LIVING
FOR THE CITY
STEVIE
WONDER
SONGWRITER: STEVIE WONDER
COUNTRY: U. S. A.
ALBUM: INNERVISIONS
LABEL: TAMLA
GENRE: SOUL
YEAR: 1973
Stevland Hardaway Morris (born Judkins; born
May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer,
songwriter, musician and record producer. A prominent figure in popular music during the second half of the 20th century, Wonder is one of the most successful songwriters and musicians.
A virtual one-man band,
his use of synthesizers and further electronic musical instruments during
the 1970s reshaped the conventions of R&B.
He also helped drive the genre into the album era,
crafting his LPs as cohesive, consistent socially conscious statements with complex
compositions. Wonder is often hailed as a "genius",
and has been credited as a pioneer and influence to musicians of various genres
including rhythm and blues,
pop,
soul,
gospel,
funk and jazz.
Blind since shortly after his birth, Wonder
was a child prodigy known as Little Stevie Wonder, leading him to sign with Motown's Tamla label at
the age of 11. In 1963, the single "Fingertips"
was a number-one hit on the Billboard
Hot 100 when Wonder was 13, making him the youngest artist ever to top the chart. Wonder's critical success was at its peak in the 1970s. His
"classic period" began in 1972 with the releases of Music of My Mind and Talking Book,
the latter featuring "Superstition",
which is one of the most distinctive and famous examples of the sound of the Hohner Clavinet keyboard. His works Innervisions (1973), Fulfillingness' First Finale (1974)
and Songs in the Key of Life (1976) all won
the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, making
him the tied-record holder for the most Album
of the Year wins, with three. He is also the only artist to
have won the award with three consecutive album releases.
Wonder's "classic period", which
culminated in 1976, was marked by his funky keyboard style, personal control of
production, and use of integrated series of songs to make concept albums.
In 1979, Wonder used Computer Music Inc.'s early music sampler, the Melodian,
on his soundtrack album Stevie Wonder's Journey Through
"The Secret Life of Plants". This
was his first digital recording and one of the earliest popular albums to use the technology, which
Wonder used for all subsequent recordings. The pioneering stylistics of
Wonder's 1970s albums are widely regarded as having influenced the shape of pop
music in the following decade.
Wonder has sold over 100 million records
worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time.
He has won 22 Grammy Awards.
He was the first Motown artist and second African-American musician to win na Academy Award for Best Original Song, for the 1984 film The Woman in Red. Wonder has been inducted
into the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame, and has
received a star on the Hollywood
Walk of Fame. He 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 federal holiday in the United
States. In 2009, he was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace. In
2014, he was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
"Living for the City" is a 1973
single by Stevie Wonder from his Innervisions album. It reached number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 1 on the R&B chart. Rolling Stone ranked the song number 105 on their list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
The song has won two Grammy Awards:
one at the 1974 Grammy Awards for Best Rhythm & Blues Song, and the
second for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance at the 1975 Grammy Awards for Ray
Charles' recording on his album Renaissance.
Wonder played all the instruments on the song
and was assisted by Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff for recording engineering and synthesizer programming. Tenley Williams, writing in Stevie Wonder (2002), feels
it was "one of the first soul hits to include both a political message and ... sampling ... of the
sounds of the streets - voices, buses, traffic, and sirens - mixed with the
music recorded in the studio."
A boy is born in hard
time Mississippi
Surrounded by four walls that ain't so pretty
His parents give him love and affection
To keep him strong moving in the right direction
Living just enough, just enough for the city...ee ha!
His father works some
days for fourteen hours
And you can bet he barely makes a dollar
His mother goes to scrub the floor for many
And you'd best believe she hardly gets a penny
Living just enough, just enough for the city...yeah
His sister's black
but she is sho 'nuff pretty
Her skirt is short but lord her legs are sturdy
To walk to school she's got to get up early
Her clothes are old but never are they dirty
Living just enough, just enough for the city...um hum
Her brother's smart
he's got more sense than many
His patience's long but soon he won't have any
To find a job is like a haystack needle
Cause where he lives they don't use colored people
Living just enough, just enough for the city
Living just enough
For the city, ooh, ooh
His hair is long, his
feet are hard and gritty
He spends his love walking the streets of new york city
He's almost dead from breathing on air pollution
He tried to vote but to him there's no solution
Living just enough, just enough for the city, yeah, yeah, yeah!
I hope you hear inside
my voice of sorrow
And that it motivates you to make a better tomorrow
This place is cruel no where could be much colder
If we don't change the world will soon be over
Living just enough, just enough for the city!
La, la, la, la, la,
la
Da ba da da da da da
da
Da da da da da da
Da ba da da da da da
da da.
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