Master Blaster (Pollin'): ILM Artist Poll #9 -- Stevie Wonder (Closes: Oct. 3)

http://www.steviewonder.org.uk/bio/life-stories/harmonica_of-wonder_images/harmonica4.jpg

Like the Prince poll, I'm including not just Stevie Wonder's discography, but also songs he's written for others. I realize his side projects aren't quite as profuse or varied as Prince's, but there's definitely a few gems in there. (However, and speaking of Prince side projects, I'm not inclined to include guest spots if for no other reason than I don't want there to be any chance that stupid Rent song slots.)

Stevie's got a lot of songs, so I'll accept ballots of up to 30 entries, but please, try to submit no fewer than 20. Scoring will go as such:

01:40, 02:36, 03:33, 04:30, 05:27, 06:25, 07:24, 08:23, 09:22, 10:21
11:20, 12:19, 13:18, 14:17, 15:16, 16:15, 17:14, 18:13, 19:12, 20:11
21:10, 22:09, 23:08, 24:07, 25:06, 26:05, 27:04, 28:03, 29:02, 30:01

Also, we'll go ahead and do the standard side balloting if you're interested:

1. Pick your single favorite Stevie album, and
2. Pick your single least favorite Stevie track.

Send your ballots to ephender at gmail dot com. Deadline is midnight EDT, October 3rd. I reserve the right to hold balloting open longer than that if my favorites haven't registered as much as I'd like them to.

I know this is probably heresy, but I really have never given a shit about his pre-full-creative-control work.

(It's probably bad form for the poll organizer to politik for faves, but if you submit a ballot without first listening to "Summer Soft," "Golden Lady" or "Creepin," I won't count it.)

xpost it's uneven

wait, eric h isn't eric h4rvey?

will totally rep for "It's a Shame" and "Tell Me Something Good", in terms of side projects. Need to hear those Syreeta Wright albums.

xp

will probably simply vote for 30 Stevie songs I feel the most without giving it too much time or thought. a playlist of sorts

aside from "It's a Shame" and "Tell Me Something Good" are there other side projects I need to be aware of?

feel terrible about not voting in the Pet Shop Boys, Beatles, Prince, Beach Boys and Led Zeppelin polls. not gonna let this one slip!

Is it not okay to submit an abbreviated ballot? There are a handful of Stevie Wonder songs that I love as much as anything ever; after that, I'd just be voting for songs I think are pretty good, which I try not to do on these polls.

Some of the songs are at the top of this page: http://www.warr.org/stevie.html

If you don't love at least 20 Stevie Wonder songs, you're doing it wrong.

Yes.

I don't love 20 Stevie Wonder songs. My mistake, as two of his friends famously said.

Here's where I mention Jermaine Jackson's "Let Get Serious."

Here's where I mention Michael Jackson's "I Can't Help It."

I reserve the right to hold balloting open longer than that if my favorites haven't registered as much as I'd like them to.

I think 19 days is more than plenty!

Yeah, that's a really long stretch.

Here's where I mention "Tears of a Clown."

I had no idea he cowrote that!

should we really count Tears of a Clown? it's quintessential Smokey

Stevie wrote music for "tears..."

It counts in my book.

Ever since I turned in my GBV ballot I've been listening to nothing but early Stevie. I only knew the big hits and I'd heard Innervisions and SitKoL a couple of times. Right now this is how it stands:

'Uptight (Everything's Alright)' > a few early singles like 'Signed. Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours' and 'I Dont Know Why' > Innervisions >>> the rest

Looking forward to diving into the classic period this week!

Guys! Do NOT forget that he wrote this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epEQhxslprE

This page is useful:

http://www.steviewonder.org.uk/discography/songwriter.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNpR1bKXcr8

^ oh boy, I had totally forgotten about this song

kind of terrible imo

XP: Wow, it took until 1999 for him to write a song called 'I Love You'!

And then he followed it up the next year with 'I Love You More'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dKO5SNN3-Q

^ this is pretty great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb20QyH8d1s
This is really not.

listening to Songs in the Key of Life for the first time in like 15 years... this was where I initially got off the bus with Stevie, a handful of great songs aside.

