Stevie Wonder – Innervisions

Welcome to the Album Nerds podcast with your hosts, Andy, Don, and Dude. Hi Don, I don't want to do this anymore. It's the Album Nerds podcast. That's good. Hi dude, I got Andy and Don with me. How you guys doing this beautiful summer of Don? You about to turn this car right around and take us back home on our summer vacation, man? Don't make me do it. I'm going to put my hand behind the seat and start slapping randomly, see what knees I can get. Don? You know what?

I went to the eye doctor yesterday and I got a new prescription for my contacts and now I have inner visions. Wow. That felt like a long one. Swing and a miss. Oh yeah. That was rough. All right, so this is the Album Nerds podcast. We love albums, the album format. We love music and we hope you do too. We've got a great show for you this week. We're going to continue this beautiful summer of Don and revisit Stevie Wonder's inner visions. We'll get into the nitten grid on that one.

Don is going to ask us a deep and probing question. Then we're going to have some shout outs to some albums and album related items that we're digging and then we're going to spin that wheel of musical discovery to find out where this kooky summer of Don is going to take us next. But this week it's time to look inward. I proclaim this the summer of Donnie Lakey. That's what I'm talking about.

So the summer of Don continues and if you've been basking in the rays with us, you know that I went back into the Album Nerds archives and made a list of records that were previously covered before I joined the show. I gave that list to Wadbot. She put it on the wheel of musical discovery and she keeps providing us records to talk about each week. So this week we're going to revisit an album you discussed in episode 138 Stevie Wonder's Inner Visions.

I think in a sense being able to make a person be so emotionally involved in a particular thing that they can cry about it or can smile about it. It can be any kind of song but as long as you're really for real about it. So Inner Visions was released in August 1973. Let's hear a song called Living for the City. And the vocal accompaniment that is an instrument in and of itself kind of adds some depth to it.

Living for the City depicts the story of a young black man born in hard time Mississippi experiencing discrimination while looking for work. He eventually goes to New York City in hopes of a better life but basically gets framed for a crime and ends up in jail. Like most of the album Stevie Wonder plays a majority of the instruments on that track. So this is the 16th studio album by the American singer, songwriter and musician. Actually his real name is Steve Lynn. I've never heard that before.

Steve Lynn Hardaway Morris of Saginaw, Michigan. In 1950. So that means when this came out he was 23. Wow. Yeah, it's his 16th album. And so this kind of falls in the middle of I guess what critics call his classic period. There's a stretch of like five albums in a row that are considered his perhaps best or most important. Well, yeah, it's when he for the first time in his career total creative control.

So I think probably the passion in the writing for those that handful of records over the five year period or so would just must he must have been bursting with ideas. He stopped being little Stevie Wonder. Yeah. So as I said, you guys discussed the album in episode 138. What were your thoughts then? What are they now? I think back in 138 I was mostly struck by the positivity and just kind of the high energy, the vibe that's pervasive on each of the tracks here.

And yeah, Stevie's able to like makes this very bouncy happy sounding music and mix in some really hard hitting truths of life and some good lessons and just makes it a really interesting lesson on kind of like both sides of the brain. In that living for the city song, that last verse he's like, oh, I hope this story teaches you a lesson or something. So he turns it into like a positive thing. It's not just sad.

Yeah. I think he's trying to put a positive spin on all these situations, whether they're good or bad and trying to get something good out of it. Yeah. For me, on our last talk about this, I focused a lot on living for the city and its ability to tell a story with the skits within it where you hear the police and just the creativity behind it of really selling this story and making it come to life.

But we also, we got into a bunch of different songs, but still that mix of funk, soul, jazz, rock and roll is as enjoyable now as it was then. I think I had a really great week of listening and I was able to learn a few new things and did a little more headphone time, listened more intently to the lyrics, I think, than the last time. I think I was trying to present more than experience. So we'll see how it goes. Yeah. It was a pleasure for me to spend more time with Stevie Wonder.

