Innervisions is the sixteenth album by American musician Stevie Wonder, released August 3, 1973 on Motown Records; a landmark recording of his "classic period".Some observers count six classic albums, some count five, and others count four. The nine tracks of Innervisions encompass a wide range of themes and issues: from drug abuse in "Too High," through social anger in "Living for the City," to love in the ballads "All in Love is Fair" and "Golden Lady."

As with many of Stevie Wonder's albums the lyrics, composition and production are almost entirely his own work, with the ARP synthesizer used prominently throughout the album. This instrument was a common motif among musicians of the time because of its ability to construct a complete sound environment. Wonder was the first black artist to experiment with this technology on a mass scale, and Innervisions was hugely influential on the subsequent future of commercial black music. He also played all or virtually all instruments on six of the album's nine tracks, making most of Innervisions a representative one-man band.

The August 6 car accident

Only three days after the commercial release of Innervisions, on August 6, Wonder played a concert in Greenville, South Carolina. While on the way back just outside Durham, North Carolina, Wonder was asleep in the front seat of a car being driven by his friend, John Harris, when they were snaking along the road, just behind a truck loaded high with logs. Suddenly the trucker jammed on his brakes, and the two vehicles collided. Logs went flying, and one smashed through the wind shield, sailing squarely into Stevie Wonder's forehead. He was bloody and unconscious when he was pulled from the wrecked car. For four days he lay in a coma caused by severe brain contusion, causing media attention and the preoccupation of relatives, friends and fans.http

It was his friend and tour director Ira Tucker who first elicited some response from him:

Wonder's climb back to health was still very long and slow. When he regained consciousness, he discovered that he had lost his sense of smell, which he never recovered. And he was deeply afraid that he might have lost his musical faculty too.

Still, Wonder had to take medication for a year, tired easily, and suffered severe headaches. The August 6 accident particularly changed his way of thinking. His deep faith and spiritual vision made him doubt that it was "an accident". He stated, "You can never change anything that has already happened. Everything is the way it's supposed to be... Everything that ever happened to me is the way it is supposed to have been." Wonder also commented when he was interviewed by The New York Times that "the accident opened my ears up to many things around me. Naturally, life is just more important to me now... and what I do with my life". Confirming Stevie's belief in destiny, Michael Sembello, Wonder's lead guitarist at the time, said

Before the accident, Wonder had been scheduled to do a five-week, twenty-city tour between March and April 1974. It was postponed, with the exception of one date in Madison Square Garden in late March. That concert began with Stevie pointing to his scarred forehead, looking up, grinning, and giving "thanks to God that I'm alive." Twenty-one thousand people in the crowd roared with applause, and as a Post critic noted, "it was hard not to be thrilled."

Reception

Commercial performance

After Talking Book hit the Top 5 of the Billboard Albums Chart in early 1973 and achieved steady sales during the rest of the year, Motown Records managed to make Innervisions another considerable hit in the charts. The album debuted at the Billboard Album Charts on August 18, 1973 at number 85, then climbed up weekly to number 22, number 14, number 9, number 6 until reaching its peak position of number 4 on September 15. The album remained inside the Top 20 until the end of the year and remained inside the whole Top 200 during the whole calendar year of 1975. (In the Cashbox charts, Innervisions actually reached the #1 near the end of the year.) In the UK also achieved big success, and became Stevie Wonder's first album ever to reach the UK Top 10, peaking at #8.

Three hit singles were issued from the album. "Higher Ground", released some weeks before Innervisions, reached #4 on the charts on late October 1973 (it was also a #1 on the Cashbox singles charts). "Living for the City" was released immediately and reached #8 in early January 1974. Both singles reached #1 on the R&B charts. Finally, "Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing" was released in March reaching #16 in early June, and also peaked at #2 on the R&B charts. In the UK, "Higher Ground" and "Living for the City" were released as singles but achieved modest success, reaching only #29 and #15 respectively. Only a third single issued there, "He's Misstra Know-It-All", managed to reach the Top 10, peaking at #8 on the UK Singles charts.

"All in Love is Fair" was a later hit for Barbra Streisand, who recorded it and released as a single in 1974.

Critical response

Although Innervisions was recorded before Wonder's accident, it was released almost immediately afterwards, and most people associated it with the musician's miraculous recovery. Surprisingly, the album was lyrically prophetic.http

As with both Music of My Mind and Talking Book the previous year, Innervisions was received warmly by music critics. Most of them gave the album rave reviews, and they were first impressed with Wonder's versatile musical skills. Billboard published that "the liner credits Stevie with playing all the instruments on seven of the nine tunes. So in essence this is a one-man band situation and it works. His skill on drums, piano, bass, and arp are outstanding, and all the tracks work within the thematic framework." The New York Times wrote, "Stevie identifies himself as a gang and a genius, producing, composing, arranging, singing, and, on several tracks, playing all the accompanying instruments. But Stevie Wonder, you see and want to know more. At the center of his music is the sound of what is real. Vocally, he remains inventive and unafraid, he sings all the things he hears: rock, folk, and all forms of Black music. The sum total of these varying components is an awesome knowledge, consumed and then shared by an artist who is free enough to do both."http

