#094
Monocasta: I Wonder
(what Stevie would do)
Stevland Hardaway Morris tinha 13 anos em 1963, ano em que nasci, quando o single Fingertips chegou à posição cimeira da tabela Hot 100 da revista Billboard. O nome pelo qual é conhecido é Stevie Wonder mas chegou por vezes a assinar composições com o anagrama de Eivets Rednow. Só o vi ao vivo uma vez, quando veio ao Estádio do Restelo apresentar o futuramente ubíquo “I Just Called to Say I Love You”, concerto fantástico mesmo que detonado pelos ventos que roubavam potencia ao PA montado no palco a sul (onde nunca se devia montar nem sequer um estrado na casa dos Belenenses).
Estrela que sempre brilhou merecidamente pelo seu talento mesmo que dentro da constelação Motown, Wonder deu-nos tanta canção boa que quase até mete medo. Foi por isso, à imagem de re-interpretação do cancioneiro de outros artistas que já aqui escolhi, que esta semana decidi pegar no seu catalogo enquanto fonte inspiradora para outros.
Começo logo com Macy Gray que em 2012 gravou o album Talking Book, inteiramente decalcado por cima do album com o mesmo nome que Wonder havia editado 40 anos antes e do qual escolhi I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever) que encerra qualquer um dos álbuns (Gray decidiu nem sequer mexer na sequencia original apresentando esta “carta de amor” pela ordem com que Wonder havia gravado o seu disco. Na altura da sua edição Ben Greenman escreveu na New Yorker: “Here, Gray hits all the right notes, both as a singer and an interpreter: it’s a marvellous, expansive, eccentric performance that lifts off into gospel toward the end. The original version was about romantic love. This one may be about matters more divine (there’s one explicit mention of prayer), unless it’s just Gray’s way of reiterating her devotion for “Talking Book” itself. Either way, it’s a stirring closer, and a reminder that the most important thing about a love letter is how it ends”.
Acabo igualmente com uma outra canção de Talking Book, Superstition mas na versão gravada pelo actor, realizador, argumentista e compositor Melvin Van Peebles tornado famoso logo em em 1970 ao realizar o filme Watermelon Man para o qual também compôs a banda sonora mesmo antes de se aventurar no ano seguinte no clássico de blaxploitation Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. Em 1972 gravaria a peça Ain’t Supposed To Die A Natural Death (Tunes From Blackness) e em 1973 aventurava-se com o disco What The . . . . You Mean I Can’t Sing?! que começava com o tema A Birth Certificate Ain’t Nothing But A Death Warrant Anyway e um pouco mais à frente esta rendition desbragada da canção de Stevie Wonder.
Pelo meio ando um pouco por todo o lado, pelas ondas mais jamaico-caribeñas com Yester-Me-Yester-You, Yesterday (Jamaican Mix) por John Holt e Master Blaster (Jammin’) na voz de Jen Chapin, os Third World com Try Jah Love ou Frank Colón e Janis Siegel em Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing. Mas também por inúmeras canções que Wonder escreveu ou ajudou a escrever para outros: It’s A Shame para os The Spinners; Stick Together que está no disco Stay In Love gravado em 1977 por Minnie Ripperton; de Smokey Robinson & The Miracles escolhi Tears of a Clown e do primeiro disco de Syreeta o apaixonado I Love Every Little Thing About You para ir parar ao last but not the least The Crown de Gary Byrd & The GB Experience.
Esta ultima é a única publicação do selo Wondirection, presidido por Wonder dentro da Motown. A canção, que versa a evolução humana desde os egípcios até aos dias de hoje sob o prisma do legado e herança africana com Byrd a sugerir que “The idea is not that black, white or anyone is better, but that we all have our place. We’ve all made contributions – and mistakes too. Wearing the crown is reaching the top of your potential. You could be a writer or you could be a mechanic, but you can still wear the crown”. No entanto os brilhantes 10 minutos e 35 segundos do 12” não passaram além de metade da R&B chart da Billboard nos EUA, enquanto que no UK chegou quase ao topo e lá se mantendo por nove semanas, angariando fama por causa de ser a primeira canção assim longa a estar na tabela de vendas.
