You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Stevie's Greatest Album?

Episode Date: April 28, 2025

What happens when a 21-year-old Stevie Wonder gets the keys to the Motown kingdom? You get Talking Book, a no-filler masterpiece. Adam and Peter go track-by-track through Stevie’s first fully self-driven album, where he played nearly everything himself. From the sticky funk of “Superstition” to the guitar-like tones of “Big Brother,” we break down Stevie’s best clav sounds, synth bass lines, and his surprisingly killin’ drum takes. You’ll hear how this record captured the cutting-edge of music tech while remaining deeply human – and why it may be even better than Songs in the Key of Life. Let’s talk the genius of Stevie Wonder.🟠 Open Studio Members → Nerd nook ABOUT OPEN STUDIO------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------As the premier online jazz education platform, with an ever-expanding course library and 20,000+ members, Open Studio (OS) has everything you need to excel and thrive on your jazz journey.Featuring everything from beginner to advanced lessons, engaging courses from A-list instructors, step-by-step curriculum, real-time classes and a thriving and incredibly supportive community, OS is the perfect platform to level up your jazz playing, whether you’re a total beginner, or an advanced pro-level improvisor.Try OS Membership today! → https://osjazz.link/aboutAll about YHIhttps://lnk.to/youllhearitYB

What's up, Adam? What's up, Peter Martin? How you feeling today? Oh, I'm feeling great. No, I'm feeling great. No, I'm feeling great. Because it's Talking Book Stevie Wonder Day on the pod. That is an all-timer right there.

And you know what that means we got to do? Oh, yeah, good call. Exactly. But Peter, I will say, you know, we are Gen X, jazz pianists. Well, I'm an exenial. But that means we have to lop off the eighth beat of this, right? What does that even mean? Cut off the eighth beat all together.

What? Help me out, Caleb. with this. Tom Brand. I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear a podcast. Music Explored.

Explored. Brought to you today by OpenStudio. Go to Open Studio. Go to Open Studio. Jas.com for, oh, your jazz lesson needs. Oh, Peter, it's a good day, man. Oh, it's a good day.

Come on. We got to start it out right here. Oh, yeah. I am very cold because it's a chilly morning here, but it's heating up really quickly. It is. Because I'm getting so excited.

My blood is pumping. My blood. My blood. I'm underlining the name of the album. That's how important it is. Oh, it's So good. So today, one of the greatest albums of all time.

Yes. Stevie Wonder's first masterpiece, I think. Yeah. Talking Book. I put Talking Book on par for me with songs in the Key of Life. I know not everybody feels that way. Yeah. But to me, this one is as good and maybe even a little bit tighter and better.

Well, it's one album instead of two albums, so there's that. Literally no filler on this one. And not that there's filler on songs in The Key of Life. there's not. But this one is just such an incredible experience start to finish. It truly is. It's amazing record. And it's also, I mean, music of my mind, talking book, intervisions, fulfilling this first finale, the classic period.

And then, of course, going into songs of the key of life, which is a little bit the next period. You know, you could, we could quibble back and forth on that. But I think that these records, I mean, there's a lot of overlap in terms of when they were recorded, how they were recorded. But yeah, talking book is a masterpiece. It's on that, like, kind of, I think, ridiculous. Rolling Stones' 500 greatest albums, because it's listed at like, you know, 185 or something like that.

Like, I don't think there's 184 better records than this. That's impossible. Exactly. And I know they have, I think they have songs in the Key of Life way up there, maybe even in the top ten. But this should also be in the top of it.

Yeah. I mean, like, this is better than anything the Rolling Stones ever made, honestly. Yeah, and this is also just a super interesting record and a little bit of a time capsule, a little bit of a peek into a very specific part of Stevie Wonder's career. right after he turned 21, right when he got full artistic control over his musical output.

This is not like, oh, his fourth or fifth record. This is his 15th album. Say again? 15th. Come on. Yeah, yeah. Actually, it might be 16th. How old was he?

No, it was his 15th studio album. He even had some live albums. Oh, my God. He was 21. So at 21, this is his 15th album. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, my God. So he had a lot of...

Mountedown really had him working, didn't it? Yeah, yeah. He had a little bit of experience. But he also did some amazing. things in terms of pretty much single-handedly. It was his vision, and then he put together a team to negotiate with Motown pretty much what at the time was the best artist record contract ever. I think before that, Ray Charles was sort of notorious for having the best in terms of like

owning masters, higher royalty rates than normal. So like Stevie was able to negotiate this. He deserves all of it. Yeah. And he had some money even going into this through some savvy moves, apparently, from him in his team so he was able to kind of just sit and work on music as he was negotiating with Motown to be able to get that better deal. You know what? It is interesting thinking about it. Back to our Michael Jackson off the wall album, it's like we think about the people who grew up as kids in the

industry. Yeah. Like certainly there's like we think about them as artistically talented because they started working with all these great artists from a young age. But almost all of them too are somewhat industry savvy. Have you noticed that? Like Michael is like buying the Beatles catalog and really like taking control of his career at early age. Same here with Steve is. That's fascinating actually. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well, I think Steve, Stevie had a lot of different talents. And in researching this, I was, you know, I was not only reminded because I've heard stories about musicians that I know that have played with them. I've got to be around Stevie Wonder just a little bit. But like he's very, he has all these different talents

beyond just music, even within music. And we're going to hear it on this album because he pretty much plays every instrument on this album. There's some great collaborations that come in, but I mean, it's pretty shocking that about 90% of the instruments and vocals on this album are coming from Stevie. I'm just going to put it out here. Stevie, we have all of the instruments here in our studio. So if you ever want to come by and play on one of the intro jams, let us know. Yeah, so today we're exploring Stevie Wonder's Talking Book from 1972. Do you remember 1972, Adam? Absolutely. No, I actually do remember it fondly. I was one. Me too, man. This ground...

I was alive at least, buddy. I'm eternal. This groundbreaking album marks the moment Stevie Wonder gained complete creative control from Motown at just 21 years old. What many don't realize is that Wonder played nearly all the instruments themselves, keyboards, drums, harmonica, bass, and more.

Key bass, that is. Showcasing his extraordinary musicianship beyond his vocals. In particular, on a certain instrument called Tonto. We'll get into that. T-O-N-T-O. Talking book was recorded primarily at Electric Lady Studios, also at a place called Media in New York,

and then Out into the West Coast, which is incredibly at the record plant in L.A., which is a story more for the coming albums that we won't cover today. The legendary space, the Electric Lady, of course, was built by Jimmy Hendricks. I believe he passed away right before Stevie started recording there, and they were kind of looking to bring in other artists

and keep the space going. It was a super innovative atmosphere, perfectly matched Stevie's experimental vision. Talking Book brilliantly balances technical innovation with raw motion, pioneering synthesizer work alongside soul-stirring vocals that span from the tender, You Are the Sunshine of My Life to the Funk masterpiece superstition. Join us as we discover how these songs continue to influence musicians 50 years later and why Talking Book remains one of the most significant albums in modern history.

Yeah. A whole-tone scale, Nerdnook, a little bit later this week. Not Stevie, by the way. Famously. Still not Stevie. Well, on everything else, except because of us. Not Stevie. Stevie's voicing?

