I grabbed Stevie Wonder’s ‘At The Close Of The Century’ tonight, a four disc set that came out, well, at the close of the last century. I don’t think I quite realized that these discs were ten years old until tonight. Then I thought ‘what has Stevie Wonder done in the past ten years? I know he has paid for Pres. Obama, but other then that, I couldn’t think of anything. Then I wondered what radio station would play any new Stevie Wonder. Of course it isn’t like I listen to much radio but I suddenly started wondering what is going on with Stevie Wonder and, if he put something out today, would it be 1970s Stevie Wonder or 1980’s or??? Of course, Stevie Wonder was never really an innovator. His work in the 70’s was great, but it was what a lot of people were doing in the 70’s. He was just doing it really well. Same with what Little Stevie Wonder was doing in the 60’s. In the 80’s he wasn’t innovating necessarily (though the vocoder solo in ‘I Just Called To Say I Love You’ could be seen as a bit cutting edge at the time, it just sounded like a soft-rock version of ‘Frampton Comes Alive’). Though I am sure a number of people like what Stevie Wonder did from the 80’s on, but I don’t think Barry’s joke in High Fidelity is too far off: “Rob, top five musical crimes perpetuated by Stevie Wonder in the ’80s and ’90s. Go. Sub-question: is it in fact unfair to criticize a formerly great artist for his latter day sins, is it better to burn out or fade away?”

Growing up, I heard more of 1980s Stevie Wonder then I did 1960s or 70s. It wasn’t until I was at a friends house in Berkeley that I heard ‘Talking Book’, ‘Innervisions’ and ‘Songs In The Key Of Life’. It was really the first time I heard classic Stevie Wonder and heard it at a loud volume. I didn’t go to many parties, and never really did, but hearing Stevie Wonder played at this volume in a house full of people still strikes me as making lots of sense. Not that it was raucous or anything. It was a mellow party of people just sitting around listening to music at a loud volume. ‘Superstition’ is a great song to hear sitting around with a bunch of people. But so is ‘I Believe’ and ‘Visions’. Tamiko loves Stevie Wonder as well. When I brought it up tonight to play a bit, Celia didn’t look too interested (after all, the box doesn’t look THAT interesting, especially to a five year old). But once ‘Master Blaster’ came on, both her a Mira perked up and started dancing a bit. Of course, Tamiko was trying to get them to eat their dinner and it was a bit distracting. But I think both of us enjoyed seeing the two of them dancing to Stevie. Going back to Barry’s question from High Fidelity, I came up with one of my own: “If I play 1970s Stevie Wonder for my children, am I in any way obligated to continue the musical exposure to include those later day sins?”. I’m not going to worry too much about that right now… for now we’ll just put on music to enjoy along with a hot July.