propsRadio | WONDERFULL
| Sat, Dec 12, 2009 9:00 pm | to | Wed, Dec 16, 2009 12:00 am |
| Dec ’09 |
| 12 |
| 9:00 pm |
propsRadio • WONDERFULL
just listen on p-r-o-p-s.com
“and what is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversations?”
Lewis Carroll Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Stevie Wonder paints pictures with music and has intimate conversations with you through lyrics. In 1972, he released two landmark albums, the beginning of what would be hailed as his “classic period” on Tamla/Motown; Music of My Mind, released in March of that year, and Talking Book, seven months later in October. As it was and still is common practice to name an album the title of its hit song (like Marvin Gaye What’s Going On), Stevie opted for titles that sought to poetically communicate his absence of sight as being more of a virtue than a burden. The last track on Where I’m Coming From released the year before in 1971 seemed to allude to this direction with “Sunshine in Their Eyes.” The word “their” showing Stevie’s evident selflessness…or perhaps a call to share the sunshine only he could “see”…or his own Innervisions, the name of the album he released in 1973. Year after year, spending two years to complete the magnum opus Songs in The Key of Life in 1976 (the first record sleeve in my visual memory), Stevie would craft classic upon classic throughout the 70s, with unexpected and enchanting melodies, harmonies and instrumentation to express universal themes of the heart, tapping into the full range of human emotion without the ability, or need for that matter, to even see.
Stevie didn’t have to see to believe. All you have to do is listen to believe. Try listening to Stevie’s records with closed eyes; you’ll realize how much of an open heart he is giving you. And that truly is a gift this wonderful man possesses, despite what may be deemed as an unsightly shortcoming…it’s a homecoming whenever I listen to Stevie, no matter where you are or who you’re with, there’s a song in the key of his life to be heard; this musical genius may not be able to see things as we can but can feel things we are afraid to. Perhaps Stevie’s own adventures in Wonderland are really like Alice’s…but chock full of soul; a land where you have to feel to get around, where the only way to think, if you have to think at all, is with your heart, and that if you subscribe to the idea that sight is synonymous with belief, you are the one that is blind.
This episode of propsRadio is brought to you in anticipation of WONDERFULL: A Tribute to the Wonders of Stevie starring DJ Spinna and Bobbito Garcia aka Kool Bob Love happening this Saturday night, December 12 at Mezzanine in San Francisco. A mix through WonderFULLand in three parts from three wise DJs - King Most, Proof and yours truly. We begin on higher ground exploring Stevie’s influence on the dancefloor and then delve deeper toward a finale of fulfillingness. Imagine Janet Jackson in Good Times playing Alice and you’ll get the picture (thanks muun for the one up top)…it’s not a rabbit hole but a pothole in her lawn she’s falling deep into. So, take a little trip through your mind and explore it…and then go to WONDERFULL this Saturday night. It may not be hotter than July but we promise you’ll see the sun in late December…here’s an early Christmas gift from us to you. Thank you, Stevie.
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