On the roads. Voice leading? Is that something that might interest? Get out of the town. I love it. This is somehow like the greatest wedding band ever, ever assembled. What are you talking? Like really high in.

Okay, has this song not been played in a lot of weddings? You and this song need to have. A little bit of a moment together. No, we're having to not. I love this song. You do not love this song. Don't get to that. I love the execution of this song for sure.

So, and then we're going to, of course. First of all, can I just mention something here? So a couple of things. So, like, how much confidence does it take to start your album with you not singing? Two people sing before you. Right. Sing the verse before you. It was such a cool idea.

Yeah. And I remember the first time I bought this seat. back in the day when I was in high school and I was like is that had the album buddy is that Steve that's not Stevie yeah and then that moment when he does come in you're like oh my god that's amazing for some reason I missed it for a long time back when I was a young in and um like I thought it was a duet and I was always like wow the female singer she doesn't she never really comes back in it's kind of weird I just never really thought about so those are the background singers right yeah that's Jim Jill strip and Lonnie gross and they're singing backgrounds along with Gloria at Barley as well. Can you imagine it? What a great day in the studio where Stevie's like, Jim? Yeah.

You're starting off the album. But what a smart kind of a thing. The interesting thing, too, about the sessions that produced all this music, they were not recording an album. Well, they were what ended up being several. There's a lot of overlap between this and music of my mind. And they just, like, there was one weekend where, and we're going to learn about a couple of guys, Robert Marguliffe and Malcolm Cecil, who are the co-producers, the inventors of the Tonto synthesizer and there's a whole story there that's super interesting but they talked about Stevie one of the first weekends

he recorded 17 tracks complete you know so it went well beyond this album and they had to kind of start telling him let's why don't you start winnowing it down to an album and he was also negotiating the contract with Motown so there wasn't like I'm delivering an album he was just making music he was just in their track and creating stuff and the way

it came together is pretty stunning this track is super unique not only because somebody else is singing at the beginning of it it's the beginning of the album the sound of it by When I said the greatest wedding band ever, like they're playing the same way you wish a wedding band would play this song. You know, with like the spirit and the vibe and the balance. Stevie's like Rhodes playing is par excellence.

The drums. The drums are killing, which is, of course, Stevie as well. The only other, and then Scott Edwards is playing bass. This is the only electric bass, non-mug bass on this whole album. On this song. On this song. Stevie's playing Moog bass on the rest of it. On everything else.

On everything else. This is the only other bass player, so to speak. And that's why it's kind of got that difference on. And that's why I think it's such a unique and interesting way to start out the album. Because the rest of the album is not this track. And we'll talk about later if that's a quibble bit or not. I might be changing my mind. Okay, all right.

You know, I want to talk a bit about Steve. Obviously, this was number one hit, too, pop and... Yeah. Well, Grammy Award winning, too, right? Yeah, yeah, the whole... The album... This was a number one hit for the pop charts or the Hot Hunter or whatever. And also, guess what other chart it was number one?

But easy listening. You know why it was number one on all these things? Why? On just those two. Because it's frigging amazing. But remember easy listening, because we're going to talk about that later. I want to talk about Steve is a drummer. So he's playing drums on this whole album.

Yeah. From what I understand. And I one time... There's no other drummers on here. Yeah, when I first discovered this album, then I realized that it was Stevie playing. I asked a really good friend of mine who was a really good drummer. I said, man, is Stevie, like, how do you feel about him as a drummer? when you listen to him playing the drums

because I love it but I don't know is it does that bug you that he's not a and he was like no he's like it's one of my favorite drum performances this album and he said something I'll never fade and he goes Stevie is just so fundamentally funky yeah everything he plays feels incredible and I think that's like real

I mean he's technically a solid drummer but it's just like his sense of groove is so deep and so strong that it just carries whatever you know chops that he might not have on the kit, carries into the sense of feel and groove, carries into it. And by the way, his chops aren't that bad either.

His chops are pretty darn good. I know. I mean, technically, he's probably like a solid B as a drummer, which is, I mean, at the professional level. Yeah, at the professionally. Like he could have made a career as a drummer if he wanted to. Yeah. Oh, easily.

I mean, conceptually and musically, he's A plus plus plus plus. That's the thing. And so if his technique, and actually, I mean, like, if we think about technique on any instrument as being in service to the music, he's an A, you know what I mean? Because he's able to execute everything he wants to do.

When we get to superstition, we're going to get into some really, actually pretty high-level technical stuff that he does at the drums as well. We've got some isolation there for you. I love it. Anyway, so that's you are my sunshine. The album, as we said, is his 15th studio album. He was 21 years old when he started this. Ridiculous. Robert Marguliffe and Malcolm Cecil were the co-producers and engineers. These were the guys behind Tonto's expanding headband and also behind the classic Tonto synthesizer, which wasn't even really a synthesizer. Was that a student short film, Tonto's expanding headband?

Man, it was a very trippy electronic. I remember my dad talking about this, like, in the late, well, he wasn't telling me in the late 60s because I wasn't conceived yet. But it was like a big thing. There were a duo that made electronic, very early electronic music, and created this Tonto, which is the original new Timberal Orchestra. We'll have a picture of it here. It's so massive, though.

It took up a whole section of the electric ladyland. They ended up moving it around. It's moved all around because it's too big. Friddy's. Now we have that on our phones. Exactly. It's sitting in a museum in Calgary. I want to go see it. That's amazing. Shout out Canada. But it incorporated like several moogs. Like basically, you could have at the time there was just one voice monophonic synthesizers, right? And so this thing combined a bunch of different things. They even ran like the clavinets through it, the roads and stuff. It was a whole trippy thing. Tonto's expanding headband, which apparently one of them

came up with that name when they were tripping out on peyote. As you do. Shout out late 60s. Thank you late 60s for cultural revolution. But it was a very interesting thing because they had this studio. Actually, they were at a studio called Media in New York City at first. And Stevie had heard these instruments on several different albums. There won the Tonto's Expanding Headband. I forget the name of the record. But he had heard that record and he sought them out.

Once he got out of his childhood contract, his juvenile contract, whatever they called it, at 21, he's like, okay, I want to do what I've always wanted to do. You know, I'm going to make hits, but I'm going to make hits my way. Actually, I don't even think he was thinking about making hits. He did make hits. but it was like a whole other thing. And so he wanted to explore all this stuff. So he came to New York and actually just like showed up at their studio.

And Malcolm Cecil talks about like... You gotta let Stevie in when you should be. Yeah, like somebody's knocking at the door at like 8 in the morning. Yeah. And Stevie with his guy there. And he's like, yeah, I want to meet you. I want to learn about these synths and these sounds. I want to record some stuff.

Dave, were you expecting a musical genius here today? No? Well, he's here. Yeah. And it wasn't like, even though he hadn't made, gotten to the classic period yet and he was young. He was already a star and known. Of course.

So he started this relationship. with Robert and Malcolm and like they went through this whole period like no contracts no like how's this going to be released he didn't have a contract with Moton it was very organic and just like creating music and they were both super excited they were both musicians and engineers as well Malcolm Cecil and Robert Marguliffe and there's there's a lot of like deep dive you can do on interviews with them talking about this but it was a really just interesting thing so yeah let's move on now because you are the sunshine of my life that's a particular kind of sound Next up on this album, and look, I always think great albums, and Stevie is such a master of this.

