IL CAPOLAVORO ASSOLUTO DELLA SOUL-MUSIC
(Le 21 'Canzoni In Chiave Di Vita')
1976: Dopo un periodo estremamente tormentato, in cui Wonder si rinchiuse in sè stesso per trovare la più autentica ispirazione compositiva, pubblicò "Songs In The Key Of Life". È il disco che più caratterizza questo artista, considerato all'unanimità come il suo lavoro più importante, un'autentica pietra miliare non solo del 'Soul' ma più in generale di tutta la musica moderna. Uno dei lavori più corposi e sostanziosi dell'autore: ben 21 pezzi raccolti in due dischi (vol. I e vol. II). Quasi tutte splendide e memorabili canzoni che si susseguono in una varietà sconfinata di tipologie melodiche: ce n'è davvero per tutti i gusti.
Oltre ad essere l'autore di tutti brani, Stevie è impegnato magistralmente alla voce, al keybord-bass, all'armonica a bocca, al piano ed alla batteria (con una tecnica cristallina ed un senso del ritmo tanto spiccato da influenzare una intera generazione di batteristi, che ne faranno un punto di riferimento assoluto).
Il vol. I contiene 12 pezzi, viene aperto dai sette minuti della splendida soul-ballad "Love's In Need Of Love Today". Memorabile ed originale "Village Ghetto Land", dove la voce di Stevie, accompagnata qui da un'armoniosa melodia di soli archi, ci dipinge uno spaccato di vita quotidiana in un ghetto nero di una metropoli americana (da dove Wonder proviene). Il cuore dell'album intero, la parte più rappresentativa e celebre del lavoro è senza dubbio, il binomio "Sir Duke" (dedicata al grande jazzista Duke Ellington)-"I Wish", due pezzi 'Soul' straordinari situati nella parte centrale del vol. I, ricchissimi di meravigliosi fiati e dai ritmi incalzanti e spettacolari. Una delle mie favorite è indubbiamente "Pastime Paradise", atmosfere magiche e misteriose avvolgono un testo splendido che rimprovera chi non riesce a vivere nel presente rifugiandosi nel ricordo dei giorni andati o nell'eterna speranza di giorni futuri migliori, dimenticandosi di vivere il proprio presente. Molto riusciti anche i pezzi che impegnano Stevie al piano, sempre dal vol. I ricordo: "Knocks Me Off My Feet", "Summer Soft" e la conclusiva "Ebony Eyes" una energica e contagiosa dichiarazione d'amore nei confronti delle ragazze nere provenienti dalle 'Ghetto's streets'.
Il vol. II contiene 9 pezzi e viene aperto dal celebre brano, dedicato alla nascita della figlia dell'autore, "Isn't She Lovely". Scontato ma molto efficace slogan anti-razzismo nella bella "Black Man". Come controrisposta alla lenta ballata del vol. I "Village Ghetto Land", qui troviamo la altrettanto riuscita "If It's Magic" stavolta non archi e voce, bensì arpa e voce. Ancora degne di una menzione particolare le meravigliose "As" ed "Another Star". "All Day Sucker" è un pezzo funky molto interessante, un precursore di una corrente della black music che ripercorrerà il nuovo sentiero indicato da queste note approdando sulle spiaggie del Rap. Trattasi di un pezzo che appare subito molto moderno e sembra icredibile oggi che sia stato scritto solamente nel 1976. "Songs In The Key Of Life" contiene anche 2 tracce strumentali: la velocissima "Contusion" nel vol. I e "Easy Goin' Evening (My Mama's Call)" scelta come chiusura del vol. II, una melodia dolce e lenta guidata magistralmente dall'armonica di Stevie.
Questo album come avrete capito è un'opera ricchissima, dalla quale attingerano a pine mani più generazioni di musicisti, non solo come fonte di ispirazione, ma anche per farne cover, rivisitazioni e campionamenti di ogni tipo: "Pastime Paradise" sarà 'rappata' da Coolio in "Gangsta's Paradise" (colonna sonora del film "Pensieri Pericolosi") ed "I Wish" sarà totalmente rovinata da Will Smith che la trasformò in "Wild Wild West" (colonna sonora del film omonimo). Ancora saranno rivisitate da diversi artisti "As", "Another Star" ed altre ancora, ma senza mai neppure sfiorare l'impeccabile risultato delle versioni originali.
