Prices are much higher now, but KG Remastered the CDs for the now OOB, Audio Fidelity Label for SW’s Main 5 Albums from the 1970s. The MFSL Ultradisc CD for Innervisions typically gets great reviews on this Forum. in the meantime, you might wanna seek out this Box Set: Stevie Wonder - At The Close Of A Century
Innervisions is a great album and many great singles in the 60s and early 70s. Some of his stuff is a little over the top and overdone. In my opinion, I think Songs in the Key of Life is a bit overrated.
Several Concerts from the 1970s make for a Great Box Set, along with a Separate Box Sets of Unreleased Songs SW has in the Vault. We at least have this Box Set, but just filled out the Songs I was missing from the Early Part of his Career. Stevie Wonder - At The Close Of A Century
I love Signed Sealed and Delivered. I feel it's his best because young Stevie meets the grown up version of himself. A bit like Michael Jackson sounded on Off the Wall. Every SW album from 1970 and onwards is in my collection.
I`d also put Terence Trent D`Arby at the head of the queue of being influenced by Stevie..a bit ahead of Yes and The Stones.
i tend to see them as two evolutionary points on a continuum, not unlike julius erving to michael jordan
Stevie's creative process always seemed to me, to be so d.i.y; which is tough enough as a successful artist within a moneymaking industry where everybody wanted to be a part of a success' success. Some of his choices to me seemed to be so..."clunky", where the originality seemed like it came from unformed ideas and half-solved problems. He was so far ahead of his people, that nobody wanted to smooth those edges, or put him in a box. And then these masterpieces come out, and it's like the musical equivalent of Kandinsky, or Pollock. And still able to connect the singles to an audience hungry for the funk. I was lucky to be in music school at the height of his favorite works, and as supposedly a student of the same art he was involved in..I still couldn't make heads or tails of it. Zappa, I could follow; Stevie, you had to follow, because you didn't really know what was going to interest him next. In retrospect, it's even hard to describe my bewilderment.
I hafta say the day I heard I Was Made To Love Her back in the 60's on my AM Radio that was the day I became a Stevie fan ..been a fan ever since.
Love Stevie. Some of his 60s Motown work is astounding, then hit that 70s run! Incredible. Innervisions and SITKOL are his best but there's great music on the others from that period and Hotter Than July.
Criminally overlooked, but excellent: A Time to Love and Jungle Fever, and to a slightly lesser extent Conversation Peace.
I am glad I was able to see him live several years ago playing SITKOL in its entirety. He still had it at that time. He also said he had an album coming soon and played a song from it, but here we are some 7 years later and nothing yet.
As an atheist, when I hear Stevie sing about god, I get it. I don’t know if I can give higher praise than that.
This reminds me of the time Ray Charles was a guest on the Super Dave show and there was a joke involving Ray driving.
Stevie has a number of songs that I would characterize as sappy like You are the Sunshine of my life, Ribbons in the Sky and overjoyed. And songs like Do I do just never end. The body of work overall is great but there a noticeable number of clunkers.