He's grown up, to me he was Ebony and Ivory and part-time lover and that kind of stuff. I just come to say I love you. In my 20s, I think I kind of learned how significant he was. So yeah, it's always a pleasure to listen to these classic albums. So let's hear another track. This is All in Love is Fair. Man, that just... Yeah, you really get to hear him sing on some of these songs. It's not all funky, quick delivery. Yeah. I mean, that song really stands out to me. It's just been...

It's a lovely performance from his own, which just stands out because he has such a great voice. I don't know, to me, coming back to this, just the quality from track to track, even though he does... He's dealing with a variety of different sounds on the record. We've got funk, electro pop, Latin, R&B, obviously soul. But just the quality is so high on each track. Each track really feels like its own thing, its own little piece of artwork that's kind of worthy of spending time with.

Yeah. So my clickbait headline for this album is Wonder plays 40 Chess against himself for 44 minutes. Just kind of imagine if you clone Stevie Wonder and put five of them in a room together and they're all playing these songs as a group. It's just such a high level and to know that he's involved at every level of it is just so impressive. Is 4D chess a real thing? I know there's 3D chess in Star Trek. Is there 4D chess? What would be the fourth dimension?

Stevie Wonder's creativity is the fourth dimension. Stevie brings his own dimension. Yeah. Yeah. It's just great that some of these serious songs can really still have a fun and funky delivery. I'm sure I'm going to do more comparing it to Marvin Gaye and what's going on. But I don't think there's a lot of... I could be mistaken, but I don't think there's a lot of strings on this album. And I think it's more it's the synths are taking the place of the strings, which is pretty common.

Especially in this period when those tools were fun for these artists to be able to, in the studio, not have to wait for an orchestra to come, but to be able to play around with at least what it would sound like with that kind of fill. For me, this song, it's about the heartbreak as a part of a relationship, but it balances out the euphoric feeling of Golden Lady where it's that new relationship. It's all so rapturing.

And this is more the truths of sometimes the challenges that can come in relationships and either giving up or continuing to fight for your loves. Yeah. Yeah. So you mentioned Golden Lady, which butts right up to Living for the City. And then we have All Is Fair, which butts right up to Don't You Worry About a Thing, which is another high energy funky track. I thought you guys had all these ballads paired up against these more high energy tracks.

It makes for kind of a, I don't know, not necessarily uneven listen, but up and down kind of energy scale. I think it wasn't disconcerting to me. I kind of like the up and down of it. Yeah. I mean, for me, I guess, Inner Visions and Stevie painting this picture of how he sees life and life has its ups and downs, energy changes from moment to moment.

You can be having a great day and then you're having a bad day or you can be having a bad day and something great can happen or something you've been waiting for comes through. I think for me, it just sort of feels like the pulse and the pace of life. Yeah. It does feel alive. There's a crackle of energy, I think, to this whole album. There you go. Okay, well, let's hear another cut. This is the second track from the album called Vision.

This is actually what inspired me to go to the eye doctor this week. Well, you came back around and you made it better. Yeah, so the lyrics in that song basically just deal with sort of picturing this more idealistic world where there isn't prejudice and hatred and stuff like that and I guess kind of asking the question, how far are we from that vision? That one, I don't even know what instrument that is there. It's kind of like some jazzy notes going on there, sort of really interesting track.

And to have acoustic guitar sounds is nice too. It makes it more organic and kind of feeling like a lullaby. It's soothing, so its vision is painted in a dreamy way, so it does kind of feel like you're in Stevie's mind picturing this utopia where we're kind to one another regardless of our differences. But he also talks about, I'm aware where we are. I'm aware that the green leaves turn brown. I'm aware that things aren't always beautiful, but what if we just picture it for a while? I like that.

Okay, well my clickbait headline is, wonder delivers stunning mid-career combination to take progressive soul heavyweight title. I don't know why I became a boxing man. But I was kind of thinking of it, well here's another genre that I wasn't even really aware existed before this progressive soul and it turns out I'm really into this stuff. So Marvin Gaye, Sly Stone and Stevie Wonder.