Fui ainda escolhendo alguns clássicos do seu portfolio interpretados por outros enormes talentos da musica popular. Apesar de ter uma versão de Living for the City por Sylvester acabei por preferir ter aqui a gravada por Roger & Zapp (monicker de Roger Troutman) no maxi-single datado de 1996 nem que fosse pelo agreste som de sintetizador baixo que sempre me fez saltar a tampa; 3 fadas da soul, a madrinha Aretha Franklin com Until You Come Back To Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do), a prima Nancy Wilson com Uptight (Everything’s Alright) e a sobrinha Sharon Jones com os seus Dap-Kings em Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours editado em 2020, quatro anos após a morte da cantora no album Just Dropped In To See What Condition My Rendition Was In, compilação de versões tão parecidas com os originais quão possível gravadas ao longo da carreira de Jones (no caso desta em particular destinava-se a um anuncio televisivo. É um disco deveras estranho pois em vez de mostrar a mestria da Baddest Band in the Land, torna-se num manual à circunvalação das chatices inerentes ao licenciamento de uma canção de sucesso.
Stevie Wonder é um dos mais produtivos e bem sucedidos artistas no mundo da pop que em sessenta anos de carreira vendeu mais de 100 milhões de discos, ganhou 25 Grammies (record absoluto) e ainda um Oscar da Academia na categoria de Melhor Canção Original (para I Just Called to Say I Love You no filme The Woman in Red). Cantou nos funerais de Michael Jackson em 2009, de Etta James, em 2012, um mês depois no de Whitney Houston e ainda na despedida de Aretha Franklin em 2018. A sua musica contribuiu para muitos avanços tecnológicos, mas também “empurrou” o funk norte americano para a era do album.
Esta semana lembrem-se onde raio puseram qualquer um dos seus discos e voltem a apreciar aquele que é talvez um dos maiores compositores dos tempos modernos.
#staysafe #musicfortheweekend
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Stevland Hardaway Morris was 13 years old in 1963, the year I was born, when the single Fingertips reached the top of Billboard magazine’s Hot 100 chart. The name by which he is known is Stevie Wonder but he has sometimes signed compositions with the anagram of Eivets Rednow. I only saw him live once, when he came to Restelo’s stadium to present the future ubiquitous “I Just Called to Say I Love You”, a fantastic concert even if it was detonated by winds that stole some of the sonic power from the PA on a stage mounted south (where you should not even do ball tricks at the home of my club Belenenses).
A star who always deservedly shone for his talent even within the Motown constellation, it’s almost frightening the amount of very good songs Wonder has given us. It was for this reason, in the image of re-interpreting the songbooks of other artists that I have already done here, that this week I decided to take his catalog as an inspirational source for others.
I start with Macy Gray who in 2012 recorded the album Talking Book, entirely based on the album with the same name that Wonder had released 40 years before and from which I chose I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever) which ends any of the albums (Gray decided to not even mess with the original sequence presenting this “love letter” in the order in which Wonder had recorded his. At the time of it’s premiere Ben Greenman wrote in the New Yorker: “Here, Gray hits all the right notes, both as a singer and an interpreter: it’s a marvelous, expansive, eccentric performance that lifts off into gospel toward the end. The original version was about romantic love. This one may be about matters more divine (there’s one explicit mention of prayer), unless it’s just Gray’s way of reiterating her devotion for “Talking Book” itself. Either way, it’s a stirring closer, and a reminder that the most important thing about a love letter is how it ends”.
I also end with another song from Talking Book, Superstition but in a version recorded by actor, director, screenwriter and composer Melvin Van Peebles, who became famous in 1970 when he made the film Watermelon Man, for which he also composed the soundtrack even before venturing the following year into the blaxploitation classic Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. In 1972, he recorded the piece Ain’t Supposed To Die A Natural Death (Tunes From Blackness) and in 1973 he ventured out with the album What The…. You Mean I Can’t Sing?! which started with the track A Birth Certificate Ain’t Nothing But A Death Warrant Anyway having a little further on this wild rendition of the song by Stevie Wonder.
