Indeed You alone know Yourself by Your internal potency O Supreme Person Origin of all Lord of all beings God of Gods Lord of the universe The Supersoul You are the Supreme Primal Objective You are the ultimate resting place of the universe You are inexhaustible and You are the oldest You are the maintainer of the eternal religion, the Personality of Godhead Oh master of the senses Oh Primal Lord O Limitless One God of Gods Refuge of the universe You are the invincible source The cause of all causes You are the knower of everything and all that is knowable You are the supreme refuge above the material modes O limitless form This whole cosmic manifestation is pervaded by You O unbounded power You are the master of limitless might You are all-pervading and thus You are everything Omniscient The ancient The Ruler of the whole world Minuter than the atom The supporter of all Of form inconceivable Effulgent like the Sun and Beyond the darkness There is nothing whatsoever higher than you You are the Sapidity in Water The Light in the Moon and the Sun You are the syllable OM in all the Vedas Sound in ether You are the Virility in men You are the sweet fragrance in earth and the brilliance in fire You are the life in all beings The austerity in the austere You are the eternal seed of all beings The intelligence of the intelligent You are the Splendor of the Splendid You are the Strength of the Strong Guest
Muhammad Abdullahi

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Stevie Wonder Performs at The Rainbow Theatre, London, January 28, 1974. (Photo By Michael Putland/Getty Images).

Stevie Wonder Is ...
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Stevie Wonder performs at the Rainbow Theatre, London, January 28, 1974. (Photo by Michael Putland/Getty Images).

Stevie Wonder is heading out on a short tour that will bring him to Madison Square Garden on November 6, performing his landmark classic album, Songs in the Key of Life, from start to finish.

The album is an emotional juggernaut, an immensely generous gift from the heart of a genius, and a masterpiece by almost any measure. Mr. Wonder set forth to cover the breadth suggested by the album’s title, nothing less than the “key of life.” And if he did not quite hit it all, his aim was true. It was the culmination of a four-album run (astonishingly released in just a 39-month timeframe) of sustained excellence unmatched aside from the Mt. Rushmore of 1960s-1970s giants of popular music—the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and maybe Van Morrison. Over the course of the sprawling record, two full-length LPs and a four-song 7-inch EP, he makes nary a misstep. From the musical compositions, to the lyrics, astonishing performances and sterling production, it has to be counted as one of the greatest records of all time. If simply judged as an album of vocal performances, I can think of none better. Here is one of the greatest singers of the 20th and 21st centuries at the prime of his abilities, commanding our attention for 22 songs spread over three slabs on vinyl.

Retailing for $13.98 in 1976, it was a gargantuan hit record, debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart. It spent 13 weeks at No. 1 and 35 weeks in the Top 10, yielding four Billboard Top 40 singles, two of which went to No. 1. It was the first album released under Mr. Wonder’s staggering new seven-year, $37 million contract with Motown Records.

I was 10 when it came out and after being swept away by the unrelenting groove of the single, “I Wish,” I marched right down to the record store and plopped down my allowance money. It was the first album I bought on my own. I knew Stevie Wonder’s music already from the radio. Funky singles like “Superstition,” “Higher Ground” and “Boogie on Reggae Women” were all big hits. As the oldest kid in my Long Island family, AM radio was my main exposure to music in the early 1970s. I had already amassed a collection of Top 40 singles I had purchased, plus some key LPs and ’60s singles I had inherited from neighbors. But “I Wish,” a song by a 26-year-old man waxing nostalgic for the time when he was the age I was right then, propelled me to commit to my first significant musical investment. I wanted that record like most of my friends coveted a 10-speed bike.

I think if I had been my adult self and bought the record on the basis of the hard R&B heard on “I Wish,” I would be initially let down by how the album opens, enigmatically on a kind of mellow note. As a kid, though, my mind was open. In fact, while I loved those funk-infused singles, I was also a big fan of Stevie’s smooth ballads. “You Are the Sunshine of My Life” and “My Cherie Amour,” also spoke to me. That chorus change of “My Cherie Amour” (“Oh Cherie Amour, pretty little one that I adore…”) in particular buckled my knees.

Here are some of my personal faves, the songs that are the most representative of the album and those I most look forward to hearing performed live:

Love’s in Need of Love Today

Songs in the Key of Life opens with a rich a cappella ensemble of male voices introducing “Love’s in Need of Love Today,” which could be all layered overdubs from Stevie. It’s hard to tell. While the album came with a 24-page booklet with lyrics and liner notes, with an extensive personnel list—and a gratitude page that nods to everyone from Kareem Abdul Jabaar, to David Bowie, on down to Frank Zappa—the credits listing who does what on each song is as haphazard as the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street. Mr. Wonder, though, plays much of the instrumentation on the album himself, including drums, and is surrounded by a core band that forms the backbone of the album. The stellar bass player, Nathan Watts, is a standout among an impressive group, and remains a steady sideman with Mr. Wonder to this day.