And so I think what's going on, Marvin Gaye came out in like 71, the Sly Stone record we did, there's a riot going on. Was that 71 or two or something like that? So they came out with these amazing albums, but then you've got this period here where Stevie's doing this stuff. Kind of reminds me of that Brian Wilson, Paul McCartney rivalry, where Brian Wilson heard Rubber Soul and so he made Pet Sounds and then McCartney heard Pet Sounds and did Sergeant Pepper.

And I wonder if there was kind of a rivalry between Marvin Gaye and Stevie. They're both from Motown, they both had kind of similar career paths and they finally now have control over the music they're putting out. So interesting. I can't imagine this record existing without what's going on coming out first. I was thinking that none of those would have come out without like Miles Davis and other jazz artists, the Jazz Fusion Movement I think is the seed of a lot of this progressive soul music.

I don't know, just an observation. It's all connected man. That's right, it is. As we've already talked about, somehow Stevie Wonder just seems to have a more positive vibe. I feel like Sly Stone and Marvin Gaye kind of have these demons that they're trying to work out and amazingly with Stevie Wonder, I don't really get that sense. Here's somebody who's been faced with great challenges and he was a child prodigy and we know those kinds of things. People struggle with that as they get older.

But he seems like a guy at peace. I think at 23 being unleashed with your creativity and being able to, he was little Stevie Wonder, he played kind of jazzy songs, harmonica, he was controlled by Motown. I think the wave was cresting for him. So being a torture artist wasn't in the cards. I think the euphoria we feel through some of these songs is what he was feeling as he was creating it. It's like higher ground. I'm just kidding. Well, let's play another song.

Speaking of, here is Higher Ground. So the word is Stevie wrote and recorded the song in a three hour burst of creativity in May of 1973 playing all the instruments, kind of moving through the phases of life and perhaps touching on concepts like reincarnation, like the things you do in this life. Well, karmically, where's that going to take you in the next?

So the clickbait headline I chose for this album, Stevie Wonders about spirituality, love and humanity on intervisions, 44 minutes of introspective perfection. This song, I think, is a great example of that. Looking back at what you've done, what you will do, how does that size you up as a human being? And just trying to live your life with that in mind. You guys are a couple of evil sons bitches, so I'm not sure, but I think this song could do you some good.

It's hard to resonate with someone whose soul is as black as mine. So me, like Stevie, I was thinking of him as being a humanitarian, just kind of looking out for his fellow brother or sister and trying to get us all to a better place. It's not so much about individuals, but kind of as a collective getting us to a higher ground, I guess you could say.

I think his trick or what is special about this record or that track in particular was, that message at its core, I think, sounds very sappy and kind of pandering or something like maybe your parents would tell you or something wouldn't really resonate with me. Or you'd hear it in church, maybe. Yeah, it sounds kind of religious. He makes it sound just deeper and more elevated and more of a spiritual thing, and less of something you're being told or for your own good kind of thing.

I really like the, I mean, of course I like the baseline. Yes, you do. It's a good baseline. But there's something about it, it's almost like the, it feels like the pulse of life for everything moving on. It's really effective. Well, the lyrics revolve around second chances and something that's come out since a few weeks after the album was released. Stevie got in a car accident. It was in a coma for quite a while.

And apparently during his coma, his road manager, Ira Tucker Jr. was singing higher ground into his ear and eventually his fingers started moving to the beat of the song and that's when he started to come out of the coma. And so there's this conjecture out there that this was prophetic and that this, he got a second chance at life, which he had already written about. So his thinking about it and his desire to be better served him well after he was injured. It's interesting.

So it's like Stevie Wonder in the past saves Stevie Wonder in the future. You take it however you want, but I saw it. That's a 4D chess set, man. It is an interesting way to think about it. Yeah. Okay. Well, this already lives in the Album Nerds Hall of Fame. So. Damn straight it does. No need to nominate. Is there like another level we can elevate it? Is there like a special floor where they- The platinum room? Yes. If there was, this would go there for sure.