Many others also praised the variety of musical styles and themes present in the album. The review from Playboy said, "Stevie Wonder's Innervisions is a beautiful fusion of the lyric and the didactic, telling us about the blind world that Stevie inhabits with a depth of musical insight that is awesome. It's a view that's basically optimistic, a constant search for the "Higher Ground", but the path is full of snares: dope ("Too High"), lies ("Jesus Children of America") and the starkly rendered poison of the city ("Living for the City"). Wonder seems to say that all people delude themselves but have to be well to pay their dues and existentially accept the present. "Today's not yesterday,/And all things have an ending" is the way he puts it in "Visions," the key tune of the album—pretty yet serious, harmonically vivid. There's a lot of varied music here—Latin, reggae, even a nod to Johnny Mathis ("All in Love is Fair")—but it's all Stevie, unmistakably."

Some reviewers were less enthusiastic. Jon Tiven from Circus argued that there was a lack of memorable material: "Just when Stevie had some momentum going, he went and put together a concept album of homogeneous music and rather typical lyrics. Unlike his last two albums, there are no real low spots on this album, which I suppose is an improvement, but there are no songs on Innervisions which are truly outstanding either. There's no "Superstition," no "I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)." By constructing a solid ground from which to work, Stevie has lowered the ceiling, and put a damper on his talents."

Musicians also showed consummate respect for the achievements of the album, with Roberta Flack saying to Newsweek that "It's the most sensitive of our decade... it has tapped the pulse of the people."

Innervisions won Grammy Awards for Album of the Year and Best Engineered Non-Classical Recording in 1974, while "Living for the City" won the Grammy for Best R&B Song.

Legacy

Innervisions has been considered by many fans, critics, and colleagues to be among Stevie Wonder's finest work and one of the great albums in popular music history. The album was revisited countless times in different lists of the greatest albums of all time. In his Rock & Roll Review: A Guide to Good Rock (1991), Bill Shapiro wrote "This recording represents the pinnacle of a very important artist's career, and of his physically blind, but nonetheless extraordinary humane vision. For all intents and purposes, and for all of its richness and variety of texture, it is essentially all Stevie Wonder. He personally created and arranged every sound heard. His canvas stretches from the tough realities of ghetto streets to the transcendent joy of spiritual acceptance, each rendered with an original, unique musical palette. The feel is a little more jazz than funk, the result is simply glorious pop music– uplifting sound and message."

In 2001, VH1 named it the 31st greatest album of all time with the following statement: "The whole message of this album seems to be caution – Wonder seems to be warning the black community to be aware of their own plight, strive for improvement, and take matters into their own hands. But this is all against the backdrop of the harsh social realities of America circa 1973, and nowhere does this conflict hit home more than in Wonder's magnum opus, "Living for the City," a raw piece of modern blues on which Wonder played every instrument. The message of urban struggle resonates even more strongly now than it did thirty years ago, proving that the "inner-visions" of this LP were visionary as well."

In 2003, the album was ranked number 23 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.http The magazine wrote in that occasion:

As further evidence of the album's timeless classic status, 'Innervisions' was re-released in the UK on September 15, 2008 to coincide with Wonder's critically-acclaimed autumn 2008 European tour. The sitcom "Three's Company" featured a painting of the album on the living room wall.

Personnel

*Recordist - Dan Barbiero, Austin Godsey

*Tape Operator - Gary Olazabal

*Mastering - George Marino

*Recording Coordinators - John Harris, Ira Tucker Jr.

*Synthesizer Programming - Robert Margouleff, Malcolm Cecil

*Album Art - Efram Wolff

Charts

References

Artist/Band Information

Stevland Hardaway Judkins (born May 13, 1950), name later changed to Stevland Hardaway Morris, Stevie Wonder's mother's authorized biography states that his surname was legally changed to Morris when he signed with Motown in 1961. known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist.Perone, James E. (2006). The Sound of Stevie Wonder: His Words and Music. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing. ISBN 0-2759-8723-X. Pg. xi-xii Blind since shortly after birth, Wonder signed with Motown Records' Tamla label at the age of eleven, and continues to perform and record for Motown to this day.

Among Wonder's best known works are singles such as "Superstition", "Sir Duke", "I Wish" and "I Just Called to Say I Love You". Well known albums also include Talking Book, Innervisions and Songs in the Key of Life. He has recorded more than thirty U.S. top ten hits and received twenty-two Grammy Awards, the most ever awarded to a male solo artist. Wonder is also noted for his work as an activist for political causes, including his 1980 campaign to make Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday a holiday in the United States.Perone, James E. (2006). The Sound of Stevie Wonder: His Words and Music. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing. ISBN 0-2759-8723-X. Pg. 83 In 2009, Wonder was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace. In 2008, Billboard magazine released a list of the Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists to celebrate the US singles chart's fiftieth anniversary, with Wonder at number five.

Early life

Stevie Wonder was born in Saginaw, Michigan in 1950, being the third of six children to Calvin Judkins and Lula Mae Hardaway. Owing to his being born six weeks premature, the blood vessels at the back of his eyes had not yet reached the front and their aborted growth caused the retinas to detach. The medical term for this condition is retinopathy of prematurity, or ROP, and while it may have been exacerbated by the oxygen pumped into his incubator, this was not the primary cause of his blindness.

