My friend Larry recently posted to his Facebook wall: "Dusted off the ol' Songs in the Key of Life album today...how can an album be any better?" My answer is that it can't get much better than that.
I think it was Christmas of 1976 when I was given Stevie Wonder's "Songs in the Key of Life" album as a gift. I was eight years old and was laid up in a body cast after having been hit by a car while playing ball in the street with my friends. An eight-year old boy in a body cast tends to receive a lot of gifts but this was my most memorable. Songs in the Key of Life is now considered to be the pinnacle of Stevie's recorded output, but even as an eight-year old kid hearing it for the first time, I knew this album was something special.
Even the packaging was something I'd never seen before: it was a double-album, but when you opened the gatefold you saw an extra 45 inside a pocket that was cut into the inside of the packaging. The album artwork, as I recall, was such that it appeared you were staring down into caverns and the 45 was at the center of it (man, I miss album artwork). There was a lyric booklet included which contained at least one full page (in a tiny font) of names that Stevie listed as influences and people to thank. The lyric booklet was done very artfully using a beautiful font throughout and was a pleasure to read through while listening to the music.
Oh, and the music...the album opened with a choir of voices (which upon closer listening is just Stevie singing all of the voice parts) leading into "Love's in Need of Love Today", a soulful, almost gospel-like plea for peace in the world that set the tone for the rest of the album - I remember being hooked as soon as I heard that song.
"Have a Talk With God" is somewhat preachy but set against a 12-bar blues/funk groove that still makes it cool.
"Village Ghetto Land" - another serious message song about the plight of the ghettos. No instrumentation to speak of except for Stevie's synthesized strings. To this point, the album sounds like it's going to be 4+ sides of "Serious news to pass on to everybody", until...
"Contusion" - Bam! This one hits you right between the eyes. Especially coming off the quiet strings of the previous track, Stevie lets his band throw down in an instrumental fusion masterpiece. Excellent guitar work on this track by Michael Sembello. This leads right into...
"Sir Duke" - probably the most popular track off the album. While this has been overplayed to death it still remains a hook-filled tribute to some of the early heroes of jazz. This track was my personal introduction to the greats mentioned in this song: Basie, Miller, Satchmo, Ella and Duke - and most likely led to my own exploration of jazz over the years.
...and that was all just Side 1!
The rest of the album remains just as strong - there's really not a weak track on the entire collection. Even the extra 45 (included in the package as "A Something's Extra") contains 4 very strong tracks. To say that Stevie was prolific is an understatement - everything about this album, including the lyric booklet, is epic. This album capped a very successfull period in Stevie's musical career - many agree that the 70's was his most creative decade - he just couldn't do wrong with the albums he released during this time. But with Songs in the Key of Life, he hit it out of the park and reached musical heights that few can only dream about.
I don't remember who it was that gave me that album 35 years ago, but it still sticks with me to this day and hasn't lost a bit of its vitality. If you're unfamiliar with this one, I can't recommend it enough.
