6 STORIES
1972 · 70S
SAGINAW, USA
In 1972, a 22-year-old Stevie Wonder wrestled control of his career from Motown, plugged a brand-new Hohner Clavinet into a fuzz pedal, and …
1973 · 70S
"Higher Ground" is a funk song about reincarnation and getting another chance at life. Stevie Wonder wrote it in a few hours, and a few mont…
1973 · 70S
NEW YORK CITY, USA
Behind a funky groove, "Living for the City" is a seven-minute short film for the ears: it follows a Black family's hard-won dignity in Miss…
1976 · 70S
Beneath one of the funkiest grooves ever recorded is a grown man confessing that he misses being a naughty kid: the scoldings, the petty cri…
1976 · 70S
The song couples sway to at weddings is not a love song to a woman at all. It is a father's giddy announcement about his newborn daughter, A…
1976 · 70S
"Sir Duke" sounds like a pure party record, but it is really a thank-you letter from one generation of Black American genius to another: a e…