When Stevie Wonder was four, his mother left his father and moved herself and her children to Detroit. She changed her name back to Lula Hardaway and later changed her son's surname to Morris, partly because of relatives. Morris has remained Stevie Wonder's legal name ever since. He began playing instruments at an early age, including piano, harmonica, drums and bass. During childhood he was active in his church choir.

Discovery and early Motown recordings

Ronnie White of The Miracles gives credit to his brother Gerald White for persistently nagging him to come to his friend's house in 1961 to check out Stevie Wonder.Werner, Craig. Higher Ground. New York: Crown Publishers, 2004. Print. Afterward, White brought Wonder and his mother to Motown Records. Impressed by the young musician, Motown CEO Berry Gordy signed Wonder to Motown's Tamla label with the name Little Stevie Wonder. Before signing, producer Clarence Paul gave Wonder his trademark name after stating "we can't keep calling him the eighth wonder of the world". He then recorded the regional Detroit single, "I Call It Pretty Music, But the Old People Call It the Blues", which was released on Tamla in late 1961. Wonder released his first two albums, The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie and Tribute to Uncle Ray, in 1962, to little success.

Music career

Tim "Herb" Alexander (born April 10, 1965 in Cherry Point, North Carolina) is an American musician, best known as the drummer for the rock band Primus. Tim played on the Primus recordings Suck on This to Tales from the Punchbowl, before leaving the band in 1996, only to rejoin in 2003 for the EP Animals Should Not Try to Act Like People. Although Alexander has been quoted saying he was originally inspired to become a rock drummer by legendary drummers like John Bonham, Neil Peart and Shaun O'Connor, Primus guitarist Larry LaLonde claims Alexander's drum beats are mostly influenced by African Jùjú music.

Prior to joining Primus, he played and recorded with Major Lingo, which at the time was a ska-based rhythm band that featured a lap steel guitar as the lead instrument, played by Tony Bruno. When Major Lingo toured through the Bay Area Tim met members of Primus and would go on to remain there trying out for the band.

Following Alexander's departure from Primus, he went on to form his own group, Laundry. Alexander released two albums with the band Laundry; Blacktongue and Motivator. Alexander has also collaborated with experimental bass player Michael Manring and guitarist Alex Skolnick to form the group known as Attention Deficit.

Alexander was the first drummer of A Perfect Circle, performing early live shows with the band, and recording drums for the track "The Hollow" on the band's debut album, Mer de Noms. He is listed as a member in the band's DVD/CD release aMOTION.

Alexander joined the theatrical group Blue Man Group, and has occasionally played with the Las Vegas-based improvisational rock band Uberschall.

Despite being primarily known for his drum work Alexander is an accomplished guitarist and singer. He performed live guitar with the group Born Naked and held the lead vocal duties on Laundry's second album and supporting tour.

Alexander was involved throughout 2008-09 in a project known as Into The Presence which features songs by Luis Carlos Maldonado. Their debut album was released on Razor and Tie Records and includes performances from bassist Paz Lenchantin and cellist Ana Lenchantin. Both Into The Presence and the Fata Morgana release were recorded and produced at Alexander's own Ghost Town Studios.

As of 2010 Alexander is actively involved as a member of Maynard James Keenan's Puscifer project. He has toured with them and can be heard on their most recent released recordings.

Discography

Primus

* Suck on This (1989)

* Frizzle Fry (1990)

* Sailing the Seas of Cheese (1991)

* Miscellaneous Debris (1992)

* Pork Soda (1993)

* Tales from the Punchbowl (1995)

* Animals Should Not Try to Act Like People (2003)

Laundry

* Blacktongue (1994)

* Motivator (1999)

A Perfect Circle

* Mer de Noms (2000) (Appears on "The Hollow")

Attention Deficit

* Attention Deficit (1998)

* The Idiot King (2001)

Fata Morgana

* This Is A Dream (2005

Equipment

Drums:

TAMA,

* 18"x20" Bass Drum

* 16"x18" Bass Drum

* 5.5"x14" Bronze PBZ355 Snare Drum

* 6"x14" Starclassic G Maple Snare Drum

* 8"x8" Tom Tom

* 9"x10" Tom Tom

* 10"x12" Tom Tom

* 14"x14" Floor Tom

* 14"x20" Gong Bass Drum

* 16"x16" Floor Tom

* Octoban Low-Pitch Set

Hardware:

TAMA,

many various boom and straight cymbal stands

Cymbals:

Zildjian,

* 9.5" & 6" Zil-Bells

* 13" Z Custom Dyno Beat Hi-Hats

* 18",17" & 16" A Medium Crashes

* 18" A Rock Crash

* 6" & 8" A splash

* 12" A Special Recording Hi-Hats

* 13" A New-Beat Hi-Hats

* 18" Oriental China Trash

* 22" K Custom Ride.

Sticks:

Zildjian,

Tim Alexander Artist Series (16" length, 0.53" diameter)

Heads:

REMO

References