Like, if you listen to them in order, we're going to try to hit, I don't know if we've ever done this, every track on this album. I know where you're going with this. So can I just set what I think you're about to say up? Yes. So we start with very clean, incredibly sharp sound of You Are the Sunshine in my life. And somebody else besides Stevie Wonder's singing. Pop song, Key of B, which is, by the way, just a very, like, bright but a little bit nostalgic key. Yeah.

Go straight into maybe your baby, maybe your baby, which is the, you know, the, you know, the, the greasiest, funkiest track on the album, maybe even more so than superstition. Just like an incredible change-up pitch from like this like beauty-grooming, easy listening. Yep. Like maybe it is not easy listening. No, no, no.

And maybe your baby smells funny. It smells funny. And also the lyrics on this are kind of the, like there's all this sort of like very romantic, very optimistic and a little bit of political. This is sort of the beginnings of Stevie getting to his like very astute political. I mean, Steve, when we talk about him being multi-talented, it's very easy to get

caught up in like, yes, because he could play keyboard, he could play drums, he could sing, he could do accents and stuff. But he's also super talented as a spokesman, as a communicator, even when he's not doing it within music, a lyricist, a composer, I mean, it's kind of stunning. But this is one where it's a little bit sharp-edged in terms of relationship

between man and woman. Just the vibe, the way this starts, I mean, this couldn't be any more polar opposite to what we just heard. Oh. Yeah, the Moab bass is, it makes this album. Yeah. It really makes it. And the way he would control the pornamental with the dial.

Oh. Like, so we've talked so much about the music and some of the technical things. But what we haven't talked about quite yet, but is the most important factor is this is all happening underneath. I think, unquestionably, the greatest pop vocalist in the history. of the music. When we were just setting up here, listening to music, our producer, Andy, was like, greatest pop vocalist ever? And I was like, I think he must be. Can we change to the title? Just because, like, every note he feels is just an incredible, has this incredible weight behind it. Yeah. Just the first line of maybe you're, maybe it's unbelievable. Yeah, well, when we're talking

about technical abilities as a drummer, I'll tell you one thing, technical abilities as a vocalist are just a plus plus plus plus plus plus off the charts, but also like being able to turn the concepts of phrasing, I mean, beyond just the basics of like sound and intonation and dynamics and all that. Control, of course, he's got that. But also being able to turn the way these. I mean, he's got to be the most imitated vocalist by male and female. By every vocalist, right? 100%.

Yeah. But this stuff, and look, he's playing everything on here until you hear the guitar, which is Ray Parker Jr. Ghostfuster. Shout out of. Ray Parker Jr. And that Moog bass, I know we're listening to this again. Okay. I'm going to jump in.

No, we got 10 tracks to get you, buddy. I wanted to jump ahead to like when the guitar comes up. But the groove is being driven, not by the drums. It's by the bass and the clav. The dynamics? Oh, no, it's like that.

Parker's already in there. That was a little Michael Jackson there. Deeper into my shape. Here we go, come now. That's Stevie on all the backgrounds. Man, he's so free on the drums, man. He's just like, like you would think that has to be. It's so hard to sit here.

I know. It makes you want to move. And they've got that high hat vibe is loud A.F. So it's just, you know, incredible stuff. And I would say to, it kind of goes crazy. Yeah, yeah. I mean, could we just sit here and do that track for the, the rest of that.

Okay. But you know what? Actually, no, I do. We got to jump to the end, though, because it really... Well, hold on. Save it. Save it. I got that.

Oh, is that? Okay, cool. Okay, so that's the second track. Moog bass, clavinet, a bunch of clavinets. I know there's up to four layer clavidets, along with delay on superstition. I heard them talking about that, and it sounds like a similar number on this as well. Ooh, I got chills from that one. Man, it's...

You know what's... I think the craziest thing about it is, like, the time is fluctuating, like, in a beautiful human way that's kind of stunning. The groove is so intense, yet he's never just like back beating on the drum. It's just like, just like, g-g-g-g-g-g-oh, yeah, I know. And then they've got like the engineering and the production on this. The three of them really worked together. Those clavonets sound amazing.

I don't know how many are on that track. It's got to be at least three, right? It sounds like it. It sounds like. I know that was up to four. They're just like layered perfectly. And think about it, it's like the hardest instrument to ever layer. I don't even know how you do.

Well, I know how they did. Yeah, for those you don't know, a clavinette, it's a keyboard instrument that has strings. It's similar to like a harpsichord, but it is a little bit different. At the bottom of the key is like a little, it's almost like a pencil eraser, right? And it presses on the string and sounds it. It doesn't pluck it, though, right? It doesn't plug it. It hits it and vibrates it.

And then it's electronic. It's electronic. So it can sound a lot like a guitar, but it's its own thing. It's famously on a track coming up, you'll recognize probably most famously. Yeah. Yeah, we got a little time. We got some time. Here's number three.

So now we're changing things up again, the balance of how they constructed this album is fantastic. This is so beautiful. That's the Tantal synthesizer. Not the piano, all those pad noises. Acoustic piano. His vocal sound here on this track is... And the bass, I believe, is Moog.

A pretty high. He's got a delay on his voice. Yes. And then something else. It's an interesting panic too. Yeah. Sam, Andy, does anybody recognize what else that is? Let us know.

This is the most these counter melodies. Oh, the port of mental and slide on it. It's a cliche to say that harmony is melody, but Stevie proves that with every one of these tracks. Using mono sense to create this polyphony. It's so lyrical, those sins. Oh, dang.

I mean, obviously, incredible, one of the most beautiful ballads ever written. Well, in my mind, can conquer the world. All right, we're going to come back to this. I already know this. This episode should be five hours long, Peter. We should listen to each of these tracks

three times in a row in full. Yeah, and so there's two tracks on here that are just Stevie. I mean, like I say, I think it's 90%, maybe even more is Stevie on here in terms of playing all the instruments. But the ones where there's nobody else on it,

as far as I can tell, is you and I am Big Brother. And the people who are on here... Two of the most intense tracks, too. People who are on here are just like... They're not inconsequential by any means, but they are like the sprinkles on top of Stevie's cake that he's made for us. And they're very intentional.

There's like, oh, like you can hear musically why they were placed there, why they were doing what they were doing. The production on this, like, so we can't overstayed enough. I know for a lot of people, they're like, production, what does that mean? Is that the people, the producers going out and ordering sandwiches on the break or picking up drugs for the band? Just kidding. None of that ever happened in the studio.

But no, but when we talk about production, it's actually like such an important, like as musicians, although we've both produced stuff as well, as musicians, we tend to, especially jazz musicians. We're like, we don't need to produce. We produce our own stuff. Well, to get to this level, you do need a producer or producers. And sometimes that can be the artist. That's the hardest way to do it, sometimes especially kind of having, being in the driver's seat, because you have to have a vision for it. You have to have objectivity. And so, again, Stevie Wonder, another.

incredible talent that he had was that he had a vision. Like to be able to put a together a track like that and have it feel like that for humans around the world, you have to have a vision for that before it exists. Because he had to put all, he had to do each of those instruments, each of those lines, multiple vocals, multiple mood lines,

the bass, the tonto, the piano. How do you mix that track? Then you got to mix it afterwards and make it like make all these disparate elements work. So, yeah. All right, we haven't fun yet? Yeah, and it just keeps getting better because next up is Tuesday Heartbreak.