Dopo aver lasciato in eredità alla ‘soul music’ questo monumentale lavoro, Wonder non tornerà mai più sui suoi passi, non ripercorrerà mai più i sentieri della ‘musica dell’anima’. Infatti dopo tre anni di silenzio pubblicherà un disco come “The Secret Life Of Plants” 1979, bellissimo ma totalmente fuori da ogni schema e dal passato musicale dell’autore, per poi incidere negli anni ’80 dischi sempre più pop-cantautoriali e sempre meno nella tradizione della black music (con risultati a volte ottimi a volte più deludenti). Mai più infatti vi sarà una globale convergenza di pubblico e totalità della critica nel ritenere un album di Wonder un capolavoro assoluto, dopo le perfette ‘Canzoni In Chiave Di Vita’ .
Elenco tracce testi e samples
03 Village Ghetto Land (03:25)
Would you like to go with me
Down my dead end street
Would you like to come with me
To Village Ghetto Land
See the people lock their doors
While robbers laugh and steal
Beggars watch and eat their meals, from garbage cans
Broken glass is everywhere
It's a bloody scene
Killing plagues the citizens
Unless they own police
Children play with rusted cars
Sores cover their hands
Politicians laugh and drink, drunk to all demands
Families buying dog food now
Starvation roams the streets
Babies die before they're born
Infected by the grief
Now some folks say that we should be
Glad for what we have
Tell me would you be happy in Village Ghetto Land
Village Ghetto Land
05 Sir Duke (03:54)
Music is a world within itself
With a language we all understand
With an equal opportunity
For all to sing, dance and clap their hands
But just because a record has a groove
Don't make it in the groove
But you can tell right away at letter A
When the people start to move
They can feel it all over
They can feel it all over people
They can feel it all over
They can feel it all over people
Music knows it is and always will
Be one of the things that life just won't quit
But here are some of music's pioneers
That time will not allow us to forget
For there's Basie, Miller, Satchmo
And the king of all, Sir Duke
And with a voice like Ella's ringing out
There's no way the band can lose
You can feel it all over
You can feel it all over people
You can feel it all over
You can feel it all over people [Repeat]
Can't you feel it all over
Come on let's feel it all over people
You can feel it all over
Everybody, all over people
06 I Wish (04:12)
Looking back on when I
Was a little nappy headed boy
Then my only worry
Was for Christmas what would be my toy
Even though we sometimes
Would not get a thing
We were happy with the
Joy the day would bring
Sneaking out the back door
To hang out with those hoodlum friends of mine
Greeted at the back door
With "Boy thought I told you not to go outside"
Tryin' your best to bring the
Water to your eyes
Thinkin' it might stop her
From woopin' your behind
I wish those days could come back once more
Why did those days ev-er have to go?
I wish those days could, come back once more
Why did those days ev-er have to go?
Cause I love them so
Doo Do Doo...
Brother says he's tellin'
'Bout you playin' doctor with that girl
Just don't tell, I'll give you
Anything you want in this whole wide world
Mama gives you money for Sunday school
You trade yours for candy after church is through
Smokin' cigarettes and writing something nasty on the wall (you nasty boy)
Teacher sends you to the principal's office down the hall
You grow up and learn that kinda thing ain't right
But while you were doin' it it sure felt outta sight
I wish those days could come back once more
Why did those days ev-er have to go?
I wish those days could come back once more
Why did those days ev-er have to go?