It bores me for the most part. The seven-inch record with additional tunes does not.

things seem to get pretty aimless

wow really NOT feeling Village Ghetto Land string quartet nonsense

"Contusion" is fun though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZueIZImZGfs

^ Shakey what do you think of this?

can everybody who doesn't have "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" on their list id themselves so I know who my enemies are? thanks

his cover of "We Can Work It Out" is a monster.

Xpost Won't be on my list, ftr.

But my ballot may be about three-quarters album only tracks.

Contusion sounds like a bad Weather Report leftover

xp

by the way you can bet I'll stick a couple songs from A Time to Love on my list.

^ Shakey what do you think of this?

kind of terrible...? a waste of Carl's voice. once the 80s set in it's like Carl forgot what the Beach Boys strengths were.

"moon blue" has an outside shot at my ballot. Maybe the only post-87 track I can say that about.

I don't understand it, but I like it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGhSJIMHeoo

Also, I'm so not on the "Something's Extra > SITKOL proper" tip. "Saturn" has nice changes and moronic lyrics. Otherwise, only "All Day Sucker" does much for me.

I'd stick all of Original Musiquarium if I could, minus "Front Line."

well, and "Ribbon in the Sky" is one of those firecrackers that will probably go off in a few years, like "Lately" did.

and "Go Home" is this second.

That was "You and I" for me.

his cover of "We Can Work It Out" is a monster.

― Anakin Ska Walker (AKA Skarth Vader) (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn),

ditto "Light My Fire" -- I wasn't expecting much from that, but it's fierce

jeez there is some real dreck on SITKOL aren't there. If It's Magic? *barf*

not to be all debbie downer on this thread but

I know a woman for whom it's her favorite song. I don't have an opinion because I never want to listen to it.

ballot sent. did you get it?

rushed it. I'm sure I made some controversial decisions but I don't care.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w5OamIWmsA&feature=fvst

If you haven't heard Stevie Wonder Presents Syreeta (1974) yet you are in for a TREAT!

should we really count Tears of a Clown? it's quintessential Smokey

― gospodin simmel, Thursday, September 22, 2011 12:48 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark
xpost

Yes, I got the ballot, gosling.

And, yes, I will be disappointed if I don't see some Syreeta on these ballots.

New end date: Oct. 3

DON'T DRIVE DRUNK

Getting some of the odder listening out of the way first -- Secret Life of Plants, Jazz Soul of Little Stevie, and (currently) Eivets Rednow (1968).

Richie Sambora did a live cover of the song which is a track on the Bon Jovi special editions of the album These Days.

The Housemartins recorded an a capella version in 1986 for John Peel which features on the album Live at the BBC.

and to youtube i'll be going for some slowing-down-at-a-car-crash shit.

Spotify is alternately great and irritating as hell for these polls. Music of My Mind available, Where I'm Coming From unavailable. wtf?

Must be a licensing thing cos that one's definitely on Spotify in the UK.

Where I'm Coming From was barely released on CD, iirc, and is sorta pricey on vinyl too.

I discovered Looking Back last night, another barely-released record, which seems to cover all your pre70s needs.

What's the consensus on 'Fingertips' here? Especially when heard in two parts as opposed to the complete performance.

I mean, the harmonica parts are great, especially for a 12-year old kid, but number one??

I don't give a shit about it tbh

"WHAT KEY?! WHAT KEY!?"

I'm cool with it as a "here I am" moment. But it's not cracking my ballot.

Yeah, it's a novelty that announces his talent without really displaying any of it, if that makes any sense. xposts

On the other hand, I just realized what my #1 is going to be because I turned it up to 11 as soon as it came on. (no spoilers)

OK cool, because I'm reading a Stevie biography and Berry Gordy was completely extatic when he discovered the tape of that performance. Must be because the first six, seven singles flopped completely.
Still, I don't get why it shot all the way to number one.

xp it's Uptight isn't it?

Moving on into 1971, with Stevie's 21st birthday and the end of his first contract with Motown. It might have been the first album he wrote and produced himself, but Where I'm Coming From is quite a disappointment. The first two tracks are great, with the understated 'Look Around' and especially the funky 'Do Yourself a Favor', but then it quickly peters out, with the horrible 'I Wanna Talk to You' as the lowest point. Of the rest of the tracks only 'Never Dreamed You’d Leave in Summer' is lovely, but it probably won't make my list.

