Stevie Wonder Says It All JOHN S

DON HECKMAN

STEPHEN HOLDEN JIM MELANSON KIT RACHLIS JOHN STORM ROBERTS SAM SUTHERLAND NICK TOSCHES Stevie Wonder Says It All JOHN S. WILSON

hough deeply flawed, "Songs in the singer Little Stevie Wonder. He also tries form. His lyrics are awkwardly phrased T1 Key of Life" is an overwhelming to enhance his present image as a Re- and riddled with cliches. His philosoph- pop album and remarkablea document naissance man of pop music who breaks ical hymns frequently lack any sort of by one of the most influential figures in down stylistic barriers and influences ev- focus or specific images. Part of this is the contemporary popular music. Consisting eryone from Paul Simon and Paul natural result of Wonder's having been of four regular LP sides, an additional McCartney to George Benson and blind from birth; part is the result of a seven-inch, 33-rpm disc, and a twenty- Quincy Jones. Not surprisingly, it is the cosmically infatuated, nonanalytical four-page book of lyrics and credits, the first Stevie Wonder, the grownup street turn of mind. His tunes also tend to be album took more than two years to make singer and populist hero, who provides simple, gawky affairs with predictable at costa of more than $300,000 and con- most of the album's magic. chord structures. Often they consist of a tains twenty-one original songs. "Songs in the Key of Life" means to mere couple of phrases repeated over Wonder's attempt to Say It All results contain, distill, and exalt the very spirit and over again. He seems to lack any in- in the aural equivalent of gigantica mu- of black America. If doesn'tit do exactly tellectual screening process for his own ral whose interlocking themes—God, the that, it at least stamps Wonder's musical ideas, and as resulta much of the mate- brotherhood of man, the black experi- identity onto the mid-'70s as surely as rial on "Songs in the Key of Life" would ence, love, and sex—encapsulate one "Abbey Road" stamped the Beatles' not be missed had it been left off the al- man's total vision of human experience. identity onto the late '60s. bum. The musical territory covered is almost Like the Beatles and like Duke Elling- Such defects would sink the career of a as broad. Wonder reprises the sound of ton before them. Wonder is more forcea lesser artist. But given the intensity of his earliest Motown records, when he of nature than creatora of perfect arti- Wonder's passion and the unbelievable was the harmonica-brandishing street facts that can be held up as ideals of breadth and integrity of his musical per- sonality, they scarcely matter. For his best tunes have an elemental force that

P i e L P I d transcends any lack of sophistication. The depth of his spirituality renders ir-

U 0 1 1 1 / relevant the feebleness of his attempts to verbalize it. And while Wonder often phrases syllables deliberately when he sings, his singing is so passionately ur- gent that one is carried along by the emotion of his delivery, if by nothing else. The only technical pop music skills at which Wonder is mastera craftsman are as a multi-instrumentalist, specializing in synthesizer, and as recorda producer. He has single-handedly brought the synthesizer into the mainstream of pop music. At the same time, he is the only per- son who has been able to use it consistently without letting it sound like a gimmick or cheapa substitute for an- other instrument. There is simply no more brilliant texturalist of pop sound than Wonder. This is the key to Wonder's "Key," "the very life and vitality whose synthesized textures flow and of 'Songs in the Key of bubble along like the stream of life itself. Life' make every other pop album of the past two Stevie Wonder: Songs in the Key of years sound a little bit Life. Stevie Wonder, producer. drowsy." (Shown here Tamla T13 340C2, $13.98 (two discs plus with Stevie is Ira Tucker, 7-inch disc). Tape: IN T15 340EC, u friend of many years.) $15.98; € T15 340ET, $15.98.

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