Yeah. Now we really start rocking along here. A feel-gooder. A feel-good. A feel-good breakup song. Right. Yeah. And again, we've got, so maybe your baby, pretty aggressive, lyrics, music, you and I,

super romantic, beautiful ballad. I mean, look, the first of the third track, we've been played at a lot of weddings. Can you just play? In case we don't hear it again, can you play the very end of you and I? No, because that's going to be, damn, why are you giving that away? No, no, no, no. If it's part of the, let's just go on. Keep going.

Okay. So, for we've got Tuesday Heartbreak. This is all Stevie on everything. Except a little bit, well not a little bit, but some great background vocals from Shirley Brewer and Denise Williams, who worked with Stevie a bunch. And then a gentleman from St. Louis, Missouri, Dave Sandborn. Ever heard of him?

On alto saxophone. Let's check this out. Did you hear that little bit that Sandborn already played? Come on, that. He's 27 years old here. Damn, every song is a banger, man. Is this the greatest clavinet album ever? It's got to be.

That I think is right. It's got to be. Where he's placed in the mix, Sandborn now is so great, too. Like he's the... He's layered, too, right? He's the CINF counterpoint line. Yeah, totally. What a great sound here, too.

The Y on the... Is that Y on the clab? Yeah. Yeah. But then the other clab over there? But just be used to the clabinet throughout the whole album. It's genius. Yeah.

I was saying, that's some intentional background. Samborn doing Sanborn shit I mean that kind of pre-disco high hat groove there Okay so interesting thing about this track young David Sanborn

But a little bit older than Steve He was 27 Apparently he came in the studio Everything else was tracked Or at least all the rhythm section stuff Maybe not I don't know about the background vocals Dave they brought in Dave Sammore to play over it and they're playing it for

Obviously there's no music or anything it's just there. They're playing it for Sandborn. He's kind of playing along, and he's like, okay, first go through. And he's like, oh, can you play it again? And then he's like, that second time through. And then after that, he's like, okay, I think I got it.

I think I got where you want me to play. And Steve's like, no, that was great. We got it. And Samhorn was like, what do you mean? He's like, we got it. We got what we need. And if you think about it, check this out, the way it starts. He's just figuring it out.

He's just figuring it out. But what a great sound there. That's awesome. And look, they could have left that part out and just brought him later, like brought him in there. But like to get that spontaneity of the thing. And, you know, first of all, shout out Dave Sanborn, RIP. We lost a master recently, you know, with the last couple years. And I got to work with him a couple times and hang with him.

Yeah. And he was a very like Sam where people think, oh, he could just, I mean, he could come in and just do this. Exhibit A, right? Yeah. But he was also very like, wait, what is this core? I remember, like, he called and texted me one time before we were, this gig. We were just doing three tunes and he was like, well, I want to know what chord are you going to play? Like, he was very, like, wanted to know everything was happening.

So the fact that he could just come in, do that and then it's a really cool thing. Yeah, huge connection here. Our very own Bob DeBoo on the base did a few tours with Sanborn right before he passed away too, which I know was exhilarating for Bobby. Absolutely. And then, you know, kind of getting towards the middle of the record, I think this is a good sort of entry point to the, I don't want to say the meat of the record. Because I feel like this is such a meaty record. I mean, maybe your baby at number two. No, there's no, like I said, man, we'll get to it, but there's no filler on this album at all. Every song is genius. That's why I'm saying this might be the most incredible collection of songs that an album could possibly have.

Keep going, though. Keep going on. You've got it. You've got a bad girl. Ah, the verse, core progression. Oh, voices on that, on the tonto. Oh, yeah. Steve, he's busy AF with that move, man, face. And it's so killing. back from my love and you got it bad girl construction

it's like an architect like to put this this here bam let's do it triplets the timbreast that's in my kiss and you got it bad no clab on this tunes can have bridges

okay interesting thing right there I'm going to start it right at the same place interesting thing there came to that bridge in the mix we're talking about production on this brought the, not only is he a little bit like kind of lower mid-range vocally, but they got that ton, the synth line above his vocals, actually, in terms of the mix, like that adjusted, which you think would be counterintuitive.

You know what I mean? That square wave thing is. Oh. Man, that's like, that's like riding that bad boy up. His voice. Oh, you hear every little nuance. All right, so... Yeah, the vocal performance

is super subdued on this one and it just makes it. It's so smooth. I recommend everybody. I did this last night. Headphones, nice pair of cans. Listen to this record.

Man, I think the mix... This might be the best... I know. Sorry, do we have too many superlatives on the you'll hear a podcast here? Not for this one. That's what I'm saying. This is an all-timer.

Go ahead. I always think... I mean, but we can say it's the best album, but I mean, I think production... We always talk about, like, production is so all-encompassing. But just in terms of the sound, like, Stevie's voice

is so direct. RE20, that was what this was all recorded on, confirmed from the engineer. But the idea of like, there's not a lot of EQ on it. There's almost no reverb. It's very like dry, except like you and I has a very specific kind. Like there's musical reasons why it's changed. But if you listen to this with headphones, like how the choices of panning, middle, left, right. It's very simple, conceptually, but it's genius to execution.

It's like when you really start to look at like how it was done, you're like, damn! You know, it's kind of like, you just want to be like, yes. You know what it's catching me about this? You know what it reminds me of, production-wise, that I think might be surprising? It reminds me of, like, a little bit of Abbey Road and Let It Be, right? Those last couple of Beatles albums where they were going crazy with the production, they were adding some synthesizers, which were new. Even the white album, you can say.

But with the way that they were mixing things and putting things in different corners of the mix, this is, I think, carrying the torch of that and then, like, adding the layer of Stevie. No shade on John, Paul, George, and Ringo. But Stevie's genius layered on top of that. R.P. Fifth, Beetle. George Martin? Yeah. Yeah. No shade on any of those guys, like, obviously, but like, Stevie's like another level of musical genius. Yeah. That when you throw that kind of production, I think, which is, like I said, on par with those later Beatles album, man, I just think it's, it becomes this. I mean, and obviously in the 70s,

we're going to see Stevie just like take this and run with it. Yeah. You know, ending with, obviously, culminating with songs in the key of life. But this to me, again, is up there. Yeah.

With that. Yeah. Secret Life of Plants, too. Let's not forget about that. A little bit of a people see as the side. Lesser known. Maybe even his peak in some way. Not as many hits,

but incredible album. But I think, yeah, when we look back of this historically, Robert Marguliffe, Malcolm Cecil, Stevie Wonder, being in the studio together with each of their roles,

with their trust, with their, like the production being about let Stevie be Stevie, yes, but also like having the tools there, having the, you know, in terms of like the Tonto, the sense the drums are set. Like there's all these little things that you could say, oh yeah, we just grabbed that or whatever.