"If You Really Love Me" isn't chopped liver.

Jammin' on the one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKNQf88JaZY

Of the rest of the tracks only 'Never Dreamed You’d Leave in Summer' is lovely, but it probably won't make my list.
― ArchCarrier, Friday, September 23, 2011 3:47 PM (27 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

It'll be on mine for sure

"If You Really Love Me" isn't chopped liver.

If I were voting--having flunked the entrance exam and failed the blood test, I'm presently in limbo--"If You Really Love Me" would be my #1. Astounding single from my favourite period (early '70s) for soul music ever.

2 epiphanies for me, 2 different Stevie songs.
Firstly, its around 1978, I'm standing outside my school gates and a large black guy walks past with ghettoblaster on his shoulder, and it's playing the horn arpeggio that starts Sir Duke. I think this is the best thing I have ever heard.
Secondly, in Williamson Park, Lancaster around 2000, a free soul music afternoon. If You Really Love Me is played. I've heard the song before, but only now do I realise it is perfect.

Now I will certainly give it some more time - I'm sure it will grow on me :)

listening to Songs in the Key of Life for the first time in like 15 years... this was where I initially got off the bus with Stevie, a handful of great songs aside.

― I saw Mike Love walk by a computer once (Shakey Mo Collier)

my second fave Stevie record. "As" is flippin' fantastic. pretty sure 4 of my top ten are gonna come from talking book....

I'll be listening to Music of My Mind all afternoon (for the first time). Thoughts later.

But first Tonto's Zero Time, the record that led Stevie to Margouleff and Cecil. Has anyone heard this?

after doing some intensive listening I gotta say his catalog seems MUCH more hit and miss than a lot of other acts that have been polled recently. There's a clear peak and a clear drop-off point, but even within that arc he's sort of wildly inconsistent. sorta reminds me of Prince in that way.

(although Prince's streak of great albums was definitely longer)

Longer in number of albums, not in years.

Wonder created far more listenable albums post-peak than Prince though. There's nothing seriously wrong with In Square Circle, Characters, Jungle Fever and Conversation Peace.

eh what I remember of Jungle Fever is pretty abysmal

Jungle Fever is his strongest album post Musiquarium.

We disagree. I haven't JTSLOP so maybe that's his Tonight or Everybody's Rockin'. For a guy with such a long career to never record an album of dreck is damn impressive.

(Would've been improved even further if "Feeding Off the Love of the Land" had been included.)

xpost to Shakes

As far as trainwrecks go, Plants is really lovely in stretches. "Power Flower," "Black Orchid," "Send One Your Love," "Outside My Window" and "A Seed's A Star" are all of a piece with his other surrounding albums.

"Make Sure You're Sure" is so lovely.

^^^ this

Kinda want to just give one of my slots to "any Stevie Wonder drum solo"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z57-f827e68

Three ballots in and the results are ... unorthodox.

considering how it's available in used CD stores everywhere, there's no reason why anyone shouldn't give Jungle Fever a try.

Let's not forget this lovely thing, a variant on "Rocket Love":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seaFJoiUlOU

That's lovely.

And yet there’s something else going on in “Lately” that I can’t quite put my finger on. I’ve heard “Lately” dozens of times, and it always makes me feel at least a lump in my throat. I love this song because it’s familiar to me; I must want to cry every time I put it on. But it’s also fresh in some weird way, because I’m always surprised whenever I start feeling that sting between my eyes and the upper part of my nose. “Lately” lives up to the promise of what popular music is supposed to be—no matter how often you hear it, the feeling it conjures never goes away. And it has this effect on all kinds of people, from all sorts of backgrounds.

Oh god, how did I not see this before now?

http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/playing_god/songs-in-the-key-of-life.htm

I'm sorry, any tracklist that cuts "Summer Soft" from SITKOL is to be not just rejected but ridiculed.

Coming down to the end of my listening for this poll -- will send my ballot probably Thurs or Fri.

I know there's still about a week left, but which poll netted the least ballots so far?

probably the hip hop poll

Timbaland had 36, Manics 18, Blur 26, REM approx 25, PSB 32

Wonder created far more listenable albums post-peak than Prince though. There's nothing seriously wrong with In Square Circle, Characters, Jungle Fever and Conversation Peace.

