Stevie Wonder - Music of My Mind

Stevie Wonder was getting his fusion of soul, rock, and various other styles together when Music of My Mind appeared in early 1972. A bit shapeless compared with Talking Book, the masterpiece he'd release by the end of the year, this disc nonetheless finds the then-21-year-old self-assuredly deploying an array of synthesized textures and natural voices: check out the drawl lurking around the edges of "Sweet Little Girl." Not an essential album, but an entertaining one--and one that, in retrospect, carried enormous implications for the future of American music. --Rickey Wright Amazon.com

Music minded forward

1963 12 year old "Little" Stevie Wonder had his first hit, "Fingertips", a harmonica funk on Tamla/Motown. Hits kept on' a comin'. during Mid period Motown mid "60's, classics like "Uptight" and "I Was Made to Love Her". These amazing 45's these wondrous pop songs were written sung by a young man. Stevie wanted to break-out, record his own songs, produce himself...
He got his first chance with this underated attempt.
"Music of My Mind" had no hits, no nothing but the example of what next...
"Music of My Mind" is Stevie dominate, he plays all the instruments, save for a few sweetly ache guitar by Buzzy Felton. He was 22 at the time and ready for the next...(which would be classic LP Talking Book "Superstition etc.)
"Music of My Mind" is the adolescent best memory just before coming..

November 8, 2008

Pure listening pleasure.

Stevie does exactly what this album is titled "Music of My Mind" letting us, the listener, into some of his inner thoughts of love and realtionships. Very insightful on a personal level from Stevie's point of view and individually as I remeness my past relationships during the time of the original release of this album. His sound is haunting,almost spiritual, the music arrangments are of genius, I love the drums and percussions practically. October 28, 2008

Much superior to "What's Going On" and better even than his later work

At the beginning of the 1970s, Stevie Wonder, along with Marvin Gaye, aimed to and succeeded in gaining control of his musical output from the bosses at Motown, with the aim of moving from singles to album-length statements with much longer and more complex songs.

Wonder's first work in this direction, Where I'm Coming From was disappointing and lacked memorable material. With "Music of My Mind", however, Wonder took even more control of what he was performing and became the first artist to play all or almost all of the instruments on a record. Only a trombone on the opening track by Art Baron and a guitar on the second by Buzzy Feiton was not his own work.

If anybody had doubts Wonder wanted to do much more than he was allowed during the 1960s, the stunning opener "Love Having You Around" puts paid to them. The dense, funky electronic rhythms not only manage to maintain a rock-solid emotional level over the full seven minutes, but do not even sound dated when one listens to modern electronica. "Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You)" is the most famous song here: a two-part eight-minute piece that has often been seen as misogynist because the opening verses deplore women's career advancement. Having heard "Shoot To Thrill" on the radio, one can hardly criticise Wonder's lyrics, and the complex music and arrangements express a dark despair in the second part, but do so in a gorgeous manner that rubs off more deeply than any later ballad Wonder would ever write.

After the two opening tracks, it is no surprise Wonder's ambition drops a bit. Yet, "I Love Every Little Thing About You", "Sweet Little Girl" and "Happier Than The Morning Sun" possess a simple beauty that time cannot diminish. The austere, quaint "Girl Blue" has a drum sound comparable to Jaki Liebzeit at the same time over a voice that manages to be beautiful even if heavily processed. "Seems So Long" is even more spartan, yet Wonder's voice soars in a way he would never equal.

Penultimate track "Keep On Running", though, returns to and equal the epic intensity of "Love Having You Around". Though the rhythms are more conventional, the repetitive line "keep on running/running from my love" is one of the most hypnotic vocals in any form of popular music and the rhythm at the opening is pure trance.

All in all, "Music of My Mind" stands as the finest work of early 1970s soul. Whereas most artists in the genre focused on expanding the sound of the genre via orchestration that often sounds soppy today, "Music of My Mind" relies on spartan electronic sounds to produce songs of heartfelt beauty and resonance. Wonder was to produce several more excellent albums, but none with the ambition or passion of this one. September 21, 2008

It's simply amazing...

Before it's time is the perfect definition. You grant Wonder complete artistic control of his music, plus access to innovative synth machines and this is the end result!!! If it sounds as futuristic as it dose now, imagine what heads were thinking in 72'. One of Steveland's more electric, "tripy" albums. Still, nothing less than beautiful!!!! August 21, 2008

Difficult to find the words

It doesn't happen very often but there are some albums I listen to that leave me at a loss for words. I struggle for ages to find the appropriate words to use to describe them in a review and in the end, I often just give up.

This gem from 1972; the first of five albums widely hailed as Wonder's "classic period", is a typical example. (Wonder's 1974 album, Fulfillingness' First Finale was another. I did attempt a review some time ago and ended up babbling for a scant few lines about how listening to it was like being like a "spiritual journey". Sometimes I feel like going back and deleting the review but it's an accurate reflection of how I felt about it, so I leave it be).

And in case anyone is wondering, the other three albums from the period are Talking Book, Innervisions and, of course, Songs in the Key of Life.

"Superwoman" was the popular single from this set, the song most folks remember and the one so many people have covered but people unfamiliar with the album might be surprised to learn that the song is by no means the best thing on offer here. This is only my personal opinion but the incredibly funky tunes "Love Having You Around" & "I Love Every Little Thing About You" and the mid-tempo "Sweet Little Girl" (with it's awesome, mellow, nice & easy refrain) and the ballads "Happier Than The Morning Sun" & "Seems So Long" are much more memorable, much more soulful and much more satisfying.

Produced by the man himself and largely written by him too (he wrote a few with Syreeta Wright, although the CD inner-sleeve notes credit her as "Y. Wright"), the work is described as "virtually the work of one man". Buzzy Feiton plays a guitar solo on "Superwoman" and Art Baron a trombone solo on "Love Having You Around" but every other single instrument is performed by Wonder himself. Including the vocoder, a device Wonder was using way before Herbie Hancock or Roger Troutman (although never to modify or enhance his lead vocal) and a device that seems to be back in vogue these days. "The sounds themselves come from inside his mind," state the inner-sleeve notes. It's entirely possible he performed all the backing vocals as well. Listening to the album, it's very hard to believe (especially listening to the upbeat "Keep On Running", the other single from the album) but no backing singers are credited so, unless someone knows different..?

If you love Stevie, if you love soul or if you just love good, real music, then you either have this already or you need to check it out.

(Phew! Well, I guess I managed to find the words in the end, eh?) April 18, 2008

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