But like there was an intentionality to it that was, you know, no distractions, no iPhones, whatever. It was 1971. What the hell? But I mean, it's a really interesting thing. You're saying there was no iPhones in 19701? I don't think so. Stevie would have had one.

He was a technologist. too. He is a technologist. Okay, so now we're going to move on to what's probably the most famous track on here. For sure. I believe it was like, what was there? Superstition and You Are the Sunshine were definitely number one hits. Yeah, because You Are the Sunshine was pop hit and easy listening. Superstition was R.B

or whatever they called it at the time and pop number one as well. So if you, and we can talk about this later with Cool Little bits, but if you think that you are the sunshine might be the weakest link, I didn't say that. You did say that. You said that to me many times. Oh my God. Can we have podcaster, podcaster, confidentiality? Well, I'm going to put this out here, too.

You can tell my blood type, too? I love superstition, I think. But to me, like, this is the one that stands out. It's like, this is a pop song. Form-wise, I think it's great, but I think there's so many more interesting moments on this album, you know. I think it's good to have this banger that's just, like, obviously, like, a summer dance hit. But, like, man. Wow, we're going to reduce it to that.

Well, no, no, no. Well, let's listen. Okay. I mean, okay. It's pretty awesome I think it's probably just because this is probably the most played one Since this album came out It's been it's definitely aged better than you are the sunshine in the life

You said it Yeah for sure The levels Oh the mood going along with it You know what You're talking about wedding men I think my only thing with superstition is I did have to play it That summer

That summer before I moved to New York I had to play this every one of those wedding band games Half step to the four. Man, I love the sloppy mess in there. Okay. Clavs sound ridiculous. Clavs sound amazing on superstition, though. The sticky clav on that is just frigging ridiculous.

Okay, so this is some of the clavs on their own. Like, you can go on a deep dive of this and here, there's some really good breakdowns of each of the individual ones with Robert Margot. Yeah, yeah, if you want to do that. But this is some of the isolated clabs I got me. They're so. So another delay effect on it. Yep.

Echo, like an echoplex. Echoplex style. The delay is almost like a half a beat. Duck it, duck, a, duck, a, duck. It's definitely time, right? It's so funny, you don't hear it in the mix. No. And it doesn't sound this wet either.

No. Oh, baby. Sam, Caleb, you guys ever hear this in there? Yeah, Sam, like, I know this. But check out the variation of it, too. Boodle, pop, pop. Like, he just, he played these. down.

These are four clas? No, I think Yeah, I think these are all of them. Yeah, these are all of them. Yeah, he's just playing. Yeah. But the whole thing is like this.

Bedet, dot. So, like, yeah, the whole thing is, like, he tracked it one thing at a time. And the thing was, this is confirmed, too. He tracked the drums first. So he plays everything on here,

except the horns. Trevor Lawrence on Tanner, Steve, Steve Madio, on trumpet. Steve's playing everything else. Multi-talented Trevor Lawrence. Yeah. So he laid down the drums first, which is crazy because he had to think about all those verse. I think it's like three verses maybe.

The choruses, that transition thing at the end, he was just like playing it. Like all that stuff in there. Here's some of the, do I have the drums? I hope I have the drums. Oh, no, here it is. This is from the middle. Oh, you're hearing a squeak on the hi-hats here? Yeah, that's a squeak.

Oh, that's some Zigibu-Modal-Las drumming right. snare drum. I mean, all his fills are different. There's some kind of weird, like, gate or something on the hi-hat, too, that really makes it, like, what is that a reverse gate? Like, when the, there's something, like, because it jumps out. Check it up. The high hat's louder than the snare. Yeah, it's just up in the mix a lot.

Check out what he does here on the snare on this next film. Yeah, it's so funny. That's the only time he does it on the whole track. I don't know if you would ever mix a drum kit like that these days. Man, it's so individualistic. And, like, it's so he played, it's not like they got that pattern, just looped it, looped like they would now.

The humanity of it, the tempo alters throughout it. So, oh, check this out. This is Robert Marguliffe talking about this. Steve's music, especially Steve's music, is the Roboto. When we were first tracking it media, we thought, we didn't know Stevie's skill on the drums, right? So we had sort of a major guy, I don't remember which guy it was,

Bernard Purdy came in to try to play about Steve's songs. He couldn't do it. The great Motown drummer. Yeah. You couldn't do it. He couldn't do it. No, he couldn't because the song was speeding up and slowing down and he didn't know where it was. Right. I see. But Steve knew where it was. Because he'd hear the song while he was playing the drums, right? So he would put the drums down with no other parts. Is that true? Superstition, he played the drums first. All the way through.

All the way through. But he knew it. the song. He knew what the song was. Yes. And you guys knew, did you guys know the song? No, I had no idea. You're just listening to him, put this thing down. He said, let's make a funky bass sound. That was the first thing out of his mouth. Yeah, he finished, you can hear it on one,

I don't have the stem on here. As soon as he finished the end of the drums, he's like, let's do it, let's hit some funky bass now. And check this out. This is the funky bass on Superstitch. The Moog. Yeah. He said, yeah. Damn.

The variation of it. This gets kind of buried in the mix. Man, we got to make a record with a Moog bass. No offense, Bob. We got to do that. It's so great. And then, like, when he starts getting, like, the whole thing, he's just, so he did the drums first,

then he came back and did the bass along with the drums, the funky bass. Yeah. I think mission accomplished. Mission accomplished. So fun. And then the vocals, of course. Double.

Riding's on the wall. But not let, not. very superstitious but different you know not like they do where they take the same one and duplicate it's not that no no

13 month on baby broke the looking glass killing seven years of bed your good things in your past oh man he's rhythmic attenuation

when you believe in things that you don't understand and you suffer. It's amazing. Man. Incredible. All right. I mean, like I said, superstition best track on the album.

Man, this is like, watch your face and hands. And then like, you know, it's so much intentionality between when he goes to doubling versus just one. It's very rarely more than two. But with those votes. vocals bed and then he goes back to one like stuff that we do in arranging where you're double something and then you'll have it harming but he had such a vision for that kind of thing so so

so like intentional but improvisatory too I mean like I don't even want to imitate like but his like hitting those pitch on those minor pentatonic and those blues notes and stuff and then the phrasing and then his rhythm his rhythm is like what really pulls it all together the last the last 442s album I did a lot of singing and I did a lot of doubling like this but and I was so precious to try to like get it like to just try to sing the exact same line. It's so funny to hear in like one of Stevie's biggest hits, he's really not that precious about it. He's going away from the double. You know what I mean? He's splitting those things at the end of lines. It's incredible. Yeah. Now we would be remiss if we didn't mention the Jeff Beck

connection on superstition because Jeff Beck was in the studio for part of this and originally Stevie had written this and was going to give it to Jeff Beck to use on a record or whatever. And apparently there's been a lot of misinformation about. Some people were like, the legend was that like Stevie then said, no, no, no, I want to do it for myself and took it back, like, and reneged on the deal, which is not true because Robert and Malcolm talked about this at various times. They said they convinced him. They're like, no, no, no, you got to do it.

