FEATURE:
I Love Every Little Thing About You
Stevie Wonder’s Music of My Mind at Fifty
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WITH such an important album anniversary…
IN THIS PHOTO: Stevie Wonder in 1972/PHOTO CREDIT: Jeffrey Mayer
coming up, I want to lean on some reviews and articles that take a close look at Stevie Wonder’s Music of My Mind. Released by Tamla on 3rd March, 1972, it was the fourteenth studio album by Wonder. It was also his first to be recorded under his new contract with Motown. Wonder was allowed full artistic control. It shows too. Playing most of the instruments and penning the majority of the tracks, the blossoming genius brought in Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff as co-producers. Despite the fact Music of My Mind did not do overly-well commercially, the album is now seen as the beginning of Stevie Wonder’s classic period. It definitely came at a time when Wonder was producing some of his very best work. I wanted to dive into Music of My Mind ahead of its fiftieth anniversary. Credit due to a Udiscovermusic article from 3rd March last year. On its forty-ninth anniversary, they provided background to the majestic Music of My Mind:
“It was on 1971’s Where I’m Coming From that Stevie Wonder came of age, in more ways than one. That was the LP, released soon after his 21st birthday, on which he exercised his new legal right to make music as he wanted, not to the predetermined specifications of Berry Gordy and Motown. But it was the following year’s Music of My Mind that played host to an even greater adventure in self-discovery.
The album, released on March 3, 1972, marked the beginning of Wonder’s creative relationship with co-producers Robert Margouleff and Malcolm Cecil, of the electronic duo Tonto’s Expanding Headband. The pair would later help to shape several of his more celebrated works of genius during the 1970s. Music of My Mind was no commercial sensation, but it stands tall among Stevie’s most important work, both in terms of his ever more profound songwriting sensibility, and in its use of his new best friend in the studio, the synthesizer.
By this time, technology was beginning to keep pace with Wonder’s insatiable appetite for invention. As he told Roger St. Pierre in the New Musical Express in the January, a few weeks before the release of the new set: “I first heard a Moog in 1971 and became very interested in its possibilities. Now I’m working with a VS04.
“I used it on my new album which will be called ‘Music of My Mind’ and that’s exactly what it is because the synthesizer has allowed me to do a lot of things I’ve wanted to do for a long time but which were not possible till it came along. It’s added a whole new dimension to music. After programming the sound you’re able to write or process the melody line immediately and in as many different manners as you want.”
This was still the sound of a young man whose new songs could still express ineffable joie de vivre, as on the opening, gospel-tinged funk of “Love Having You Around,” and the irrepressible “I Love Every Little Thing About You.” But the album also housed such reflective moments as “Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You),” with electric guitar detail by Buzz Feiten, and “Seems So Long.”
The scope of Stevie’s expression was a marvel to behold. Just the imagination, for example, to place heavy echo on his voice in “Happier Than The Morning Sun,” and play its chief accompaniment on a clavinet; or the vocal phasing and percussive playfulness on “Girl Blue.” The record ended with “Evil,” a simple and incisive piece of social commentary that, one might say, opened the door to his conscience. “Evil,” he asked, exasperated, “why have you engulfed so many hearts? Why have you destroyed so many minds?
The Cash Box trade review of the LP enthused: “Stevie has now reached the point where he must be considered a composer of the first order…a vital and expressive album from a man who used to be ‘Little’ and now is very big indeed.”
Penny Valentine, writing in Sounds, was in no doubt about the album’s significance. “This has been hailed as Stevie Wonder’s final ‘coming of age,’” she wrote, “but I think this album is more important and will certainly have more important repercussions than that. To me this album represents the ‘coming of age’ of black soul music. A growth that started with Curtis Mayfield, was extended by Isaac Hayes, and has now reached fruition in the hands of Stevie Wonder. It is that important a landmark in contemporary music.”
Valentine likened Music of My Mind to another staging post release on Motown some ten months earlier. “To Wonder this is a personal triumph. Not only in conveying his music to the listener, not only in no longer being thought of as simply a clever little black kid who swung through a song with apparent effortlessness. It’s a triumph comparable to Marvin Gaye’s break with Motown tradition for What’s Going On so that he could go out alone and do what had laid innate in him for so many years.”
