Dan B (18/09/2005 13:48:06)
Mr. 1980 --

I sent you two emails about Stevie -- the second was returned saying you didn't have MisterNinteenEighty@yahoo.com as an email address

???

Dan B (17/09/2005 13:26:05)
Abu --

I'm ever so slightly confused by your response ... I certainly agree that in many ways Stevie is "about ideas", I've seen something on TV quite similar (if not identical) to "Malcolm and Martin" that you are talking about ... and, more to the point, I was involved with a theatre in NYC for over 10 years where we had a play called "Billie & Malcolm : A Demonstration" that, among other things, examined Billie Holiday and Malcolm X and how they have turned into monuments in the broader society, in some sense changing the "meaining" of their lives ... I guess where I'm coming from here is that as someone who has 'studied" Stevie from many, many different angles : I am a keyboard player and have learned many of his songs, I've listened to the records over and over and over again, i've seen him in concert around 10 times, read as many interviews as I could, interviewed many people who worked with him, and so on ...

From these various things I get a sense of a person who dearly loved many of the Black leaders during many eras, including the 1960s -- and given how working class Stevie is and that's he's from right outside Detroit and so on he must have either heard Malcolm X speak, or at the very least was very aware of Malcolm's life, the whole thing -- the Black Muslim part, and then the trip to Mecca, the formation of OAAU, his murder (which, at least in part, had to do with Malcolm being viewed as significantly more dangerous and potentially powerful once he was building a multi-racial organization and movement) ... given that I think we both would agree that Stevie is a genius, and the fact that his engineeer from the early 1970s said when he improvised songs he would writes the lyrics a few minutes after the music -- and he would converse with his "lyrics consultant" in the writing of each lyric, and that they would discuss what was going on in the world at that moment and in that time period I am of the strong opinion that he not only must have had a deep appreciation for Malcolm, but that he must have loved him -- whether he agreed with everything Malcolm did or not ... I can't imagine that Stevie didn't "feel" that Malcolm was a true revolutionary who wanted the best for the black community, and eventually all people everywhere ..

Given he is a particular kind of pop musician (know primarily as the writer and performer of love songs, and Motown constantly pressured him to stick to that path) he was incredibly limited in what he was allowed to release given he had a high ticket contract ... but that doesn't mean that he didn't have all sorts of opinions that he couldn't express publicly, and also there are hundreds (if not thousands) of songs "in the can" that he will never release ... and so on ...

My gut sense is that the song "Black Man" has the opinion on Malcolm and Black Revolution that I am looking for but that it is found in the music, not in the lyric ... I suppose we could ask Gary Byrd about this ... There is...

Abu Lo (17/09/2005 10:14:15)
Dan B.
Sorry, we had a power down over here.
No, what I meant was Martin and Malcom were idiological opponants and as such it would be difficult to say one admires both equally.
I think Stevie is a bit above idiologues and is more about ideas. If you read the play "The Meeting", about Malcom and Martin, you would easily understand why any true intellectual would find little need to comment on the men, but rather discuss points brought up in their philosophies, which is what Stevie did... "and we are sick and tired of hearing your song, how you are going to change right from wrong...", and ...love is in need of love today...".
I tend to see SW as fearless and fierce in his social commentary. It's just that the music is so captivating that one overlooks the barbs until one has come down from the musical trip. Just check out the minuette Village Ghetto Land floats in on. His social position has been raised by his strength rather than his avoidance of issues.

Dave B (16/09/2005 19:18:51)
Hey Y'all!

The following is from Fox News and can be accessed at the Stevie Wonder.com homepage under NEWS/ "FOX411.." it is the very first story. Here it is:

( Grammys: Three Weeks Left and No Stevie

The deadline to be considered for the next Grammy Awards is three weeks away, and there's no sign of Stevie Wonder's new album. He's obviously not going to release his long-awaited "A Time 2 Love" in time.

When I asked Wonder's wife, Kai Milla, about it, she said: "The tracks are done. They're amazing. But he keeps tweaking them." OK. )

I love Stevie and his music and obviously he's extremely talented however his behavior is close to being neurotic! Truthfully how much tweaking can he do to make this disc perfect? In my opinion this latest tweaking is a bit much!

