It's a Wonder I forgot this one . . . Stevie Wonder's "Sugar"

Stevie Wonder - Sugar
I really can't believe I forgot this tune when selecting some of favorite lesser-known Stevie jams. Most people look to "Music of My Mind" as the first "funky" Stevie album and for the most part they're right, but before that album there was the mixed bag of "Where I'm Coming From" which hinted at a more experimental, bugged-out Stevie on funky keyboards and big drum sounds. But the song we have here is an album track off of his previous album, "Signed, Sealed & Delivered" from 1970. Sure, most of the album is soul-pop like the title track and that would probably be the description too for this cut, but listening to the drums (played by Stevie) and how prominent they are in the mix you can't help but think Stevie knew what was going on and you can feel that he was chomping at the bit to get out from under the Motown machine and let loose a funky maelstrom. I give you "Sugar". Tastes so sweet!

Bay Area Peeps: Wonderfull - This Saturday @ Mezzanine with DJ Spinna & Bobbito and more

I've been meaning to get to one of these Wonderfull events since I first heard about it years ago back in NYC and for some stupid reason I just have never been able to make it, but this time I'm gonna break the curse and get my ass down to Mezzanine this weekend. And in honor of that I have some of my favorite Stevie Maravilha (his Brazilian nickname) deep cuts and cover tunes for your listening pleasure. Also, check out P-R-O-P-S radio for a killer set of Wonderfullness. Not much on commentary here and no albums covers (too many songs here and it's busy here at work), so just hit play on the yahoo media player and Stevie and friends take you on a trip through music of Stevie's mind . . .

Stevie Wonder - Christmas Greeting
Couldn't pass this one up given the time of year. I want a whole album of keyboard based Christmas funk from 'Lil Drummer Stevie.

Stevie Wonder - Love a Go-Go
This is one of the first album track/deep cuts that I sought out and as a result was even further inspired by the breadth and depth of Stevie's genius. I think this was big in the UK/Norther Soul thang . . .


Syreeta - I Love Everything About You
Possibly my favorite Stevie version ever . . . and all-time favorite song. period. when I first got this album I listened to this one track on repeat for two days straight. seriously.

Tamiko Jones - Creepin'
Who woulda thought you could fuck with Stevie & Minnie dueting on the original version? I'm not saying it's better, but its damn good!

Ray Charles - Living For the City
The most recent Steviania acquisition . . . so dope. Nobody (aside from Stevie) does Fender Rhodes so nasty and raw as "The Genius".

Ellen McIlwaine - Higher Ground
By far those most left-field cut here . . . you can't deny Ms. McIlwaine's mastery of this song. The way she does it, you can imagine that she wrote it. For me, this speaks to the universality of Stevie's tunes.

Main Ingredient - Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing
Main Ingredient have a long history of doing Stevie tunes, but this has got to be my favorite.

Stevie Wonder - Signed, Sealed, Delivered (Live)
A somewhat rare early-seventies live recording from an Jazz/R&B festival from 1974. I posted the whole album awhile back, but have since taken the songs down.

Sister Sledge - As
I can't say this holds a flame to the original, but it's such a great song that I could tolerate some less than perfect cover versions. This one is from the Sisters Sledge right before their Chic-produced breakout album. This one was recorded in Germany with the masterminds behind Silver Convention, Michael Kunze and Sylvester Levay.

Laso - Another Star
Here we have a latin instrumental take on another Songs in the Key of Life classic. Laso was a Joe Bataan side project that sounds very much like an MFSB or Vince Montana release from the same time. New York Latin Disco, Yeah!

The Gary Byrd Experience - The Crown (Instrumental)
I feel a bit like a racist posting the instrumental version of this song and by default ommitting the social-conscious lyrics of Prof. Gary Byrd, but honestly his rap sucks and the best part about this song is the "Good Times"-esque bass line and Stevie's one verse about 1/2 way in. He just kills it!

Stevie Wonder - All I Do
Thanks to my brother Charlie for hipping me to this tune early on. I honestly thought Stevie was done with Songs in the Key of Life until I heard this joint. This is some superb soulful mid-tempo disco. I forgot to bring it, but I also love the previously unreleased version of Syreeta doing this tune from back in the late 60s in a straight-up Motown cookie-cutter formula (and I don't mean that in a bad way) cause it sounds like a totally different song in that style, tempo and from a female perspective.

Stevie Wonder - Heaven is 10 Zillion Light Years Away
My favorite sleeper Stevie track from Fullfillingness First Finale. This is the kind of religious music I can get down to.