I mean, of this period, I know that like perhaps Talking Book is by many considered the best of this era, but I think Intervisions is my favorite. Yeah. I like songs in the Key of Life, but because it's a double album, I think it's a little harder to process. Yeah. Yeah. You can't go wrong with this era. I mean, really, I think Stevie Wonder is pretty great, but this is definitely the classic period. All right. Well, so the album is Intervisions released in 1973 by Stevie Wonder.

Excuse me. I'd like to ask you a few questions. Well, it's time again for Deep Questions by Don. Ow. It's so deep. Okay. All right. This one actually might be deep. So let's imagine Re-Unit and the Carnation is real. How would you want to come back? The Blaze of Glory on the third day. I mean, I kind of hope Re-Unit is a thing. I like the idea of it. That makes sense to me as a logical person that the things you do in this life would carry on to the next one. So yeah, I don't know.

I guess the goal is just to come back and be better than you were before, right? So even if it's a little bit better. But the Andy of today, what's that next step or is it a step back, you evil son of a bitch? I'm going to go to the higher ground, man. I can't go backward. I mean, going backward, you come back like it was a horse or something. Horse? A horse is majestic. You'd come back as a slug or something if you're bad. Oh, geez. All the way down a slug?

I assume it was like a scale of some kind you could rate this on, right? So what do you think? Are you at least a human in the next life or something? Fingers crossed for at least human. Maybe not. As handsome of a human as I am. Yeah, I don't know. Do you want to come back as a different creature, dude? No, I want to come back as myself or at least something very close. I am happy with life and I try to think about other people and be kind except you guys.

And maybe that's what will knock me back a bit. But like the life I lived growing up in a, you know, every family's got its stuff. I grew up in a generally happy home, happy childhood, had food to eat, a roof over my head. I had a lot that a lot of people don't have. So I'd be lucky to come back and just have the same level, you know? I'm not asking for more. I don't want to be a superstar or any of that stuff. If I could just get this again, that'd be good. Yeah, that's a good point, man.

The three of us got pretty lucky, I would say, with our lives so far. That sounds pretty healthy. I definitely wouldn't want to come back as Don. Too much crying in my pillow listening to The Cure. Oh, jeez. No, you probably will come back as someone. Here, I was going to say, you've probably, sounds like you've already reached the highest level. I just dropped out. There it goes. Well, I said, you guys are the exception of my kindness.

Yeah. So it sounds like we're kind of operating under the assumption that you kind of go levels, which I think is kind of like the Buddhist thing. But I was also thinking, if it was just random, your odds of becoming anything other than bacteria, or just a single cell, like a cell or something. So whatever the next thing that's being created, whether it's a human being born, a calf being born, whatever it is, or a paramecium, that's what you're going to be. Interesting.

That kind of blows my mind. Like I wonder, because as human beings, we have consciousness. We sort of know we exist. And I assume my dog knows he exists. But I wonder for plants and little single celled organisms, if they have any sort of consciousness at all. Well, you really should think about that, since you're a vegetarian and your whole thing is that you don't want to hurt any creature. I mean, every piece of lettuce you chew on, it's like, ah, ah.

Boy, have science ever discovered that lettuce has feelings? So then I just don't eat? Yeah. Just the water diet. Yeah, but the water is like hitting the acid in your stomach. It's like, no. OK, what do you want to come back as in the next life? Let us know. Hit us up on the socials, Facebook, Instagram, and threads. Also on our website, albumnerds.com. Can you dig it?

Can you dig it? Can you dig it? Can you dig it? Can you dig it? Can you dig it? Can you dig it? Can you dig it? Can you dig it? All right, so it's the summer of dawn and we got to enjoy the sounds of Stevie Wonder. But did you find time to dig anything else? Oh, you know I did, man. Yeah, yeah, I got my 70s duffel bag full of new releases over here. Let's start with Carolyn Shaw, the composer, violinist, and vocalist from Greenville, North Carolina.