― Anakin Ska Walker (AKA Skarth Vader) (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, September 26, 2011 11:56 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark

^^^This. Aside from dated production, which happens to everyone, he still knows how to make a record, and even the mushy stuff that pervades as he gets older is so committed and so virtuosic it almost always connects. A Time to Love is good, too, though overproduced like you'd expect of any 10-years-in-the-making project.

It's selfish of me, but I really just want him to record a spare, piano-and-vocal record at this point.

Bump to remind people to vote!

Ballot very soon.

Ha -- I forgot I reviewed A Time to Love (which I do still like):

http://www.seattleweekly.com/2005-11-30/music/cave-in/2/

A grand total of 6 ballots so far, including the three I submitted.

(I reviewed AT2L, too, but I'm not linking that crappy writing here.)

I ... guess I will vote in this. altho this may be the only poll where I was genuinely disappointed to revisit the catalog.

Which albums disappointed you?

I don't usually relisten to albums for the purposes of polls, but I did now, and Jungle Fever was the revelatory experiendce.

I admit I have not relistened to Jungle Fever mostly because I find the title track so goddamn annoying and that movie is on TV all the time

I dare you to resist "Chemical Love" and "Queen in the Black." Go on I dare you.

I listened to:

Where I'm Coming From (never actually heard this before, not really impressed)
Music of My Mind (ditto, although it's a bit better)
Fulfillingness First Finale - classic
Talking Book - classic
Innervisions - classic
Songs in the Key of Life - some good stuff, some REALLY bad stuff too tho
the extra tracks on Musiquarium (Front Line etc)

didn't listen to Secret Life of Plants
checked out some youtubes of Hotter Than July stuff, did not want

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CkyYNb7wx4

I dunno man, these drums...

Stop thinking about the production. Listen to the hook, the singing!

as I've gotten older I care less about a song's "dated" qualities. A song can't help but sound like the year in which it was made.

there were good drum sounds in 1991. these are not those sounds.

I'm not going to hang a fortysomething man for not firing the unadventurous engineer.

as Lincoln said, must I shoot a simple-minded deserter, while I must not touch a hair of a wily agitator who induces him to desert?

oh those wily agitators

poor Stevie, not listening to 808 State and Consolidated.

I'm not going to hang a fortysomething man for not firing the unadventurous engineer.

but really... why not? this is a dude who could afford ANYBODY in the world. and plays drums! and, at one time, had a great ear! I'm kind of unforgiving about this stuff. It's similar to when Prince's ear for synths and drum sounds left him.

the best drum sounds of 1991 are on hip hop records imho

Prince is younger. You're overestimating the attention span of a fortysomething man. What's more important is that this man was a geyser of melody and fantastic singing. Are you really wagging your finger over his reluctance to sound like Bell Biv Devoe and Public Enemy?

by the way, Wonder plays a lot of live drums on A Time of Love, and most of those parts are interesting. Check'em out.

*FOR Love

I rarely do any re-listening for these polls beyond a song or two--it would start to feel like work, and I'm lazy--but all credit for talking up Jungle Fever. I'd completely forgotten about it as being part of Stevie Wonder's catalog, so I resent my ballot to make room for the title song (really good) and "Feeding Off the Love of the Land" over the end credits (fantastic).

Are you really wagging your finger over his reluctance to sound like Bell Biv Devoe and Public Enemy?

Bell... Biv... Devoe...

um anyway I'm wagging my finger at him making a record that sounds bad. records are made of sounds. I like sounds. I have a hard time getting interested in the compositional or performative aspect of something that sounds bad.

"Feeding Off the Love of the Land" over the end credits (fantastic).

agreed

Bell... Biv... Devoe...

Shakey, remember BBD got credit for being one of the first R&B combos to incorporate the toughness of hip-hop and crossover big.

and BBD were crap.

was ref'ing this btw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWV1KDQZ_3I

of course BBD were terrible

My work is about to get freaky for a couple of weeks, so I'm going to do my ballot tonight. I'm disappointed at the low turnout so far!