You've got the vibe on this. You got to record it. So Steve was like, okay. Jeff Beck also recorded it, like a year later. And it wasn't as big of a hit, but he had some kind of a hit on it or whatever. Well, how can you beat this one? Yeah, but supposedly, well, let's hear Jeff Beck talk about this because he was around then, and this apparently is verified.

actually happened. This is Jeff Bauch. The hotel had agreed with me playing on Stevie's Talking Book. He went off for lunch and I grabbed the opportunity of sitting behind cozy pals drum kit. I started playing the only lick I knew. In come Stevie. And he shouts out, don't stop. And I said, Stevie, it's Jeff. It's Jeff. I don't play the drums. He said, yes, you do. And then he started playing the band. You know, the back, bach, bach, bang, and I went, oh my God, I'm just playing the Stevie Wunders. We got a little bit of Peter's famous British accent.

That was great. Well, he said talking. What do he say? Forget it. Okay, we all want to hear. We all want to hear. We don't. No, we don't. The only part we're missing here in terms of that we haven't played.

We played the drums. We played the clavs, vocals, the mood bass. How about the little horns? That's a dry, direct horn sound, isn't it? Come on now. Yeah, so that's all the pieces that go together. So good. The production, the concept is Stevie and, and, and,

the, you know, I mean, just, yeah. Okay. Now, number seven, should we go ahead and jump? This is actually my Desert Island track. Should I call it as? It might be the greatest, as far as, like, albums go. This also might be just one of the greatest track orders ever. Because, like, what do you follow the superstition with? You follow it with one of the most beautiful, poignant songs of the early 70s.

Yeah, and actually, yeah, and now we're getting to some of his, I hate to say political lyrics and stuff, but just, what do we call it? Yeah. Yeah, just so topical. Still for today, unfortunately. Okay, so, and also, I'm not going to give you the good transition because we don't have it on the iPad, but on the album, I believe, as I recall, this flows right into, it's one of the best segways between tracks.

It happens seamlessly. Seamlessly. But this is Big Brother, track number seven. Can you still hear the drums of superstitions fading down? Oh, harmonica. Oh, you forgot Stevie played harmonica, huh? He's playing percussion on this. You say that you are...

Yeah. So, I want, like, something to listen for is, like... And this is why I was saying, like, this is the greatest clavonet album, hands down. So we just went from that real sticky, delayed clavonet of superstition, super funky, and then listen to what he does here. The very next track, it becomes almost like a finger-picked acoustic guitar.

Like a dry guitar. That's what I always thought it was. Sustain. Yeah. All right. Now, that's great. And the move bass, super simple. this time.

Your name is big brother. You say that you are watching me on the television. This is a blues, by the way. Blues form. One to four. Back to one.

Your name is Big Brother. You say that you're tired of testing. Cut. Children dying every day. Five.

My name is nobody. As I know. Man, it's so great. Emotional. And you've got there, you've got a lot of things happening, but in terms of like melodies, there's three different things.

There's the main melody, right? But be de de do do dee do de, be de de de, be de, be. And then you've got boom, boom, boom, boom. The root movement. Right, the root movement, which is, man, it's like a different instrument. It's almost like an acoustic bass or something. But then he'll go up,

And then he plays do-do do-bo-boop. He's playing a tenth below on that move at that part. Going down when he goes to the four-core, boom, boom, boom, boom. Exactly. And so you have that melodic thing, you've got this melody, but then you've got the harmonica. Like, that's the bird floating up here, improvising above it.

So it's three things. Now, continuing on here, we're going to get some more added slowly. Your name is big brother. Harmonica playing is ridiculous. Every film. Going up high. Your name is our scene.

Fourth voice. Second vocal. President of your soul. Vote me in as the president. President of your soul. You just come to visit me From election time Hi

Oh Yeah, man Talking about production Check out before he comes in This is something I hate They've taken this away for years The breath Oh yeah

Check it out when he Humans breathe Yeah Right here Oh Can we play this one out This one has One of the greatest apexes

Oh yeah Make sure it's not one of the fucking. Dang. Yeah, we still got a bit of just... My name is secluded. Yeah. Yes. We live in a house the size of a match bus.

It's so good. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Like simultaneously, one of the best vocal performances, an incredibly written song. poignant lyrics, amazing production, and then on top of it all, like, world-class level improvisation on the harmonica happening throughout the whole piece. One of the greatest harmonica's improvised soul, blue soul is ever. It's just like everything he plays is something to study.

You know what I mean? It's just, and he's 21 years old. It's insane. Yeah. And I mean, the thing about production, too, with this, like, all that great stuff, that could be such a, it could be too much. Yeah. It would be like, like, how does a great chef take all these different things and not just shove it down your throat?

Like, how that is all presented and coexist in this beautiful track. I think that this is the apex of the record. And it's number seven, I'm like, where it lies on the record makes sense coming. I mean, it's just, it's a perfectly crafted record. Sue me, I think this is a perfectly cracked. It's incredible. Yeah. And that's every, that's the one track.

Is that the only track? Oh, no, you and I also. That's just all Stevie. The other thing is, like, for it to feel so, like, I never knew until years. years later from when I first heard this record, that Stevie was playing all the instruments on it. I don't remember when, I mean, I learned it relatively early on, but there was a time, like, for it to sound,

like his ability to have a vision in terms of what's going to be added on, like when he's in there tracking, like he has to imagine what else is going to be in there as he's creating that part. The last part, he can kind of fit in with the whole thing, which maybe the harmonica, who knows. But I mean, regardless, it's like, it's like, you're looking at it, like,

okay, I know what this is going to be. Yeah. But then it's, but then he maintains that improvisatory feel to it. Let's keep in mind, too. This is like pre-pro tools, pre-computers involved, besides the Moogs. But pre-all of that stuff where you're cutting tape, right, like to edit things. Like you're multitracking and there's degradation.

And so you don't have like this unlimited amount of space and time to do everything you want to do and move things over by this. You really can't on this. Like you have to be able to just bring it. Right? And you have to also be able to like let things be and lie as they are. And it's these like when you hear the, I love when you play the stems from superstitions, because you can hear these little things that just aren't perfect, but they're human and

they're beautiful. They're actually just like the best part about it. And I think when you hear like old guys complain like, ah, music's too sterile these days or whatever, that's kind of what we're talking about a little bit. And that's, which isn't true, actually, because a lot of the best artists even today let those things in their music. Yeah. But it's just so easy these days to make everything perfect.

So when you hear mediocre musicians, it's usually perfect. And it's like, this sucks because I can just hear you just like using a computer to make everything just line up perfectly and take all your breaths out and everything. It's just ridiculous. Like it just sounds like a just let AI do it. Right. AI probably is putting in like breath noises from Stevie because they're, you know what I mean? But like, I don't know, man. That's my favorite shit.

Was this the apex moment or at least like kind of the apex period for technology serving art instead of maybe what we're at for some time there, where art is having to serve technology. I think this is an apex of an artist using technology in the best possible ways. I think it still happens, you know, since before this, since this, even currently, there are people who are just like real visionaries of seeing how technology can make art better. Shout out Drake. Well, no. But Stevie at the time caught something.

