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

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.