bought, playing around with it. Somebody would have to yell, ‘Stevie, man, cut that thing off so we can get some sleep!’ But he was woodshedding. He was honing his talent. He knew he had to improve himself and be a consummate professional.” Inspired by Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, Wonder wanted to write and sing about more significant issues than love and devotion. “What’s Going On enabled Stevie to say, ‘Hey, if Marvin can do his own album, that’s what I want to do,’” says Williams. “He wanted to take control of his songs and his production. So one artist could help the next artist. Marvin opened the

Fulfilment:playing theRainbowin northLondon, January30,1974

control room and said, ‘OK, I think I’m ready to do it for real.’ Stevie said, ‘No, no, no, that was great!’ I was just learning the tune! I figured it must have been so bad that they weren’t going to use it. I remember waking up a few hours later thinking, ‘Did I just dream that?’ And then the record comes out and that’s me playing on ‘Tuesday Heartbreak’. They kept that as the final.”

“WE played slaps all the time,” says Howard Lindeman, an assistant engineer on Songs In The Key Of Life, referring to the game where one player tries to slap the hands of his opponent before they’re pulled away. It’s a game of quick reflexes, and no-one was better at it than Wonder, despite not being able to actually see his opponent’s hands. “I was never able to get him. Not once, man. But he slapped the living shit out of your hands. Of course, we were always watching his hands. But you can’t look. You have to close your eyes and feel the other hands move. Because that’s what

Stevland was doing to you. I think that’s what he was doing with his instruments. That’s what he’s doing with his music. He’s feeling and living those notes.” He might have been quick on the draw in slaps, but his follow-up to Fulfillingness’ First Finale was taking forever. A two-year gap between albums might not seem like much today, but it was an eternity for a prolific and exacting musician like Wonder, who’d released five groundbreaking records in a three-year period. During that time, Wonder dropped hints that he might retire from the music business, repeatedly stating his plans to move to Ghana and work with handicapped children. That may have been more of a shrewd negotiating tactic than an actual mission. He re-signed with Motown and ended up with the largest contract ever for a recording artist: seven years and seven albums for $13m upfront, plus an astronomical 20 per cent royalty rate. Wonder was, suddenly, among the highest-paid entertainers in the world. Even that windfall didn’t light a fire under him. Wonder was obsessed with getting every little detail just right, but the high expectations turned his drive into something like mania. He scrapped some of Nate

Watts’ basslines and redubbed them on organ. He tinkered with tempos and key changes. He even visited local maternity wards to record the cries of newborn babies for “Isn’t She Lovely”, a beatific ode to his newborn daughter. As the album ballooned from a single to a double album and then to a double album with an extra 45, Wonder grew so tired of being asked about it that he had T-shirts printed that read, WE’RE ALMOST FINISHED. “He played me some of the music he was working on, and all of the

soundsheheardinhisheadandtoexplorethecosmos insearchofunimaginedtones.Theycreatedsubtle soundscapesforWonder’sgroovesandmelodies, distortingachoirintosomethingmorallyambiguous on“Evil”,thehymnlikefinaleon1972’sMusicOfMy Mindandaddinggritandgrimetohisclavineton “Superstition”,astandouton1973’sInnervisions. “Wewerealwaysexploring,”saysMargouleff.“We madenewsoundsforeverysong,andSteviewrote newsongsallthetime.Wekeptthetaperollinginthe studio,becausewhenwewerebusyprogrammingthe synthesiser,Steviesatatthepianonoodlingaround andwritingsongs.Itwasalittlemusicfactory.We’d workuntilthesuncameup,nightafternight. Christmas,NewYear’s,Jewishholidays,younameit.” ThesongsseemedtoarrivefasterthanWondercould writethemdown.“Hewouldcometosoundcheck “IDON’T KNOWWHEN STEVIEEVER SLEPT” DAVID SANBORN everydaywithanewtune,”DavidSanborn remembers.“Afteragig,hewouldhaveallofhis keyboardstakenbacktohishotelroom–hisARP synthesiser,hisclavinet,andhisFenderRhodes–and hewouldjustplayallnight.Idon’tknowwhenheever slept.‘Superstition’wasonethatIrememberfrom thosesoundchecks.Steviewasreallydedicatedto hiscraftandworkedreallyhardatit.Hedidn’tsit aroundandwaitforthemusetostrike.Hejustkept inthereinthetrenches.”

Whereverhewas–ontheroad,inthestudio,at homewithhisfamily–Wonderwasalwaysatastudio, alwaysworkingonanewsong.Inspirationmighthitat anymoment.AccordingtoDenieceWilliams,Wonder wouldevenwriteasongrightinthemiddleofalive performance.“Alottimeswe’dbeupthereandhe’dhear somethingandgooffonthisnewthing.Thebackgroundsingershad tooohandaahlikeweknewwhathewasdoing.Thebandhadtoplay liketheyknewwhathewasdoing.Butittaughtustobefastonour feetandfollowhiscreativespiritwhereverittookus.”

Whileheplayedmostoftheinstrumentsduringthesesessions,the membersofWonderlovehadtoalwaysbeoncall,readytohitthe studioatamoment’snotice.Afewdaysbeforetheirtourtogether, Sanbornrecalls,“MickJaggerhadabigpartyatthehousehewas rentingupintheHollywoodHills,andheinvitedallofus.Stevie mighthavebeenthereforafewminutesearlyon,buthedidn’tstay long.Buttherestofuscarriedonanddidwhatpeopledidbackinthe ’70s,whichwasstupidityforlongperiodsoftime.Igotbacktothe hotelaroundsevenoreightinthemorningandgotacallfromBob Margouleffsaying,‘Steviewantsyouinthestudiorightaway.’” Sanbornwasstillinlastnight’sclothes,stillriding buthedutifullycalledacab.Hebarelyhadachance lastnight’sbuzz, tohearthesong On the promotion trail for Songs In The Key Of Life, oncebeforehewasplayingalongwithit.“Afterwards,Iwentintothe September 1976