That's what I was saying. It's like his ears are so big that he must have heard. Like, he must have heard Let It Be and been like, oh, I can make that better. Like, I can do that, but it's going to be better. Right. You know, like, how they're approaching the production of these things. Right. And, like, he was right.

He was, and then, like, heard a mogue somewhere. Heard a synthesizer from who knows where and was like, oh, I know exactly what I would do with that. And there are people who are still doing that and still use technology to, like, incredible effect for art. And I think Stevie just was one of these people. He's, first of all, he's young here, so he doesn't know what he can't do. And he's, like, interested in the technology of the day. There's no limitations. He doesn't think it's bullshit or it's like, oh, that's cheating or whatever.

He has no concept because he's 21, which is what we need when we're trying to push art forward as young people who are like, yeah, I don't care about your rules that you abide by. I'm going to make my own rules. He's doing that here. And then he just happens to be one of the great musical minds of the past 500 years. And he had these two enablers there in the studio that were just like, they recognize his genius, and we're like, okay, we're going to make sure that as much of this gets down on tape, gets recorded beautifully

and like it became a collaborative thing but I think this thing of like Stevie saying well maybe the guardrails of technology the limitations like he didn't think it was a limitation he was just like oh my god now I can like create multiple

multiple voice polyphony with a couple like four voices and now we're like that's stupid my iPhone can do a thousand voices but I mean so he saw it as as limitless but the actual barriers the guardrails of technology at the time. For instance, with the MoG base, like they had to, part of the thing that they did was they changed how the port of mental, which is how you control the phrase,

so it doesn't just sound so that every note. It slides between the... It slides, because the volume, I believe, couldn't be changed, really outside of using the volume control. Like, you couldn't affect the sound of it. But with this, so they, it was, it was, like, some people use the ribbon thing at the top, but it would be finicky or something. So they had it on one of the dials as part of the Tonto system. And, like, so as he's playing, he's adjusting. it there and he kind of learned how to do that by feel. Like how to create it. Articulating with it.

Articulating with it. But like you have to have a vision for how you want it to sound because I will take you back to this. It starts with just that right. But that like you don't just do that. Like that has to be bono. Like you have to feel that and hear that. And so these were actually

kind of crude instruments still in a way. It was the most advanced thing anywhere. And what he was doing with it, obviously you know, Chickoria, Joe Zavino, Herbie Hancock, other people right around that time. But this was early days with being able to take a vision of like, wait, can we make it sound like this?

Not just, but like a little bit of vibe with it too. Incredible. Yeah. Incredible. Okay. We're going to fly. It just keeps getting better.

It does keep getting better. We're going to kind of fly through this because I do want to get to our categories. But this is blaming on the sun. This is, yeah, you're right. I mean, can we say it's better than Big Brother, though? I mean, it's very good. There's no better or worse, but this is a banger.

This is an all-timer. Yeah. This is interesting, too. He's back at some piano, which he hasn't been at it for a while. Just want to hear when the first chorus kicks in. It's one of the great moments on this album. Oh, it is. Yeah, yeah.

The movement to it with the left. 16th notes all of a sudden. Yeah. I like that high in. Question and then the answer? float. 16th. Yeah.

Background vocals. Quiet. It's a choir. Incredible. All right. And then next, after this... I don't want to stop. Okay.

After Blame it on the Sun, which is just incredible start to finish, we got looking for another pure love. Another sort of slowish song, it's interesting that he ends with basically like four slowish songs in a row. Yeah. And it doesn't feel like it's losing energy

because there's some really interesting moments. No, I think it has a great, like, if you look at superstition, I think a lot of people would look at that as kind of the energetic peak. But I think Big Brother is the spiritual peak of this record. And like the real, which is a perfect place. And then from there, it's not that it's trailing off,

but it's kind of like once you've had that intense main course, pulling back a little bit. Although, I mean, lyrically and stuff, this is still very intense in a lot of ways. But it just, I don't know, it just has a flow that feels right. This is definitely harkening back to track one, Sunshine. Sunshine, boom.

A little bit of Big Brother. No, the next one is a little bit of a brother. Am I just how I just called this sonically? This is the hi-hat album. The hi-hat clap album. The hi-hat, I love it. And because there's so many interesting things with transitions and like groove placements later on in the tracks,

like we just heard on Blamey the Sun, that really being like clued into that high, I think most people, engineers would listen to it now and be like, what the hell is that gate? It's got to be a gate or something. But it's like they would be like fix that. I don't know if it's a gate. I think it's just up in the mix.

Okay. Yeah. So it's like a, well, that's a gate. It's just an open gate. Correct. A gate cuts it off. Oh. Yeah.

What's the reverse gate called? Opens it up. I don't know. I don't know. This is the, uh, Sam, engineer, Sam's here. They're just like, I know. Here we're guys talking about gates. You want us to talk about

sawtooth sounds? Oh, right this. This is core, right? Oh, yeah. Jeff back on guitar here. Jeff's got a nice dry solo on this. A little bit of foreshadowing there. Ha ha. Days before today were happy and

secure until you're also Buzz Fighting. Howard BuzzFighton is on Electric There's two guitars. Get it, Buzz. Feet, fighting. Sorry. I'll pull back.

Stay on the Suss Chord. Oh, that's a chorus. Then resolve it. Let's do it again. The chorus, right? Yeah, it's going to. You heard Stevie talking there? We've got to do it, Jeff, come out.

Yeah. He was already talking to it. Yeah, do it, Jeff. Do it, Jeff. Do it, Jeff. You know, too, it's such an interesting thing here in Stevie. like, you know, du da deeeper

Rodin's on the wall. Like, he has so many things on here that are like minor pentatonic blues bass and then this is do, do, do, do, do, do da, da da da da da da da da da da da da da da. Major scale to minor, which becomes like that four. I mean, like, he has so many, like he understands harmony and melody the interaction between those at a very high level.

You don't say. Who Stevie wonders? No, no, but people will be like, oh, you can sing great. play drums grade. He's funny. He does accent. The greatest.

But, and like, he has great. He's legitimately funny. He's a funny person. See, you're doing it. Why are you got to segment his talent? Why can't he be a harmonically funny guy? He's all these things, man. But, I mean, but harmony and melody, there's a lot of people, like, obviously, he's

great harmony to his tunes. But the interaction between melody and harmony, that's when you go next level, okay? There's levels to the game. Peter Martin, 2025. There's levels to the game. Stevie Wonder is at the top. All right. Are we at track number 10?

This is it? Okay. Great Ender. Yes. Great Ender. And just Stevie on this one, too. Epic. It's kind of an epic ending, right?

This has got some Beatle-Last kind of a sound to it. Yeah, cinematic used in high fidelity, I believe, John Kusack movie. Oh, right. High Fidelity at the end. Shattered dreams. It's a real vocal two to force. Right. Sweeping.

Pad bass? Yeah. Move sitting. Mess with the volume, swelling with it. This was, this had to be the drums track last on this one. You can tell. Any sounds that need our ears, besides our eyes before. Oh.

We'll open up our merging hearts and feet are in fear. And it, you know, lyrically, very optimistic ending. I believe when I fall in love with you, it will be forever. Incredible. This is a rock song, right? Yeah, it's an anthem. It's a rock anthem. Echoes of Queen.

