The album Innervisions is sometimes called Stevie Wonder's greatest work of art. Most people assume that he recorded this while recovering from a car accident that left him in a coma but in reality the car accident happened just after the album's release. Either way it's a testament to how wonderful Stevie Wonder truly is displaying a wide range of genres, styles and his ability in an album that is only nine tracks. All while diverging from the normal view of who Stevie Wonder is.
I'd like to start by saying that Stevie Wonder is truly amazing and can fits any definition of a one man band you can put together. Almost every instrument on the album is played by him. Occasionally he will have a well known guest play alongside him such as Willie Weeks or David T. Walker. But, make no mistake he plays every instrument from maracas to drums to a synthesizer and back to his iconic piano. It goes without saying, but he obviously wrote and composed every track on the album by himself.
That's not even what makes the album great. Stevie Wonder has always been outspoken about issues facing the black community but this was the first time he let the music speak for him. Innervisions marks the first time that Stevie diverged from the beaten path and brought these issues to the music. Of course he does the ballads and up beat songs he's become know for. "All in Love is Fair," might just be one of the greatest ballads ever. "Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing," is simple, upbeat and full of positive energy with Stevie providing the backing vocals for himself.
The album starts off with a song called "Too High," about a woman slowly falling into drug addiction and overdosing several times before finally dying. Drug usage has long been an issue that Stevie spoke out about. His rise came during a time when crack was being introduced to the cities and he lost a lot of friends to it. It's something that he saw a serious. Compounded by the fact that at the time he was recording for Motown, where some artist were known to have heavy drug problems. It makes sense that he would want to address the issue.
"Mr. Know It All," is a political track directly aimed at Richard Nixon for his failures as president. He calls Nixon out for always speaking without knowing facts and simply making everything worse. In addition the track "Vision," features Stevie wondering if the people who think the world has improved are simply having visions. It's still a track that rings true, especially with all the hype about a "post racial America."
"Living For The City," is a song that features what might have been one of the earliest known instances of a beat flip. It's a song that has been used countless times in a multitude of movies. They often used the upbeat catchy hook to cutaway to a scene of the main character moving to a city but they completely miss the point of the song.
The song is about a young boy who grows up in the South living in poverty and surrounded by racism, discrimination and oppression. Eventually he goes to the North hoping for a better life away from the things that made the South bad. Only to be arrested immediately for unknowingly participating in a crime, quickly convicted and given a lengthy sentence. Once he's free from prison he's old and can't find work because he's a felon. He becomes homeless and wanders New York not even being able to vote because at the time they were scaring black voters away from the polls. It's a song that sounds happy, but it's anything but. It's a song demonstrating how the North and South are simply two different death sentences for a black man.
The song "Higher Ground," perfectly displays this. No matter what happens to you, the world simply keeps turning. People go to war and lose their lives only for people to continue like it never happened. No matter what kind of injustice you face people will pretend to care momentarily only to continue on with their lives as if nothing happened. The albums suffers from majority of the tracks simply being a negative outlook on being black. I like to hope that Stevie feels that things have gotten better since this album was recorded 42 years ago.
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You can hear Darrell on the CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts. He also plays classic arcade games on The Cabinet
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