About to send my ballot. Do you want the 1-30 numbering in the text of the ballot, or are you pasting the ballots into finefinemusic's .xls file and would rather not have anything but the titles?

Whatever you've got will work.

sent

The deadline still stands, right? Oct. 3?

For now. We're currently at 9 ballots. At this point, I'm hoping for 25 ballots. I'll settle for double digits.

Don't worry, you'll get lots more right before the deadline. I'm still listening to Talking Book - I'm afraid I won't be able to get to anything post-'76.

I am planning to vote in this. Just give me a few days.

I voted.

Just give me a few days.

I'm not Eric and it's not my place to ask this, but how many days do you need?

i'll get it in by oct. 3

Daily bump. I've got 11 ballots now.

Don't know if I ever had quite the same kind of turnaround that I did with "My Cherie Amour." Growing up, it was one of those ubiquitious MOR-leaning songs like "Michelle" that I almost always switched off past a certain age. About a decade ago, though, the beauty of the "La-la-la-la-la-la" part stopped me short one day, and ever since it's been one of my favourite songs from the late '60s.

And don't forget this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5VaRSEvq8U&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active

i'm definitely voting -- i'd like to get some listening in before i do so, but i'll probably just throw it together the night before the deadline

Just about to read the thread but today I start trying to listening to everything Stevie did before the poll closes (Spotify has 'the complete Stevie!). And omg The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie is fun as hell! Why did I never know this before?

A fair bit of that Complete Stevie is unavailable to US Spotify customers, very frustrating. I had to put on my eyepatch and inflatable parrot and go hunting for it.

xxxp I gave a lot of love to It's A Shame on my ballot

So i'm like 5 albums in, still maybe not seen Stevie hit puberty and dying from the saccarine string arrangements. When will they stop????? Found some cuts that may make my list though. Plus the next record has Uptight on it :D

oh wait one more aaaaaaaaaand then Uptight. fu berry gordy.

Strings mostly survive up to and including Where I'm Coming From, but some fuzz guitar creeps in by that point as well.

i was hoping stevie at the beach wld be surf rock but no, more strings, just lyrics about being lonely by the sea

i guess a ton of people have done more famous covers but this is my favourite discovery so far, 8 albums in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvDRkwYYb6I

lol it may be the first h-d-h song stevie did, no wonder it stood out!

voted!

man he was on a great run until this shitty christmas record in 67

just realized stevie signed to motown in 1961 and has been w/ them ever since -- i wonder if anyone else has been an active recording artist for the same label anywhere near 50 years straight

Good question -- even Bob Dylan had that brief Asylum hiatus.

i'm not even a diehard stevie fan beyond singles and some of the big canonical albums and just looking over his discography i'm kind of getting emotional just thinking about the mind-boggling number of utterly perfect timeless songs this guy has written -- i hope i can pore over this thread for suggestions and do some last minute listening to add more deep cuts to my ballot.

xp All I can think of right now is Miles Davis, and he was with Columbia for "only" 30 years straight.

a good attitude, al.

17 ballots. Wd love to see more.

i was listening to "Creepin'" at Eric's behest upthread and when i let it play through to the next song on the album i found "You Haven't Done Nothin'" much more striking

Just sent mine in...super easy one for me (as opposed to LZ or GBV)

I wish I could vote but I don't know enough Stevie Wonder..

prolly would have placed this in top 5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl7o7eZjLC4

Aargh--I had no idea that was co-written by Stevie Wonder, and I even checked a list of stuff he'd written for other people before sending in my ballot. If Eric wants to slot that in at #5 for me (25 points), pushing everything else down one notch, great. But if it's too late, no problem.

can i just vote on the stuff i know without listening to everything? or would that be unfair

Done.

xpost to clemenza

billstevejim, feel free to vote on whatever you know, but make sure what you know includes the three suggestions i mentioned at the top of the thread, naturally

k sent

ah crap i'm not gonna have time!!!!

i am going to vote tomorrow

Hit 20 ballots thanks to Alfred.

Definitely noticing a few trends, but I'll refrain from saying anything else until poll closes. Which will probably be a day or two later than Oct. 3.

ok, keep us up to date on when the poll closes, i'll probably listening and tweaking my ballot for as long as i can

Good to see the deadline extended for a few days; I was out all weekend on a little family emergency so I didn't have time to prepare a ballot.

ok so i have listened to roughly 25 albums in the past three days. now need to process that into something. *gulp*

I'm going to hold this open for at least another 24 hours beyond deadline.

