Friday 8 April 2011

Sneaking out the back door to hang out with those hoodlum friends of mine

Fact of the Week

“I Wish”, Stevie Wonder, (1976)

When it has been a tough week it is nice to listen to something that lifts you up, takes you back to a happier time. An innocent or not so innocent time as the case may be, but somewhere where you don’t have the pressures of your everyday life...

At the age of 11, “Little” Stevie Wonder was signed to the Motown label and a lifetime later is still there.  Born 6 weeks early, retinal detachment rendered him blind. There was nothing wrong with his ears.

He has recorded more than 30 top ten songs including: 'Superstition’, ‘Sir Duke’, “My Cherie Amour”, ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered, ‘,‘Uptight (Everything’s Alright)’, ‘Higher Ground’, ‘You Are the Sunshine of My Life’,’ Living for the City’, ‘Master Blaster’, and many more.  You have heard these songs. They have a certain accessibility to us. They are about life and although they may not be about our life – bits of them always reflect it. Stevie plays piano, harmonica, drums, and bass. I shouldn’t say he just plays them, he has mastered them. 

In 1973 Stevie was in a serious accident when the vehicle he was driving in rear-ended a flatbed truck, striking Stevie in the head. He was in a coma for 4 days and he suffered a partial loss of smell and a temporary loss of taste. He could still hear!

The name “Wonder” was a shortened version of the “8th wonder of the world” and the people that called him that had no idea how prophetic that name really was. He is amazing!

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