You don’t want it to end. It takes you by surprise. You thought the guy was just warming up. He is already out-singing anyone you have ever heard.

Mr. Wonder enters softly, “Good morn or evening friends/Here’s your friendly announcer.” All at once, we get a glimpse of some of the strengths and perhaps one of the few faults in the record. We get the warmth and a bit of the humor that remain themes throughout the record. But we also have a bit of the clumsy syntax that peppers the text of the songs. Stevie is one of those songwriters who will make an end run—at times, more like a flea-flicker double reverse—to complete a rhyme. In that regard, he is less like Cole Porter and more like Bob Dylan and who can complain about that? Like Mr. Dylan, the words are submissive to the master rhythm. So consistently does Mr. Wonder reimagine syllabic accents and leave us hanging on rhymes, that it appears to be by design and has become a lovable trademark of sorts.

The song’s message is simple. The Beatles sang that “all you need is love.” Ten years later, here is a dire warning that love itself is in need of love. In the voice of a broadcast news anchor, it serves as a perfect introduction to the album, which in addition to intimate moments, offers a wide-lens view of the state of the world during the mid-1970s, subject matter as broadly ambitious as the extensive scope of musical styles it contains.

The sonics, the warmth of the track itself, draws you in. You surrender yourself to the overall sound, rich and with a crisp presence. But then you also get all this ear candy put together like Brian Wilson’s layered work for the Beach Boys. It’s a classic headphone record, with perfectly placed percussion and thoughtful overdubs.

The song stays fairly restrained for the bulk of the arrangement. But as with many songs on the album, Mr. Wonder adds an improvised vamp over a repeated chorus ad-libbing with a call-and-response gospel style. His vocal starts to climb up in octaves. The slow-burn arrangement takes on a new layer of excitement, then another. Before you know it, you are completely swept up in it. The trust you showed in Stevie Wonder when you went and plopped down $14 on the LP based on “I Wish” turned out to be well placed.

“Love’s in Need of Love Today” goes on for over seven minutes. And you don’t want it to end. It takes you by surprise. You thought the guy was just warming up. He is already out-singing anyone you have ever heard. Inspired singing. Technically brilliant singing.

Village Ghetto Land

The Beatles are as much an influence on the album as Sly Stone, Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye. And not just in scope and ambition, but musically speaking as well. Indeed, “Sir Duke” sounds like it could have been written by Paul McCartney, and the Hare Krishnas who sing on the song “Pastime Paradise” is an idea out of the George Harrison playbook. “Village Ghetto Land” is a sort of 1970s synth “Eleanor Rigby.”

Herbie Hancock, who played on the song “As,” says he admired Stevie’s “orchestral use of synthesizers … Stevie doesn’t fall into the trap that I do” in trying to duplicate the sounds of acoustic strings. “Stevie lets the synths be what they are, something that’s not acoustic.” These parts, from an ARP synthesizer, sound just enough like strings to let you know the faux minuet vibe is satirical, a tip-toe tour across the typical 1970s American urban ghetto. The lyric was written by Gary Byrd, who spent months on it only to have Wonder call him during the recording with the urgent need for a new verse, which Mr. Byrd provided in about 20 minutes. The song is directed at out-of-touch, and presumably white, fellow citizens who look the other way or even disparage the poor. “Some folks say we should be glad for what we have.’” Meanwhile, families eat dog food while “politicians laugh and drink, drunk to all demands.”

Mr. Wonder takes us off the course set by the first two songs. “Loves in Need of Love Today” contains a warning but is ultimately a hopeful message that we can turn around “the force of evil plans.” The groovy slow funk song, “Have a Talk with God,” offers one source of that hope via devotional faith. “Village Ghetto Land” has a bite, though. It is not a Dylan-esque finger-pointing personal indictment; Mr. Wonder and Mr. Byrd merely offer a realistic litany of what life is like in America’s urban ghettos during a particularly low ebb for the country’s cities. It asks simply, if not naively, “Tell me, would you be happy in Village Ghetto Land?”

Sir Duke

The track that leads into “Sir Duke,” the fusion workout “Contusion,” was about the new direction jazz was taking in the 1970s. “Sir Duke,” though, is a direct tribute to the “pioneers that time will not allow us to forget.” Mr. Wonder had started the album around the time of Duke Ellington’s 1974 death. The song was the second single off the album and a second No. 1 smash.

