Description
Like all double albums, Songs in the Key of Life is imperfect but audacious. If its titular concern life doesnt exactly allow for rigid focus, its still a fiercely inspired collection of songs and one of the definitive soul records of the 1970s. Stevie Wonder was unable to control the springs of his creativity during that decade. Upon turning 21 in 1971, he freed himself from the Motown contract hed been saddled with as a child performer, renegotiated the terms, and unleashed hundreds of songs to tape. Over the next five years, Wonder would amass countless recordings and release his five greatest albums as prolific a golden period as there has ever been in contemporary music. But Songs in the Key of Life is different from the four albums that preceded it; its an overstuffed, overjoyed, maddeningly ambitious encapsulation of all the progress Stevie Wonder had made in that short space of time.
Zeth Lundys book, in keeping with the albums themes, is structured as a life cycle. Its divided into the following sections: Birth; Innocence/Adolescence; Experience/Adulthood; Death; Rebirth. Within this framework, Zeth Lundy covers Stevie Wonders excessive work habits and recording methodology, his reliance on synthesizers, the albums place in the gospel-inspired progression of 1970s RnB, and many other subjects.
Author: Zeth Lundy
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Continuum
Published: 01/15/2007
Series: 33 1/3 #42
Pages: 160
Weight: 0.3lbs
Size: 6.50h x 4.70w x 0.40d
ISBN: 9780826419262
Language: English
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