Music of My Mind made its indelible mark on Stevie’s fellow musicians, too. Jeff Beck told the NME: “Stevie’s really on the crest of a wave at the moment. ‘Music of My Mind’ is a revolutionary album – it’s the sort of monster project which comes out and turns everybody’s head.” Later, Stevie memorably gave Jeff his tear-stained “‘Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers,” which became part of Beck’s much-admired 1975 instrumental album Blow By Blow. Syreeta had, by then, recorded a vocal version for her own Motown album Stevie Wonder Presents Syreeta.
Music Of My Mind reached No.6 on Billboard’s R&B chart, but only No.21 on its pop listing, and almost unthinkably now, missed the UK charts altogether, as had Where I’m Coming From”.
Despite the fact many would not place Music of My Mind in their top three Stevie Wonder albums, it is a masterpiece from an artist who has produced more than his share! Beginning a classic period that ranks up there with the best of them (I am thinking of David Bowie’s albums of the 1970s or Joni Mitchell’s earliest albums). I want to end with a couple of pretty positive and strong reviews of Music of My Mind. If you can grab a vinyl copy of the album, it is great listening on that format. Definitely check out the album whatever you can ahead of its fiftieth anniversary on 3rd March. This is what AllMusic said about Stevie Wonder’s fourteenth studio album:
“With a new contract from Motown in his hand, Stevie Wonder released Music of My Mind, his first truly unified record and, with the exception of a single part on two songs, the work of a one-man-band. Everything he had learned about musicianship, engineering, and production during his long apprenticeship in the Snakepit at Motown Studios came together here (from the liner notes: "The sounds themselves come from inside his mind. The man is his own instrument. The instrument is an orchestra.") Music of My Mind was also the first to bear the fruits of his increased focus on Moog and Arp synthesizers, though the songs never sound synthetic, due in great part to Stevie's reliance on a parade of real instruments -- organic drumwork, harmonica, organs and pianos -- as well as his mastery of traditional song structure and his immense musical personality. The intro of the vibrant, tender "I Love Every Little Thing About You" is a perfect example, humanized with a series of lightly breathed syllables for background rhythm. And when the synthesizers do appear, it's always in the perfect context: the standout "Superwoman" really benefits from its high-frequency harmonics, and "Seems So Long" wouldn't sound quite as affectionate without the warm electronics gurgling in the background. This still wasn't a perfect record, though; "Sweet Little Girl" was an awkward song, with Stevie assuming another of his embarrassing musical personalities to fawn over a girl”.
To finish off, I want to bring in BBC’s opinion about Music of My Mind. I think this is an album we will be pouring over decades from now. It is certainly one of my favourite Stevie Wonder albums:
“Music of My Mind was Stevie Wonder’s first release after he gained complete artistic freedom from Motown Records’ "hit factory". Re-signing to the label after his contract lapsed on his 21st birthday, no committee would tell him which track to release as a single or what cover versions to include – this was now his domain alone.
Aside from trumpet, guitar and support from his wife at the time, Syreeta Wright, Wonder played every note on this, his 14th studio album. It also marks the first time he collaborated with synthesizer pioneers Robert Margouleff and Malcolm Cecil.
Music of My Mind is a work that brims with passion, excitement and exuberance. Opener Love Having You Around signposts the new territory: a leisurely, synth-driven jam, its propulsive beat, jive talk and the line “Every day I want to fly my kite” render it childlike celebration of the freedom Wonder was now enjoying.
The album was described at the time by Sounds as representing the “coming of age of black soul music”, and it’s as much the sound of African-America in the early 70s as Marvin Gaye or Curtis Mayfield. From Wonder’s visible afro on the cover to its reference to Melvin Van Peebles’ then-current landmark blaxploitation movie Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, it was the record that put to bed "Little" Stevie Wonder forever.
This being Wonder, however, all of his polemic is sweetened with breathtaking melodies. I Love Every Little Thing About You is one of his most beautiful songs. Happier Than the Morning Sun is great fun, and the second half of Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You) shows Wonder’s indestructible way with a love ballad.
The closing track, Evil, was written at the height of the Vietnam War as response to Memorial Day. It ends proceedings on a downbeat, questioning note, and is indicative of just how far Wonder had travelled since My Cherie Amour.
Somewhat left in the shadow cast by his following two albums, Talking Book and Innervisions, Music of My Mind nevertheless remains a fascinating, influential listen”.
To mark the upcoming fiftieth anniversary of a magnificent Stevie Wonder album, I was excited to source some detail and praise for it. There will be a lot of posts and appreciation for it on 3rd March. Such a remarkable album from one of the most consistent and pioneering artists we have ever seen, Music of My Mind is a jewel that is worthy of high esteem. There is no doubt that this album is…
A mighty fine work!