I've submitted. I was another who'd been disappointed going through the catalogue, but it was finally clicking for me a lot better today. It's mostly about the palette he's using, all those synths and moogs, which was a surprise to me; but often the songwriting can drag a bit - especially some of the longer ballads which seem to take forever without getting anywhere.

It was amazing hitting the early stuff after that, how everything's in such sharp focus - was a bit like trying on all those lenses at the opticians and suddenly getting the right one. I'd've liked more time to explore, but I had to vote tonight. I think I got the important things anyway.

I picked more sixties and eighties stuff than I expected. I better see "Skeletons," "Do I Do" and "Go Home" on a few of your ballots, folks.

Pretty sure my #1 is going to fall outside the top 30 (which, unless balloting picks up over the next day, will probably be the number I settle on for the rollout).

Thirty's enough I think. I did sixty in mine, which was probably a bit too long.

how many have you got so far? i can vote twice if ya want :)

21

bloody hell the plants record is dreck.

21 is good, non? its close to what i got for hiphop albums! (although, vote people, vote!)

I'm just thrown because the GBV poll got something like 50 ballots?

The low number here and the high number there both baffle me.

21'll give you a decent top 30, don't worry about it.

people have terrible taste...?

Where does the pavement/gbv/indie silent majority live the rest of the time? I haven't noticed tons of 90s-lo-fi threads crowding the boards, not that I've been looking out for them or anything.

lol yea wtf

I've nothing against GBV or anything. I'd just hate to think I misread the pulse of ILM poll needs.

Where does the pavement/gbv/indie silent majority live the rest of the time

lurkers

I've noticed it before with various poll results, it's quite odd

voted! sorry it took so long, I'm just super busy these days & not able to listen to music as much as I'd like. Coming up with a top 20 was easy; getting to 30 took a bit more listening but I got it done.

guessing that my high vote for "Part-Time Lover" is gonna be ions in the ether but I love that song like crazy.

With the latest ballot, my #1 slips into the top 30. Much as I want to close balloting and cement those results, I'm going to let them remain open for an extra day.

wow The Woman In Red is piss. Such a fall-off.

I like "Love Light in Flight" a lot.

Sent mine!

"Love Light in Flight" got some points from me.

I have to say that the compilers of the At the Close of a Century box did a great job; almost every post-1976 track you guys mention upthread is on it.

Here's a neglected rocker from the 90's (which i didn't vote for but maybe i should have)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6cZGiyIfXk

oh crap how did you guys get this down to 30?

i have it down to 44 songs...

oh crap how did you guys get this down to 30?

I only had five absolutes; the rest I threw in randomly, as I do in most lists.

voted. and yeah it was just a random 'oh shit i guess i need that' type of thing plus 15 absolute locks.

and my top 15 was a p interchangable list, bar #1.

in the past 4 days i have listened to nothing but stevie and you know what? i'm not sick of it and could quite happily forget any music not made by this dude.

Unless it's "Ebony and Ivory" or something, the actual "most hated" Stevie song among the general populace will make my top 30 ballot, and I sure hope it isn't ILM's most hated.

Just sent in my ballot. For christ's sake, let's at least get within spitting range of the number of ballots in the GBV poll.

wufs i didn't vote for 'called to say ilu' good or bad

I couldn't bring myself to cast a hated vote for ijctsilu, even though it was screaming out for it. I went for something off the classic period that bored me silly. But if I'd remembered Ebony & Ivory I'd've gone for that.

I almost chose "You Are the Sunshine..."

i went for that thing w/ blue

oh man sunshine is awful

guys... That's What Friends Are For

Gonna need a miracle to rival GBV ballot toll by midnight (CST) tonight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE9KT_dU_R8

I meant "Just Called," though childhood nostalgia may have tipped the balance for me. There's much less of an ick factor for stuff I've known since I was 3 years old. I still think it's a great plainspoken love song. There's nothing wrong with "That's What Friends Are For" either, though I didn't really consider that to be a Stevie track even though he completely steals the song just like he did "We Are the World".