Christmas Songs That Don't Suck

Jamie, the woman formerly known as my girlfriend and now known as my fiance/beyonce, LOVES her some x-mas music. It was almost a deal-breaker when she admitted as much after I caught her singing along to the 24hr x-mas music radio station during our first holiday season as a couple. But as all healthy couples do, we found a compromise.

We can listen to holiday music together beginning the day after Thanksgiving, but she humors me by letting me pick the music (most of the time). Now, this is where the challenge comes in, because even some of my favorite musicians have made horrible x-mas records; or more accurately, most of my favorite musicians wouldn't be caught dead rehashing the x-mas cannon, or god-forbid contribute an original tune to the bloated roster of yule tunes. But I persevere . . . and with tongue firmly planted in cheek, embark on a mission to bring you some Christmas songs that don't suck.

Stevie Wonder - Christmas Greeting
This is a greeting recorded by Stevie in his 70s keyboard phase (clearly). He probably didn't even rehearse this and just freestyle busted it out . . .





National Lampoon - Kung Fu Christmas
This is the real gem in this batch. Big-ups to Mike in Seattle for tipping me off to this one. I don't know much about the National Lampoon LPs, but this guy does. Most importantly, it was written by National Lampoon Radio Hour regular Christopher Guest and Paul Shaffer. Watching/listening to this video also gives the longer intro to give you a sense of how this song was situated on the album.


















Paul McCartney - Wonderful Christmastime
Now this one might be overplayed, but I still love it. Its probably one of the best recent additions to the Christmas cannon and I don't care what the rest of you say. Knowing that Paul was probably stoned to the bone from smoking too much mistletoe also makes it more enjoyable to listen to. I wrote a piece in Wax Poetics (issue 31) about another song from this same recording session. Blog entry here. Actual pdf of article here.

Election '08: Musical Shout-Outs, Part 2: To the Current Administration

Too little, too late . . . I know. But it doesn't mean we can't send those bastards off with a nice kick in the pants. That's not to say that I have admitted democratic victory, but even if McRage does get elected he'll be better than W. was.




Today we have two tunes that really tell the President what we think of him. Like yesterday's tune, these songs emerged at a time when pop music could be politically relevant and its no secret that these songs are targeted at the "Big Dick," Richard Nixon. But bad, dishonest, power-hungry people are more alike than dissimilar, so I'm sure you will have no problem finding some relevancy lingering in these tunes.



Stevie Wonder - You Haven't Done Nuthin'
A great lesser-known jam from one of Stevie's best albums.







The Honey Drippers - Impeach the President
I'm ashamed to admit that I never knew this song until yesterday. I was reading the interview with Slick Rick in the new Wax Poetics and he referenced Doug E. Fresh beatboxing over this beat. Of course, I've heard the beat, but never bothered to track down the original tune. As an original track it sure does hold up.

As Promised . . . The Crown - Instrumental Version

Gary Byrd & The G.B. Experience - The Crown (Instrumental)

Another 'Stevie Thing' . . .

I was listening to that Sarah Vaughan track (a couple posts down) again and while I LOVE Marcos Valle's vocal I'm not a big fan of Sarah's work on the song. It's a shame cause I have to listen to a whole verse of Sarah before I get to Marcos's sweet R&B-infused bossa smoothness to tickle my eardrums. Then I was thinking of other songs that have marvelous guest contribution buried in someone else's song.

This Gary Byrd song is a perfect example of this. "The Crown" is a collaboration between Gary Byrd, a radio DJ and friend of Stevie's, and Stevie himself. It's basically an early-ish rap entry that's kinda embarrassing to listen to today because of Gary's uptight flow, if we can even call it that. Gary has made his contribution to "black music" many times over (including writing some lyrics to a few classic Stevie songs: "Black Man" and "Village Ghetto Land" so we don't need to get down on him for this well-intentioned effort to get-across to the kids about their heritage.

Thankfully when this 12" single was released in 1983 they included on the B-side the "instrumental" version which is just that except they left Stevie's short (53 seconds, beginning at 5:27) sung verse intact so that you can have your cake and eat it too! Stevie's lyric is one of the best things he's done since his 1980 album "Hotter than July." I'll try to post the instrumental version of "The Crown" soon. Now, if only Sarah Vaughan's "Something" had an 'instrumental' version . . .

It's a Stevie Thing . . .

I'm usually not one for Mash-ups but my man Ionic hooked me up with this one and when DJ Shuffle played it for me on my Ipod I nearly lost my cool. I also had never heard Odyssey's version of "Going Back To My Roots" that is mashed with Stevie's "Superstition" here. It works very nicely.