Incredible. Yeah, incredible. Everything is different every time. I love it. Like, it comes back to the verse, like the bass. it's a little bit more intro. I mean, yeah, he's playing. He's really just playing.

He's having fun, man. There's a lot of joy in all of these takes. Yeah. It's what's so fun about hearing him play all these instruments. It's like nobody's, there's like no ego because he's just playing for himself. Yeah. You know what I mean?

He's supporting himself doing what he wants to do, what he feels is right for the song. It's fun. Yeah, and if you really fun. And if you know that he's playing everything, you find that out later, that's great. But if you don't know it, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.

It's like, wow, what a great band. And then people are shocked when they're like, No, that was all him. Or how could you do that? Let's get to some categories, Peter. Yes, sir. What's your Desert Island track for this one? Big Brother.

We listen to it. We listen to everything. I mean, I really feel like that's the spiritual center of this record, you know? I have, and I truly mean this. Yeah. Apex moment. Flag list. What do you got for Apex moment?

Okay, this is, we didn't play this before because I wanted to wait on it. It's the ending to you and I. There's obviously a lot of things that I could cop out like you, but this is just incredible. I am not a cop, I'm going to start at around 3.34, according to my notes. We're just going to listen out to the end. This is a great call by. Too dominant. Great call by you.

The way he's playing piano. Come on, Steve. There's levels, right? Triplett. Oh, and this next note here, which is the actual... Oh! What? Everybody's doing that.

Listen to how he's singing. That's what I'm saying. Every other pop star on the planet, including huge acts of this time, must have been like, what the hell, man? What am I going to... What can I do with that?

Yeah, and I mean, too, everybody thinks that that's like, it has an emotional feeling. Normally you'd have to, you know, go up a half step. You'd have to... What do you call that? Ascending?

Transposing? No. Modulate. Modulate. Exactly. But it feels like it modulates without modulating. All right.

My apex moment, I'm going to go back to maybe your baby. And I'm going to go to the end as well. Oh, the end is killing. Oh, clam. Oh, yeah, Ray Park.

So the little baby voice that he's got? That's all Stevie. He's kind of, he's slowly building it up through here. I'm a little boy. We got to hear that part. He says, I'm a little boy. They pull that up to it.

Oh. these improvisations for vocal here on the layers. This reminds me that meters track where it got on a crazy volume. This is like, by the way, there's like three and a half minutes of this at the end of this track. Yeah. It's just like, but you got to have the build up. This is a 2514 progression by the way. Ray Parker, by the way, killing. Here's where it starts. On the tonic. That's church. This appears on that Dominus 7 right there. One of the greatest moments in musical history. When he changes that note down,

it's one of the greatest moments of my life. That when he's just hanging out there in church and he just, she'll come back tomorrow. That part there, every time chills. Every time chills, every time out of my seat. Bespoke playlist title, what do you got? I've got wonderful. Wonderful.

Get it? Stevie plays it all. Okay. Peter with the chat. GPT. I'm going with, check this one out, and this is pretty creative.

I don't have that you. I'm going, ready? Yeah. Music explored. Oh. Okay. Because it's so musical. How many times can you cop out in one episode? Okay, great.

Up next, what do you got? Well, I got, the obvious would be intervisions. It's literally next. But we could maybe look at a little bit, I don't know, what's going on, Marvin Gay. I would want to hear that after this, and then maybe go to Intervisions. That would be fun.

But then also, we can go to some inspirations, from like when I was like a young preteen that kind of connected me not only with stevie's music of that time but what i realized later on was going back to this prince's purple rain i think i think purple rain i think prince is just hugely obviously influenced from this from this time period and then also di angelo voodoo famously recorded at electric lady studios as well so that's a nice little kind of connection there i think princess purple rain is i was actually going to say prince's self-title oh the one with the 78 yeah where he's just like with hair and hair and the long hair and the no shirt.

Yeah, that's true. Just from like young genius perspective. Yeah, that's a great call. Yeah. Quibble bits. What do you got? So, okay, you alluded to this earlier. Thanks a lot.

Captain Obvious. You are the sunshine of, okay, so I love this track in terms of how it sits on this record, how it starts, all the things that we talked about. So I have no quibble bits with it in terms of that. On its own, as a tune, co-opted by jazz players in lounges around the world, I have a little bit of a... I don't think it's that strong of a song for that. Disagree.

Hard pass. Hard pass on this take. Well, you know what? We can't all be right. Only I can be right. No, no, it's just not my favorite Stevie tune. That's what I mean. I think it fits within this fine.

So I don't even know if that's a quibble bit. It's just not my favorite stevie. My only quibble bit is... I don't think it's weak. My quibble bit is I'm quibble bit on your quibble bit on the sunshine. Snobometer. What do you got? Well, I mean, I have it at five.

Because, I mean... I have it at a five also. Okay, good. Is it better than K-O-B? You know what? I'm changing, because you've been making fun of me saying equal.

I'm going to say yes. Yeah, you've had like six equals in a row. I'm going to say yes. I'm also saying yes, it is better. Oh, come on, that's how we do it. Acutrements. I have nine, but I might change this to 10. Yeah, I have 10.

I think the drum covers. Because I don't think it could be any better. It's so iconic. It began this color palette of the next three. I think music of my mind was a different color palette, but these next three records, talking about inner visions and fulfilling this. And they all use the same.

Brown musters. that stuff. Peter, thank you for this. Yeah, thank you, man. Incredible, incredible. Thank you, Stevie Wonder. Thank you, Stevie Wonder for everything.

For real, for so many countless moments. Leave a comment, by the way. You know what? I wasn't going to do this, but maybe we'll throw up a little picture of myself, the Mrs. and Mr. Stevie Wonder. Can we put that photograph up?

I don't even like, that'll be for another podcast. I'll tell that story. That was at 1.30 a.m. Don't forget to leave a comment on YouTube or leave us a rating and review wherever you get your podcast. This is from,

comment on our Lewis Armstrong episode from a couple weeks ago from a friend of the pod, Andy Tishner, who's a legendary trumpet player here in St. Louis says, thank you. I've been really loving the pod and thrilled you guys did one on Lewis, talking about Lewis Armstrong. He's the greatest and one of the main reasons I picked up a trumpet back in 1986 to try to learn it. You guys have got me back on a Lewis listening kick, not like I ever stray very far from him. So thank you. Your recording picks were spot on. That's Peter. Hearing pops on those old tracks. Yeah, I put a blindfold on and started throwing it a dartboard. That was easy. He sounds like he's from some future century.

This is some of the rarest music to me. It makes me smile, tap my foot, make lots of stank faces, and weep at the sheer greatness of it all. I'm always listening to different kinds of music, but I always come back home to Lewis. Your guys, Pod has reminded me to not just turn on music all the time,

but to spend time listening deeply. So thank you for that. Thank you, Andy. Andy's an incredible trumpet player here in St. Louis. What a great comment, man. Thank you. It means a lot coming from you, buddy. Yeah. Cool.

Okay, nerd no. So first of all, shout out Open Studio. Shout out Open Studio Pro. If you're interested in that program, OpenCadioJazz.com slash pro where we have live classes six days a week. And we have an incredible archive. We have the number one music learning community,

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