Comments on: Bootleg City: Stevie Wonder, 9/4/07

By: rwcass

rwcass — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 19:24:43 +0000

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."

By: rwcass

rwcass — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 18:24:43 +0000

By: Rob

Rob — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 14:52:40 +0000

That's the one.

Here are the others.
Superstition â€“ 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.

By: rwcass

rwcass — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 13:46:31 +0000

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.

By: Rob

Rob — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 03:07:17 +0000

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 â€“Â 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 â€“ er, Grover.

By: rwcass

rwcass — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:52:49 +0000

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.

By: DwDunphy

DwDunphy — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:28:01 +0000

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.

By: jeff

jeff — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 20:37:26 +0000

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…