Team 9 - It's a Stevie Thing (Stevie Wonder vs. Odyssey mash-up)

A Cover From Another Mutha

So, another event I went to a few weeks ago was a show with The Sweet Divines and Eli "The Paperboy Reed" at Union Hall in Park Slope, Brooklyn. That's only the pretext for this post and I WILL post about the Sweet Divines very soon. Before the first act went on tunes were provided by The Honeydripper, an affiliate of the Daptone Records crew. She played this one song that took me nearly the whole duration of the song to place. I recognized the melody and lyrics, but the version I was listening to sounded nothing like the song I was familiar with. I finally placed it . . . it was a Stevie Wonder song from his underrated 1980 album "Hotter Than July." I'm gonna place the songs in the order that they came into my consciousness, so we'll listen to the Stevie version first . . .

Stevie Wonder - All I Do
This is easily my favorite latter-day stevie (post songs in the key of life) song. It's a tender, mid-tempo disco soul groover and Stevie just nails everything about it. Once again, I owe it to my brother to hip me to this one.


Tammi Terrel - All I Do (Is Think About You)
So, now that you're listening to the Tammi version, it's like, "wait, which one came first?" especially considering the song was written by Stevie along with some of the usual Motown song-writing suspects: Clarence Paul and Morris Broadnax. Stevie never recorded it back in 1966. He waited 14 years to record his own song. And more interesting yet, the only version prior to Stevie's that was released was performed by Brenda Halloway, but her version was actually Tammi's version with Tammi's vocals stripped off and Brenda's put on to the same rhythm track. Tammi's version was only released in 2002 on the compilation "A Cellarful of Motown." Needless to say, this is a dynamite song and listening to the two versions side by side, its illuminating how differently the artists took this song 14 years apart. Thanks Honeydripper for playing this . . .

A Slow Jam Dedicated to Israel

A man by the name of Israel has been instrumental in opening my eyes to the joys of a soulful slow jam. Israel owns a "hole-in-the-sidewalk" record store in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. His shop, if you happen to figure out his unconventional hours, is a diamond in the rough full of some common and uncommon records at reasonable prices. One thing I love about going into Israel's shop is the music that he plays on the house stereo, which is often some sweet soul dating from the 60s to the 80s. Israel loves his slow jams and digging through his dusty records in a dimly lit basement below the street, I've gained a real appreciation for some sweet harmonies sung over a sinewy syncopated beat made sweeter by some sensuous strings. Thanks Israel.


Download: Touch Me (Reaching Out For Your Love)

The songs we have here are from a 45 I found at Israel's. I first found his spot walking down Fulton Avenue in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. There has always been a Clinton Hill, but when real estate wasn't as desirable as it is now, this same neighborhood was easily mistaken for Bed-Stuy. In fact the Notorious B.I.G. used to live with his mom on my old block (St. James Place between Gates and Fulton) but you never heard him rhyming "Window Sill" with "Clinton Hill."

One day I was trying to find a hardware store open on a Sunday and cruised down Fulton moving further and further away from the nearest latte stand when lo and behold I saw a corrugated plastic sign written in black sharpie that read "Jazz, Soul, Disco, Reggae Records LPs and 45s." The sign was was propped up on the sidewalk just above a metal trap door leading to the basement of a building. The metal door was closed shut and the man in the Jamaican restaurant upstairs didn't know if the owner was around or if he'd open his shop that day. He suggested I come back in a couple hours. I did and no one was there. A couple weeks later I came by to find the metal doors open and a 2/3 sized knight-in-shining-armour on the sidewalk with the same sign hanging around his neck. I headed downstairs, careful not to hit my head on the low ceiling jutting out with a sign reading "watch your head." Inside I met Israel, who's been running this record shop out of the basement for years selling used records and tapes and the occasional stereo or turntable.

There is some order to the shop, but nothing is labeled and you'll still find piles of records that defy any attempts at organization. It's in these piles where I usually find the good stuff. You have to spend at least an hour here to find and listen to some records on the crappy-sounding "listening station." Nothing is priced so you have to ask Israel for prices, which usually fall in the $3, $5, $7, or $10 category unless you have access to his special pile from the back which could you run you up to $85 a record (for a mint, promo Roy Ayers "Coffy").

The 45 we have here is a $3 find if I'm not mistaken and had me initially sold on the Stevie Wonder cover tune, but its the Johnny Bristol tune on the A-side that I listen to the most. The album is not too rare (pictured to the left), but I can't say I've seen it that many times and the cover probably turned me off before I knew there was gold buried within.


Download: Creepin'