She has a new record out entitled Rectangles and Circumstances. Good title, yeah? Good album art as well. Let's play a little bit of the title cut. Kind of a Judy Collins situation going on there. Yeah, her voice is on some similar. Yeah, I guess she's a classical composer. I don't really hear a lot of classical on this album. Sounds more modern, but yeah, it sounds interesting to me. Stole a trick from Tool and using geometry for song titles. And that parallelogram lady. Oh yeah, Linda Perhox.

Yeah, you always remember. I can never remember her name. The dental hygienist. Yes, that's right. All right, and take a sharp left turn for ulcerates next. Cutting the throat of God. I'm not sure how I feel about that title. Sacrilege. It is, but it's kind of their deal. They're an extreme metal group from New Zealand. This is their seventh full length. We'll play a little bit of the second cut. This is The Dawn is Hollow. The Dawn? Kind of a Judy Collins vibe. Oh wait. Wow. Pretty much.

Very dense, intense record from them, but it seems to be in line with their previous output if you're a fan. And last one for me is from John Kell. There's a new album called Popticle Illusion. Popticle Illusion. I get it. I don't know how I feel about that title. Popticle. So was today the theme like cool titles? Yeah. Cool and questionable titles. I could not figure out what number studio album this was for him. The guy has a huge discography. I kind of underestimated it.

Yeah. A lot of collaborations and stuff too. Yeah. Just involved a lot of music over the years. Obviously a founding member of the Velvet Underground. I believe the first single is this track here called How We See the Lights. It sounds a little 80s synth pop beat to me. I don't know. It's got a little bit of a Thompson Twins vibe or something. Yeah. It reminds me of the album that he did with Brian Eno back in 1990 called Wrong Way Up.

Kind of a similar sort of pop, kind of synthy sound, which I think is really effective. Yeah. I've been enjoying the record quite a bit so far. What you been digging on, Don? Well, if you remember back a couple of years ago when I first joined the show, we did an album from a duo called the Cactus Blossoms. I do. Nice. They're back, brothers Jack Tory and Paige Berkham. A new album coming out in August. They've dropped a couple of tracks.

This is There She Goes, not a cover of the Great Law song. Thank God. It sounds about right. It's got that nice laid back vibe that I remember from the last record. Is it kind of in their wheelhouse throughout? I think so. They've only dropped two so far. Yeah, they all kind of sound like the last one, but we'll see if any ground is broken. I'm hearing a little Tom Petty here. Yeah. He's pretty and kind of spiky. Spiky. I get it.

Cactus. So actually, I went back in the past and I don't know something about the warm weather and kind of driving around. I kind of like to listen to oldies, stuff from the 50s. They exist in different places, but there's an album by Elvis Presley compilation that was released in 1999 called Sunrise, which is probably the best collection of his Sun recordings that he recorded with Sam Phillips. It's multi-discs. You only have to listen to the first disc because the rest are kind of outtakes.

You listen to them once, but if you want an album experience, you just need disc one. So here's Mystery Train. Oh yeah, still a lot of country going on in his sound at this point. Yeah, it's like true rockabilly. I'm sure I just romanticize it or something, but I just love this era or this sort of clean sound. It really highlights just, I think, how much of a vocal talent he is.

Anyway, and then it's only music adjacent, but I watched a documentary from the actor Andrew McCarthy called Bratz, and it's all about basically how that- Self-promotion, maybe. It's all about that term Brat Pack that he and his fellow actors from like The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire, that term that was placed on them and how it affected their careers and stuff like that. So it's interesting.

It's kind of fun if you remember that period fondly, but it's less about reminiscing about that time and more about the psychological impact having that label put on them ahead. Yeah, that's on my radar to check out. I do remember that period fondly as well. Oh, it brought them down, huh? I see. Yeah. I mean, this is like a take on the Rat Pack, right? Yeah, because a lot of these people were appearing in movies together. So there was like Molly Ringwald and Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez.