Dionne sounds lovely on "That's What Friends Are For."

next you guys are gonna tell me you love "I Guess That's Why They Call it the Blues"

because of the harmonica solo

Actually no

next you guys are gonna tell me you love "I Guess That's Why They Call it the Blues"

It's a great song with or without it!

and you'll find a lot more defenders here of Elton's song than Dionne's, so there's no comparison other than EJ's presence on both.

i grew up w/ songs, talking book and music of my mind as the only stevie records in the house - i don't think i knew ijctsilu existed until i was old enough to know it was shitty

Why are Stevie's other silly love songs OK but "I Just Called" makes people's skin crawl? Because of the tinkly synth and drum machine backdrop? Because people are embarrassed by the lyrical conceit?

I'm not a fan of the "cha-cha-cha" ending.

I like the verses – he sings those tricky elongated melody lines like a pro.

It's entirely the production. I imagine what it would've sounded like played as "Lately" and it's reasonably stunning.

It's entirely the production.

this. It sounds like he hit the "demo" button on a mid-priced Casio keyboard. From a synth pioneer (and hella underrated drummer), the arrangement sounds like a sad joke.

hella underrated drumme

For real. Putting his parts aside for the moment, the feel he gets from the drums is amazing ("Higher Ground," "Superstition")

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M62cHrXWThY&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ul7X5js1vE

so is voting for this closed...?

are results gonna be rolled out soon or do I need to postpone the Producers Poll thing

voting's open until midnight EDT tonight (pushed back 24 hrs from original deadline)

sent in my ballot! while putting it together i was just kind of skipping around his catalog on Spotify and ended up mostly adding a bunch of pre-Talking Book songs that kept sounding great on first listen -- before his 'album artist' peak he sure did know how to get a lot of unadulterated pure joy packed into a 2 and a half minute pop song

I'll close up the polls in a little over two hours. Of course, if one or two ballots slips in while I'm sleeping, I guess how am I to know?

I'll roll out results beginning on Friday. It'll be either 30 or 40 total, but either way I'll break that up over Friday/Monday/Tuesday.

(some dude, I'm not sure I got your ballot)

i sent it to ephender at gmail dot com ::shrugs::

would you do me a favor and try sending it to the same ephender at me dot com?

done...lemme know if that worked

call me (lastminute) Charlie. wonder how many final hour ballots you'll receive? sent to both addresses justincase

Cool, got it now. Thanks. Also got your last minute one, lastminutecharliepaul.

(How to know for sure I got the ballot ... excepting the ones sent to me today, which I'm still working through, I've tabulated all others and replied to those I've received.)

Done and sent to your gmail an hour ago.

I'm at 28 ballots and minutes left on the clock. However, since I can't stay up any longer tonight, I may accept any other ballots that dribble in over the next few hours. It would be nice to reach 30, et al.

Still, #40 right now has exactly 100 points, which makes it a natural cutoff point.

Having received no further ballots during my overnight, "snooze alarm" extension period, I pronounce the polls closed.

All right! Looking forward to the countdown!

Oh man, how did I miss it?

when do the results roll out?

I woulda voted if given another, I dunno.... two months. Life's not given me nearly enough power-listening time lately, and like a lot of people, I feel like I owe Stevie proper attention before I make a ballot. I listen to the big 70s records a fair amount, but I don't actually know titles to a lot of the songs, and the peripheral records are total ciphers to me. So I'm looking forward to the results thread to this, hopefully it'll be as rich as the Beach Boys one in stuff I'd really never listened to before.

I've had no time to do due diligence so I just voted with my heart, knowing the 60s sort of and 70s pretty well. I couldn't not vote. looking forward to hearing people's choices for deep cuts from 80s-90s-00s

I'm pretty busy tomorrow, so I'll plan to start the three-day unveil on Friday, and then wrap on Monday and Tuesday.

honest question - is there a better piece of music than the second half of Super Woman?

Sure – the last minute of "That Girl."

The climax of "Do I Do," the key changes in "Summer Soft," the first two bars of "Superstition."

I like the transition between the halves of "Superwoman" even better than what's on either side.

man i love stevie

I'm conflicted about him.

explain

Just playing.