Friday, February 27th, 2009

Bootleg City: Stevie Wonder, 9/4/07

by Robert Cass

Stevie truly is a wonder, but did you know his music has the power to generate profits not only for his record label but also his fans? When a friend of mine saw Mr. Stevland Morris perform in Chicago on September 11, 2007, a fellow audience member came up to him and said, “I’ve been watching you dance this whole time, and I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate the energy you’re giving off. Here’s $100.” Boom! He didn’t even have to sleep with the guy! All he had to do was shake some positive vibes out of his moneymaker and suddenly he was one Benjamin richer.

This week’s featured concert took place one week earlier in September of ‘07, when Wonder played at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, California, a venue where the hard-luck message of “Living for the City” must’ve really hit home. Wonder was touring for the first time in more than a decade; his most recent album, A Time to Love, was already two years old by the fall of ‘07, so for this two-hours-plus performance he focused on material from the ’70s, when he was at his creative peak. I still think Fulfillingness’ First Finale (1974) is sorely underrated and Songs in the Key of Life (1976) is overlong and overrated, but I won’t argue with anyone who wants to praise Innervisions (1973) to the high heavens.

One of Wonder’s backup singers on his 2007 tour was Aisha Morris, his daughter, who made her recording debut as a baby on Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely.” In April she turns 34.

Intro
Love’s in Need of Love Today
Too High
Visions
Living for the City
Master Blaster (Jammin’)
Ribbon in the Sky
Overjoyed
Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours
Little Marie
Boogie On Reggae Woman
Interlude
My Cherie Amour
Sir Duke
I Wish
Isn’t She Lovely
You Are the Sunshine of My Life
Superstition/You Haven’t Done Nothin’
Interlude/Jam
I Just Called to Say I Love You
Higher Ground
Golden Lady
Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing
Another Star

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  • jeff
    great post. i saw this tour when it hit the greek theatre in la around the same time. and while it was a pleasure to see stevie wonder (and the show was great), i could have done with some other tunes not on 'songs in the key of life.'

    but oh well...
  • There are great songs on "Key of Life," including nonsingles like "Ebony Eyes" and "Knocks Me Off My Feet," which is one of his best love songs, but it's just too much as an album. But having said that, I should probably listen to it again from beginning to end and see what I think 12 years after I first heard it.
  • I've been paid to NOT shake my groove thing. Because of the Butterfly Effect, I very well could be the primary source of tsunami inciting.
  • Rob
    My wife and I were lucky to see Stevie Wonder make his New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival debut during this tour. Pouring rain, mud everywhere and people still couldn't find a place to stand. He was a little self-indulgent at times, but I loved the way he stuck with the classic stuff. He got five stars from me for not singing "I Just Called To Say I Love You."

    By the way, for all you Wonder fans out there, there's a real cool site that has all kinds of videos of Stevie performing – including ones where he is playing with some of the all-time greats in modern music. Ray Charles? Yup. Prince? Yup. Alicia Keys? Yup. Luciano Pavarotti? Believe it or not, yup.

    But for me the all-time great find (go look look them up on YouTube, you'll see) are three videos of Stevie on Sesame Street: Stevie doing "Superstition," doing the then-Sesame Street theme song and singing with Yoda – er, Grover.
  • Is "1-2-3 Sesame Street" the former theme song you're referring to?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b_KRfJlAZE

    I love this performance.
  • Rob
    That's the one.

    Here are the others.
    Superstition – watch the kids on the fire escape get really into it
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ul7X5js1vE

    Stevie with Grover
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5sks4wK4Lc

    This past Christmas, I actually made a three-DVD set of Stevie videos like these for my wife, the native Detroiter who is a huge Stevie fan.

    True story: When she arrived at the University of Michigan in 1984 to room with a girl from Maryland, my wife unfurled a Stevie poster to display on the wall. The roommate asked her "Who's that!?" and my wife responded with incredulity: "You don't know Stevie Wonder!?" The Maryland girl then proceeded to post her own picture on the wall of a blue-jeaned guy in front of an American flag. "Who's that?!" my wife asked. The roommate answered, equally incredulously: "You don't know Bruce Springsteen?"

    Ah, cultural differences. Got to love them.
  • I like how Stevie ad-libs "If you don't want to save me, I'll have to sing 'Sesame Street' songs" on "Superstition." I often forget what a great sense of humor he has. Here's more proof of it: http://www.motionbox.com/videos/a791dab81f14ed2e. (Is that Ray Parker Jr. on guitar in the "Superstition" clip? The horns sound great in this version.)

    I'm on your wife's side -- without knowing if she's black or white, I do know that Stevie was popular with black AND white audiences starting in the '60s, whereas Springsteen never crossed over to the R&B crowd as far as I can tell. I'm 33, so when the singles from "Born in the U.S.A." started dominating radio in '84, I thought Springsteen was something of a new act. I remembered "Hungry Heart" from preschool, but that was it.

    Speaking of crossovers, I've always liked Stevie's experiment with country, 1980's "I Ain't Gonna Stand for It."
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