So these people were starring in youth-oriented movies for the most part together. So they had created this sort of subgenre of movie, and you expected at least one of them to be in any given film. Yeah. And they were out supposedly partying, or at least some of them. So it kind of had that, you know, the same vibe as Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis painting the town. Okay. Did. Did. All right. Yeah. So our friend, Luke Combs is back. Fifth studio album called Fathers and Sons.

We'll play a little bit of Front Door Famous. The song and the album are an ode to fatherhood and family. Luke was involved in most of the songwriting. It's a little bit more traditional country, a little less pop country vibes in it. A little looser and less produced. It's a nice Sunday album. It came out last Friday, and it was good to listen to on Father's Day. Sounds pretty good. Yeah, definitely check it out.

I mean, if you like any of Luke's songs, even if you don't like them all, this is kind of the most hard on his sleeve record I've heard so far. Okay. Check it out. I don't believe you. Just added it to my Spotify library. Motherfucker. See how they treat each other. All right. So next one up, Paul McCartney and Wing's One Hand Clapping. It's a live studio album recorded in 1974, in August of 74, and just released June 14th, 2024. Here's a little bit of My Love Does It Good.

So apparently it was conceived as a documentary, and so it was filmed, and it was going to go out to movie theaters, and an album was going to go out, but it never happened. I guess in November of 2010, they released the film as a part of a box set, but they finally released the album. So it's the greatest hits. There's some Beatles songs and McCartney and Wing's songs, but it's all live recorded in the studio. And it's cool hearing these songs a little more raw. Man, his voice sounds so good.

So it's kind of like Let It Be or Get Back, the live in the studio thing. That's cool. And lastly, got to get in one of my albums from my vinyl collection. My wife actually picked it up a few years ago. Cyndi Lauper's She's So Unusual, with the classic song, like Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, and Time After Time. So I recently very much enjoyed a documentary on Paramount Plus called Let the Canaries Sing.

It's all about Cyndi's career, the band Blue Angel she was in before going solo, the struggle to get her music out, her vocal talent that I never really thought about. But she has a beautiful voice and it's really highlighted well throughout the documentary. It gets into some of the reasons why some of her social consciousness and some of the work she's done for LGBTQ and all of that. You get into the whys throughout her life. It's a really great story, a fun watch.

Highly recommend. You guys, Cyndi Lauper, familiar besides the singles? I actually saw her open for somebody. I think Tina Turner or something back in the day and I was impressed. Yeah, she's always on my radar for these 80s episodes we do. I'm surprised you haven't talked about her yet, honestly. All right, so what are you digging? Let us know. Join us on the socials, Facebook, Instagram, and threads, and also on our website, AlbumNerds.com. It will be a discovery of extraordinary value.

Well, it's about that point on the program and I'm reminded of the great Chinese philosopher Confucius who said, by three methods we may learn wisdom. First by reflection, which is noblest. Second by imitation, which is easiest. And third by experience, which is bitterest. With that in mind, let's bring out my friend and yours, Wodbot, to see what we'll be talking about on next week's episode. The summer of Don continues.

With that in mind, I will be choosing which albums from Don's curated list you will be exploring this summer. Next time, you will experience a true working class hero with Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA. That's perfect timing to have Born in the USA come up while we're pushing into 4th of July and all that stuff, especially if you're born down in a dead man's town. I think everybody was.

Yeah, don't forget, you can suggest topics for the wheel on our website, AlbumNerds.com, as well as vote for any ongoing Album Nerds Hall of Fame nominations. What do you think of Bruce Springsteen Born in the USA? How about Stevie Wonder's inner visions? Let us know. Leave a comment on our website or email us at podcast at AlbumNerds.com. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and threads at Album Nerds. Please subscribe, rate, and review on your favorite podcast app.

If you'd like to support the show, you can do so via PayPal at AlbumNerds.com slash support. Thank you so much for joining us on the program. Album Nerds podcast. We'll catch you next time. Born in the USA. Thanks for listening, my brother. See you next week. Hey, little girl, is your daddy home? Did he go and leave you home? Is it the babysitter coming? You want to hear about my bad desire? I don't care if you're on fire.