In between these two bookends, I wandered around a bit, on the more Jamaican-Caribbean waves with Yester-Me-Yester-You, Yesterday (Jamaican Mix) by John Holt and Master Blaster (Jammin’) in the voice of Jen Chapin, Third World with Try Jah Love or Frank Colón and Janis Siegel in Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing. But also around countless songs Wonder wrote or helped write for others: It’s A Shame for The Spinners; Stick Together which is on the album Stay In Love recorded in 1977 by Minnie Ripperton; from Smokey Robinson & The Miracles I chose Tears of a Clown and from Syreeta’s first album the passionate I Love Every Little Thing About You to end up with last but not the least The Crown by Gary Byrd & The GB Experience, the only publication on the Wondirection label, chaired by Wonder within Motown.
This song, which deals with human evolution from the Egyptians to the present day under the prism of the African legacy and heritage, with Byrd suggesting that “The idea is not that black, white or anyone is better, but that we all have our place. We’ve all made contributions – and mistakes too. Wearing the crown is reaching the top of your potential. You could be a writer or you could be a mechanic, but you can still wear the crown”. However, the brilliant 10 minutes and 35 seconds of the 12” did not make more than half of the Billboard R&B chart in the US, while in the UK it reached almost the top and stayed there for nine weeks, garnering fame maybe because of being the first very long song to be on the sales chart.
I still opted for some classics from his portfolio interpreted by other enormous talents of popular music. Despite having a version of Living for the City by Sylvester, I ended up preferring to have here the one recorded by Roger & Zapp (Roger Troutman’s monicker) in the maxi-single dated from 1996, even if it was for the harsh bass synthesizer sound that always made my soul jump; 3 soul fairies, godmother Aretha Franklin with Until You Come Back To Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do), cousin Nancy Wilson with Uptight (Everything’s Alright) and niece Sharon Jones with her Dap-Kings in Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours released in 2020, four years after the singer’s death, on the album Just Dropped In To See What Condition My Rendition Was In, a compilation of versions as similar to the originals as possible recorded throughout Jones’ career (in the case of this one in particular, it was intended for a television commercial. It is a very strange album because instead of showing the mastery of the Baddest Band in the Land, it becomes a manual on how-to circumvent all the annoyances inherent in the licensing of a successful song.
Stevie Wonder is one of the most productive and successful artists in the world of pop, who in sixty years of career has sold more than 100 million records, won 25 Grammies (absolute record) and even an Oscar from the Academy in the category of Best Original Song (for I Just Called to Say I Love You in the movie The Woman in Red). He sang at Michael Jackson’s funeral in 2009, Etta James in 2012, a month later at Whitney Houston’s and still at Aretha’s farewell in 2018. His music has contributed to many technological advances, but also “pushed” American funk into the album era.
This week remember where the hell you’ve put any of the records by one of the greatest composers of modern times and enjoy his music all over again.
#staysafe #musicfortheweekend
Macy Gray – I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)
East St Louis Gospelettes – Have A Talk With God
Roger & Zapp – Living for the City
Tamiko Jones – Creepin’
Sacha Distel et Brigitte Bardot – Le Soleil de ma Vie
Gene Harris – As
Devon Allman’s Honeytribe – Sir Duke
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Higher Ground
José Feliciano – Golden Lady
Boney M. – My Cherie Amour
The Spinners – It’s A Shame
Minnie Ripperton – Stick Together
Main Ingredient – Girl Blue
Aretha Franklin – Until You Come Back To Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do)
Nick DeCaro – Angie Girl
Fugees – Blame It On The Sun
John Holt – Yester-Me-Yester-You, Yesterday (Jamaican Mix)
Jen Chapin – Master Blaster (Jammin’)
Third World – Try Jah Love
Julius Rodriguez – All I Do
Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings – Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours
The Beach Boys – I Was Made To Love Her
Frank Colón with Janis Siegel – Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing
The Pointer Sisters – Bring Your Sweet Stuff Home To Me
Carl Anderson – Buttercup
John Minnis’ Big Bone Band – Love’s In Need Of Love Today
Patti Smith – Pastime Paradise
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles – Tears Of A Clown
Nancy Wilson – Uptight (Everything’s Alright)
Gary Byrd & The GB Experience – The Crown
Norman Brown – Too High
Sparks – Fingertips
F.B.I. – Keep On Running
Jrod Indigo – Go Home
Roberta Flack – Looking for Another Pure Love
The Jackson 5 – The Love I Saw In You Was Just A Mirage
The Temptations – For Once in My Life
Syreeta – I Love Every Little Thing About You
George Duke – Superwoman ft. Eric Benet
Melvin Van Peebles – Superstition