As I said in my 9/13/05 post: HERE WE GO AGAIN!

Later,
Summer Soft
Dave B

ANOTHER DELAY (16/09/2005 18:36:31)
Well, a little more than a week away from September 27th, and still no release date announcement from Motown for AT2L. Even steviewonder.org.uk's website has taken down the supposed release date and replaced it with "To Be Announced."

WHAT A GODDAMN FIASCO.

I guess Stevie shouldn't be expecting any Grammys THIS year!

Robert (16/09/2005 16:01:15)
Who sung with Stevie Wonder on "The Way It Used to Be"? Where can I download a copy of that song ?

Dan B (16/09/2005 14:31:32)
is this site based in Britain ? and if not, where is it based ?

BaldEagle (16/09/2005 04:28:14)
Dan B-Please send me the same info! It is most interesting.
Thanks!

Dan B (16/09/2005 02:48:52)
cliff and mr. 1980 -- I'll email you both over the weekend ...

Dan

cliff (15/09/2005 08:48:18)
Dan B,
Yes I'm a musician, though I'm getting more into the production side of things these days, which explains my initial question.
If it's not too much, could you email me as well - with as much as you have on all the topics you mentioned (Yeah, I'm a glutton for Stevie info!). Thanks.

Mr. 1980 (15/09/2005 03:19:53)
Dan,
I would be interested to know more about how Stevie's output is "essentially a song cycle". What do you mean by that? I am quite curious.
Plus as much as you can tell me about the creative process! Also, do you have any info on abandoned Stevie projects - - such as the sequel to "Fulfilliness" (which originally was to feature "Feeding Off The Love of the Land"), as well as that rumored Stevie-produced Michael Jackson album that survives only with the song "I Can't Help It."??
If you do not wish to delve into all that on this forum, please feel free to email me. Just click my name above this post and you'll be connected to my email address. Thanks so much!!
Peace.

hanisha and rossanno (15/09/2005 02:18:03)
we here lovin steveland hes a legend, hotter than july!

Dan B (14/09/2005 20:14:25)
Cliff --

are you a musician ?

by the way, you can choose any of the topics .. I just wanted to tell people what they wanted to know ...

unfortunately, I did not transcribe the interview -- if you give me your email address and all of what you want to know I'll email it to you ...

anyway, the amazing "arp-wired clavinet" sound on Superstition is that hardest question for me to answer -- it was the only time in my life that a technician lost me, I asked question after question, and it still didn't really make sense ... anyway, here goes :

a regular Hohner D6 clavinet was somehow connected to T.O.N.T.O., a pre-midi synthesizer hookup (see http://www.serge-fans.com/tonto.html) that back then I think was a series of Moog Modular and ARP synths connected somehow -- and they somehow looped the signal coming from the clavinet through the mixing board something like 20 times (I don't know what this means) -- it's something like the signal path started at the clavinet and then was routed through T.O.N.T.O several times to create that great funky sound ...

The most exciting part of the interview (to me) was i asked if Stevie used this TONTO hookup to create brand new instruments that reflected the mood and sentiment of a given song (and a moment in a song), and the guy said "yes, that was precisely the idea" ... and he said Stevie would describe sounds in very ethereal terms ("I want the sound of wind here, but like when it is going through a mountain pass at dusk"), and the programmers (mostly Margourleff and Cecil) would work for hours trying to come up with what Stevie wanted, Stevie would sit there and comment, and sometimes after like 4 hours he'd say "well, guys, it's time to move on to something else, you're not getting it" ...

Dan

Cliff (14/09/2005 18:27:43)
Dan B,
This is just the kind of stuff I've been looking for fr the longest time!
If I must choose from your topics, could you say a bit more about #4, especially the technical details about how he got those sounds on 'Superstition' and other songs?
Alternatively, if you have a transcript of the whole interview, that would really be something!

Dan B (14/09/2005 17:45:25)
I met with Malcolm Cecil's assistant a few years ago, and interviewed him for over 2 hours ... this guy worked with Malcolm and Stevie right at the time when Stevie had the big creative explosion in the early 1970s -- essentially when dropped the "Little" from his name ..
actually let me pose this as a question since I am a musician and keyboard player and asked questions from many different angles ..