A blast of brass opens the song with the riff that serves as the first of three main hooks. As a pop-jazz number, it reaches back to the early days of the big band era, with a jaunty 1930s-era hot jazz rhythm, something along the lines of “Diminuendo in Blue,” rather than the sexy languid swing heard on, say, “Jeep’s Blues,” both of which can be heard on Ellington’s big comeback record, Live at Newport 1956. The throwback vibe and the soaring melody of the chorus line “you can feel it all over” (the second hook) has Paul “Your Mother Should Know” McCartney written all over it. But the third hook of the song, which comes with the breakdown and syncopated bass, brass, keyboard and guitar lines also tips to the modern influence Earth, Wind & Fire was having on Mr. Wonder. At the time of the recording, that band was reaching its zenith with effervescent horn-driven pop-flavored R&B recordings like this one. “Sir Duke” is a remarkable ensemble arrangement, which makes it even more astounding to notice how Nathan Watts stands out with a staggering bass part. If you think you’ve heard the song enough, try listening one more time with your headphones while concentrating on the bass.

We also get more than a small bit of Stevie’s color-blind philosophy. This is not some pedantic lesson in the significance of African-Americans’ contributions to American music meant to induce guilt (as maybe “Village Ghetto Land” is); it is a celebration of all—white, jewish, black, male and female—who have helped build that quintessentially American art form of jazz.

I Wish

Eric Clapton said in 1974 that Stevie Wonder is “the greatest drummer of our time.” As music journalist Eric Sandler rightly points out, this was “hefty praise coming from a man who played with Ginger Baker.” A true musical prodigy, Stevie had become proficient on drums, piano and harmonica by the age of 9. By his late teens, he was not only a pop star himself, but he was writing and producing for others, including “It’s a Shame” for the Spinners, on which he plays the delicious drum groove himself. (Here is the backing track without vocals.)

“I Wish” is unmistakably a Stevie Wonder drum pattern. Aside from having an innate sense of groove, there is a musical inventiveness that might stem from being a well-rounded multi-instrumentalist, as opposed to someone who strictly defines themselves as a drummer. There is a consistent thread that runs from that Spinners track, through “Superstition,” and can be heard yet again on “I Wish”; a trademark Wonder bouncy beat. It has something to do with the way Mr. Wonder works the hi-hat cymbals. On “I Wish,” for example, notice how on the doo-wop-influenced post-chorus breakdown, he opens and closes the hi-hat in a wholly unexpected and unorthodox way, creating a rhythmic hook under the actual melodic hook. And that hi-hat gloss is there right from the top of the track. While the kick and snare drum beat asserts itself as the backbone of the track, the flossy triplets and accents he plays on the hi-hat, so prominent in the mix, is the excited heartbeat that makes our own pulses race.

Which brings us to that groove, one of the most famous in funk. As a musical colloquialism, “groove” is hard to define but we know it when we hear it. A groove is achieved when a drummer lays back in a rhythmic pocket and keeps the band from letting excitement mess with the tempo that was set at the top of the track. It provides a comfortable and predictable spot for the ensemble, knowing they can lean into the beat, or back away from it as musical choice, as in the jazz-coined term, “swing.”

On “I Wish,” as demonstrated in the Classic Albums documentary about the album, Stevie started the recording on the Fender Rhodes electric piano, which is the instrument on which he started almost all the songs on the album. His left hand played the continuous walking bass line, which was later doubled and embellished with growling slides by bass guitarist Nathan Watts. Then Mr. Wonder went in and laid down that drum track, followed shortly by what sounds like pizzicato chicken-scratching guitar parts, which are actually two competing synth parts playing countermelodies.

It’s an infectious, badass track that’s made even badder by a hard-hitting brass attack. Mr. Wonder spins a nostalgic lyric that’s at once witty and poignant. Can we still laugh at a line like “Trying your best to bring the water to your eyes/Thinking it might stop her from whooping your behind/I wish those days could come back once more/Why did those days ever have to go?” If not, we can still smile at the famous “Smoking cigarettes and writing something nasty on the wall,” followed by Mr. Wonder’s own sister, Renee Hardaway’s admonishing answer “You nasty boy!” And many of us recall the same reply we made to younger siblings who claimed they were going to tell on us: “Just don’t tell I’ll give you anything you want in this whole wide world.”

Mr. Wonder recorded the song the day after a Motown picnic. The label and studio served as a sort of middle school and high school for the boy genius, which might partially explain the wistful look back at his childhood.

Pastime Paradise

Mr. Wonder built this track up from a prototype polyphonic (ability to play multiple keys/notes simultaneously) Yamaha synthesizer, which he dubbed “the Dream Machine.” Gary Olazabal, who was one of the main engineers on the record told SoundonSound.com that Mr. Wonder was interested in using equipment that nobody else had. “Stevie’s still trying to get the next new thing,” he says. “He’s just like a kid that way.”

