Stevie Wonder ~ Living For The City 1973 Soul Purrfection Version

What is the Fourth Of July without a Stevie Wonder song? Happy Independence Day!

Stevie Wonder's music reflected the actual black life experience and "Living For The City" provided the audio for a cinematic scene that you could imagine in your mind. Stevie played every single instrument on the song and produced it himself with the help of two collaborators.

Bob Margouleff along with Malcolm Cecil helped to lend that experience by going out and taking "sonic snapshots" for the song. Taking his tape recorder to the streets of Great Neck, New Jersey, he went around recording the vignettes used in the song, like the bus engine starting up, the cop busting the errant protagonist and then the judge. He actually staged the arrest scene in the park with a real policeman.

The three of them spent the day in the studio recording the vocals. Bob and Malcolm came up with the idea of getting Stevie's voice sound increasingly angry so he sounded like a hardened criminal. They did things like telling Stevie he was out of tune and have him do it again and again. "One of the things he hates the most is when the tape operator stops the tape while Stevie was in the middle of a musical phrase, and he REALLY hates that and made him do it again. Then they got the "feel" they were looking for and with all the repeats, Stevie's voice got hoarse which is what you hear in the last verse. It was a brilliant move and the pair believe that "Living For The City" was one of the best tracks they ever did.

It was the second single issued from his 1973 opus "Innervisions" after the #4 showing of "Higher Ground" and the #8 peak of "Living" with both songs topping the R&B Survey.

I pulled out "Innervisions" this morning and the jazzy R&B sound of the album inspired me to complete this remix and get me out of my slump.

Hoping you enjoy this summer classic from Stevie Wonder...