Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life

by Dan Seligman -  POP Montreal

It's 8am on Sunday morning. I'm awake with my 8 ½ month old daughter Johanna. I'm keeping her entertained with toys and odds and ends that she likes to grab, throw or try to eat. I've been trying to squeeze in time to write this piece for the last couple weeks and I decide the time is right. When Gary asked me to pick an album that had a profound impact on me growing up, Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life suddenly jumped into my mind. It's an album I listened to as a teenager and one that I continually go back to. It was released the year I was born by my favourite artist, so I figured I should try to articulate something of what it means to me.

 Johanna is making noises at the cat and chewing on the strap of my computer bag on the rug in front of me. I place Songs in the Key of Life on the record player. It's timeless, beautiful and full of so much goodness. The first song, ‘Love is in Need of Love Today’ is the kind of confounding philosophical statement that you could spend a life time trying to understand.

I first heard Songs in the Key of Life in high school. A friend of my older brother had given it to me. At the time I was a big hip hop fan and had started to explore the funk and soul music that it sampled. Luckily, I heard "Pastime Paradise" before it was tainted by Coolio's rendering of "Gangster Paradise". 

I had already listened to Innervisions which is also a perfect album and probably more compacted with hits but Songs in the Key of Life seemed almost bigger than music. It was like all of the beauty, joy, love and wisdom Stevie had accumulated up until that point in his life encapsulated perfectly in one almost operatic statement.

Side one ends, Johanna is getting restless. I turn the record over, “I Wish" comes on with its propulsive disco rhythm. I pick her up and start to boogie. Thankfully, once again, I knew it well before hearing Will Smith sampling the instrumental in 1999 for "Wild Wild West." Songs in the Key of Life really covers the full spectrum as an album. It has moments of poignant introspection, other times it’s full of funky dance floor fodder and yet other times it’s politically and socially engaging with songs like "Village Ghettoland", a satirical romp on ghetto neglect.

 By side 3 Johanna has fallen asleep next to her mother Julia. "Isn't She Lovely?" starts with the cries of Stevie's newborn daughter Aisha. Of course being a new dad has totally softened me up. The song plays like a calling card of fatherly pride: "I never thought through love we'd be making one as lovely as she.” It brings a feeling over me I think is most aptly described by the Yiddish term nachas; which translates loosely as the blessing and immense joy and pride you feel for your children.

Side 4 has started, I've admitted to being a total mushy romantic. What do I have to lose? Stevie created a work of musical genius that has been recognized by critics, artists and fans alike. It continues to give me hours of pleasure and bring new meaning to life as I discover the deepening of love. And I think he puts it best:

"So...If it's magic...why can't we make it everlasting.

Like the lifetime of the sun

It will leave no heart undone.

For there's enough for everyone"

Dan Seligman - June 2010

*** Daniel Seligman was born in Toronto, Ontario in 1976. He has lived in Montreal for 12 years. He graduated from McGill University in the department of Religious Studies in 2000. He started his music career as a general schlepper for his brother’s band Stars shortly after graduating. This led him to booking, promoting and managing Stars for 3 years as their career took off. In 2002, while managing Stars, Seligman started a music festival called Pop Montreal with some friends. It is now a runaway success. After working with Stars for 3 years, he discovered the Unicorns and instantly fell in love, managing the Montreal weirdo pop sensations until their implosion in 2005.  He has managed the eccentric Jewish hip hop artist Socalled since 2006. Seligman has continued his role as creative director for Pop Montreal booking artists as diverse as Patti Smith, Bun B, Loudon Wainwright III,Joanna Newsom, The Mighty Sparrow, Fever Ray,The Butthole Surfers, Metric and Roxanne Shante. He also remains firmly committed to working with emerging artists in Montreal and beyond booking shows across North America for artists like Plants and Animals, Duchess Says, Think About Life and The D'Urbervilles. Through POP Montreal, Seligman has remained the promoter of record for The Arcade Fire in Quebec and has produced their Montreal shows since the launch for their break through album Funeral in 2004.

Comments

[Diane M]

"Songs in the Key of Life ... is timeless, beautiful and full of so much goodness."

I totally agree and we all need an album we can count on to reconnect us with the goodness that is all around if we open our eyes to it.