Imagine if you will, this 50-year old white broad embarking on this earnest project of listening to the #100BestAlbums. I decide my process is to read each album’s lyrics as I’m listening the first time through because for me, words are where the magic lies, it’s how our world is painted for me.
Well, white broad, welcome to funk. This album has permanently changed my process and if you are thinking “Well, duh”, we are in agreement. I’ve had more than one evening happily grooving to this album and chuckling at myself.
I cannot overstate how truly ignorant I am about music in general, which is why this project has been so rewarding. Stevie mixes funk, soul, rock, and R&B; and he sings about the joys and troubles of life, civil rights, Black history, parenthood, nostalgia for childhood, and his faith. Expert reviewers can tell you all about Stevie’s genius and that this album is considered his “Magnum Opus”. I’m more concerned with exploring how opening yourself up to our fellow humans’ abilities to mark our world with beauty and life-changing art can change your OWN life as well.
“There are a lot of things happening that show us that this, right now, is a time to love.”
-Stevie Wonder
One of the things that this album triggered was a deep-dive into how traditional Rock ‘n’ roll of the 50s and 60s, eventually morphed into Rock music, largely with the arrival of the Beatles. I didn’t even know there was a difference between Rock music and Rock ‘n’ roll music. WHAT?
The Beatles of course altered history dramatically. They wrote their own songs, they played their own instruments, and they didn’t have one single singer, instead sharing the lead among multiple band members. This was unique and became a new norm among white rock groups.
"If my flow is goin', I keep on until I peak."
-Stevie Wonder
The Beatles then became interested in folk music and musicians like Bob Dylan. Suddenly white pop music changed to focus on lyrics, including an antagonism toward mainstream adults and their derided middle-class values. The hippie aesthetic is born – Rock ‘n’ roll sound with lyrics that have objectives and attitudes. This is considered such a huge change in music that an entire change of genre occurs, not just an evolution. Rock is born.
Meanwhile, while most white Boomers are singing about freedom, love, and the power of psychedelics, most Black Boomers are gravitating to Soul. Soul came out of gospel music and was more inclined to celebrate Black culture as it was. Made popular by such greats as Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, and Aretha Franklin, “Soul” eventually became a catch-all term for all kinds of R&B-based styles. Soul music of the 70s was more likely to have a brass section, keyboards, and more backup singers than Rock music.
And of course, the Rock and Soul crossovers have been where a lot of our great music comes from, including this momentous album. Another example: Prince deliberately changed his music to incorporate more of a rock/pop sound for 1999 and Purple Rain, creating an earth-shattering new sound.
Anyway, music and its history is rich and complicated and nuanced in ways that the above description surely does not appreciate as well as an expert would, but I’m delighted to have just learned a taste of such a consequential historical era. Here’s hoping you find something that delights you today and every day.
“We all have hearts… If you have a heart, love somebody. If you have enough heart, love everybody.”
-Stevie Wonder
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