It is important to understand that this was still the very early days of synthesizers. Analog synthesizer sounds, pioneered by the Moog company, were first starting to be heard on popular records around the time of the Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun.” But the technology that enabled fairly reasonable facsimiles of acoustic sounds like strings was still in its nascent stage. Digital technology would revolutionize it even further, but that was years away. With tracks like “Pastime Paradise,” Mr. Wonder was blowing our minds as we strapped on Radio Shack headphones in our parents’ living rooms in the same way the Beatles did a decade earlier for slightly older music fans.

It is easy to take a track like “Pastime Paradise” for granted now, when any kid with Garage Band can quickly dial up a wide variety of sonic textures. And yet rapper Coolio lifted the whole track as a sample to form his own variation of the song with the hit “Gangsta’s Paradise” in 1995, long after the digital tools were available to easily create new sounds. In 1975, to even achieve something as simple as the reverse gong sound that opens the track meant cueing up a reel of tape, turning it over, and meticulously locating just the right spot—just as Mr. Wonder starts to sing the first line—to drop the sound into what would make up the final master. A few years later, the same trick would literally be a push of a button.

In the Classic Albums documentary, Mr. Wonder points to “the whole Earth, Wind & Fire groove that was happening back then,” as an influence. He illustrates it by tapping out a rhythm that sounds like the band’s “Can’t Hide Love” from 1975, the year Mr. Wonder was in the thick of recording the album. The tension of the “Pastime Paradise,” ratcheted up by Afro-Cuban percussion and Hare Krishna bells, reaches an apotheosis when a chanting Krishna chorus, literally brought in off the streets, meshes with a gospel choir singing “We Shall Overcome.”

The title is a play on words about being trapped in false nostalgia and not facing the harsh realities of the present. While one might reasonably ask if that is not what Mr. Wonder himself does with “I Wish” and “Sir Duke” from the same album—after all, wasn’t he “living in some pastime paradise” in the amber of nostalgia, where even “whoopin’ [his] behind” was recalled wistfully?—it is a matter of application.

Sure, we all enjoy looking back. But a few years before the election of President Ronald “It’s Morning Again in America” Reagan, “Pasttime Paradise” warns of political manipulation of such sentimentality. “Glorifying days long gone behind/They’ve been wasting most their days in remembrance of ignorance…” While Southerners looking fondly back at the time of segregation are one target here, Mr. Wonder also takes a swipe at those who are so faithful that they accept living in poor conditions with some future promise of salvation.

Though the song takes on some hefty subjects in its lyric, Mr. Wonder gets a bit bogged down in the litany of “-tion” words, as Bono would a decade later. “I remember, when he was writing that song in the studio, he was struggling to come up with all of those ‘-tion’ words like ‘dissipation,’ ‘segregation,’ ‘exploitation,’ ” engineer Mr. Olazabal said. “He was trying to come up with enough of those lyrics that would actually mean something and make sense.”

Ordinary Pain

The next song, “Summer Soft,” serves as a breezy antidote to “Pastime Paradise” and the light mood continues into the next song of the album, “Ordinary Pain.” But it is a short-lived respite. This Al Green-flavored song starts with the voice of Stevie-as-naif, continuing the “Songs of Innocence” thread of the album, which can be divided along the lines of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience. The melancholy tune that forms the first part of the two-part “Ordinary Pain” suite is not without its humor. The truly Wonderously phrased “Tell her you’re glad/It’s over in fact/Can she take with her the pain she brought back” is perhaps his most gymnastic maneuver to finish a rhyme.

Students React Angrily To The Photo Of Women Protesting Against ASUU Strike

In Line With The Current Protest Going Round The Country That SARS Unit In The Nigerian Police Force Be Dissolved, It Has Also Rai...
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Students React Angrily To The Photo Of Women Protesting Against ASUU Strike
~0.9 mins read
In line with the current protest going round the country that SARS unit in the Nigerian Police Force be dissolved, it has also raised other issues at hand in the country which many have been quiet on, and that's the ASUU strike.

Recall that the Academic Staff Union of Universities have been on Strike since March this year and despite the government asking that schools resume on 12th of October, as some state universities have also reopened too, the Federal universities in the country still can't open because of the ongoing strike.

While many Nigerians have been on protest both online and off for SARS to be dissolved, another photo was shared on one Unizik Aspirants Group on Facebook where some women were seen with placards protesting that the ASUU strike be called off so their children can go back to school, as their educational system is at stake.

Going through the reaction box, I discovered that many of the students have already given up hope of resuming school this year as they are even angry the protest went on in the first instance. Many were asking if they begged them (the women) to go for the protest as it's obvious they're already engaged in other things that are quite productive to them.

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