1) would people like to know about the creative process of how songs actually got created ?

2) are there those who would like to know how T.O.N.T.O. works ?(This is the amazing hybrid synthesizer that produced virtually all of those amazing sounds on Music of My Mind, Talking Book, and Innervisions) ?

3) would some people like to know how and why Stevie chose Marougleff and Cecil, and how that relates to British recording ?

4) extension of #3 -- does anyone want to know what it took "technically" to create the "arp-wired clavinet" sound used on Superstition and other songs ?

5) how about how Stevie auditioned players for his live band ?

6) why Stevie chose to play virtually all of the instruments back then ?

7) the very detailed way Margouleff, Cecil, and others kept meticulous track of all of the work done session by session .. and how that relates to song selection for an album ?

8) how all of Stevie's released output is essentially a song cycle ?

I only ask this as a series of questions so that I don't write like a 30 page post ...

Dan

Dan B (14/09/2005 17:27:20)
Mr. 1980 --

I'd be happy to share stuff with you -- and I'm planning on being in touch with "this assistant of Malcolm Cecil's" (I don't mention his name because I don't know if he would want it written or not) again soon -- he is a friend of mine, so if people have questions let me know ...

though I will say this : the most interesting Stevie quote I've read recently is from an interview from the mid-1990s : "As much as I say there's nothing new under the sun, I feel there's still always something new to be discovered." -- to me this expresses Stevie's frustration at not being able to be himself in the public eye -- he is such a genius there is virtually no limit to what he could create -- any kind of music, any kind of mix of styles of music and cultures -- but being a pop musician who has to write mostly love songs is incredibly limiting to anyone ...

I'll put the Malcolm Cecil stuff in the next post -- for clarity ...

though I must say -- I love this forum ...

Dan

Mr. 1980 (14/09/2005 15:14:13)
Dan,
In regards to your meeting with Malcolm Cecil's assistant:
Were you able to gather any more information about Stevie from that conversation? Were there any other interesting things you learned from your meeting that perhaps you could share with us? Thanks!

Dan B (14/09/2005 12:48:21)
...

Dan B (14/09/2005 12:47:00)
Abu Lo --

I'm intrigued by your comments ... and I really want to know -- how do you know Stevie was oppposed to Malcolm X ?

The impression I get (and it's just an impression) is that Stevie felt he couldn't comment on Malcolm at all ... and, given his societal location, there are many reasons one could give for that ...

However, a few years ago I read through a bunch of iinterviews with Stevie, listened real closely to a bunch of his music (including Where I'm Coming From), watched the video of the making of "Songs in the Key of Life", particularly the section where he talks about the creation of "Black Man", and various other things, thought about his life, where he comes from, his upbringing, and so on ...

and it dawned on me that he must have all sorts of opinions about Malcolm as being a major political leader in the Black community -- and wondered what Stevie's thoughts might be about Malcolm, particularly after his "awakening" (the whole mecca trip, Malcolm's radical change in his own views, and the whole OAAU creation) .... given how deep Steve thinks about so many things I thought his opinions (albeit conflicted) might be worth examiining ...

as far as MLK -- I know when Stevie was a teenager he met MLK ... and I agree with you, the honour factor was key ...

I met with Malcolm Cecil's assistant for a few hours in 2000 -- and spoke about his creative process, particularly when he moved to NYC ... and I'd imagine there are all kinds of songs (and statements, so to speak) in Stevie's archives that address all kinds of issues, that, again, given who he is and was publicly, he simply couldn't release ...

Dan

Abu Lo (14/09/2005 10:56:09)
Dan B, its hard to speak about two people you love and respect who happen to be opposed to each other. I don't think there is any contradiction in this. SW seem to be a Sadiq, that is when he hears the truth he recognizes it and accepts it immeiately. He also speaks the truth, which is why his songs are so hard-hitting, ie They Won't Go..., You Haven't Done Nothing..., All In Love..., Village,\ Ghetto Land..., etc. Malcom and Martin were both truthful, it was only their relevence that differed. And as a side, I believe the birthday thing was more about honour than the man.