07 Knocks Me Off My Feet (03:36)
I see us in the park
Strolling the summer days of imaginings in my head
And words from our hearts
Told only to the wind felt even without being said
I don't wanna bore you with my trouble
But there's somethin' bout your love
That makes me weak and
Knocks me off my feet
There's somethin' bout your love
That makes me weak and
Knocks me off ... my feet
Knocks me off my feet
I don't wanna bore you with it
Oh but I love you, I love you, I love you
I don't wanna bore you with it
Oh but I love you, I love you, I love you
More and more
We lay beneath the stars
Under a lovers tree that's seen through the eyes of my mind
I reach out for the part
Of me that lives in you that only our two hearts can find
But I don't wanna bore you with my trouble
But there's somethin' bout your love
That makes me weak and
Knocks me off my feet
There's somethin' bout your love
That makes me weak and
Knocks me off ... my feet
Knocks me off my feet
I don't wanna bore you with it
Oh but I love you, I love you, I love you
I don't wanna bore you with it
Oh but I love you, I love you, I love you [Repeat]
08 Pastime Paradise (03:27)
They've been spending most their lives
Living in a pastime paradise
They've been spending most their lives
Living in a pastime paradise
They've been wasting most their time
Glorifying days long gone behind
They've been wasting most their days
In remembrance of ignorance oldest praise
Tell me, who of them will come to be?
How many of them are you and me?
Dissipation
Race Relations
Consolation
Segregation
Dispensation
Isolation
Exploitation
Mutilation
Mutations
Miscreation
Confirmation
To the evils of the world
They've been spending most their lives
Living in a future paradise
They've been spending most their lives
Living in a future paradise
They've been looking in their minds
For the day that sorrows gone from time
They keep telling of the day
When the savior of love will come to stay
Tell me who of them will come to be?
How many of them are you and me?
Proclamation
Of race relations
Consolation
Integretion
Verification
Of Revelations
Acclamation
World Salvation
Vibrations
Stimulation
Confirmation
To the peace of the world
They've been spending most their lives
Living in a pastime paradise
They've been spending most their lives
Living in a pastime paradise
They've been spending most their lives
Living in a future paradise
They've been spending most their lives
Living in a future paradise
We've been spending too much of our lives
Living in a pastime paradise
Let's start living our lives
Living for the future paradise
Praise to our lives
Living for the future paradise
Shame to anyones life
For living in the pastime paradise
10 Ordinary Pain (06:23)
When by the phone
In vain you sit
You very soon in your mind realize that it's not just
An ordinary pain in your heart
When you by chance
Go knock on her door
Walkin' away you're convinced that it's much more
Than just an ordinary pain in your heart
It's more than just
An ordinary pain in your heart
Don't fool yourself
Tell no one else
That it's more than just
An ordinary pain
In your heart
When you catch up
But she says goodbye
Hold back your tears and before you start to cry
Say you feel unnecessary pain in your heart
Tell her you're glad
It's over in fact
Can she take with her the pain she brought you back
Takin' that ordinary pain from your heart
It's more than just
An ordinary pain from your heart
Don't fool yourself
Tell no one else
That it's more than just
An ordinary pain
In your heart, in your heart, in your heart
[Coda]
You're just a masochistic fool
Because you knew my love was cruel
You never listened when they said
Don't let that girl go to your head
But like a play boy you said no
Ordinary pain, ordinary pain
This little girl mind you will blow
Ordinary pain, ordinary pain
But then I blew you out the box
Ordinary pain, ordinary pain
When I put my stuff on key and lock
Ordinary pain, ordinary pain
It makes me feel kind of sick
Ordinary pain, ordinary pain
To know love put you in a trick
Ordinary pain, ordinary pain
I knew our love would have to end
Ordinary pain, ordinary pain
The day I made it with your friend
Ordinary pain, ordinary pain
Giving your love to one unreal
Ordinary pain, ordinary pain
Like a big fool I know you feel
Ordinary pain, ordinary pain
But in this lovie-dovie game
Ordinary pain, ordinary pain
With all it's joy there must be pain
Ordinary pain, ordinary pain
But now the time has surely come
Ordinary pain, ordinary pain
This game don't seem like so much fun
Ordinary pain, ordinary pain
You're crying big crocodile tears
Ordinary pain, ordinary pain
Don't match the ones I've cried for years
Ordinary pain, ordinary pain
When I was home waiting for you
Ordinary pain, ordinary pain
You were out somewhere doing the do
Ordinary pain, ordinary pain
You know I'd really like to stay
Ordinary pain, ordinary pain
But like you did I've go to play
Ordinary pain, ordinary pain
You're dumb to think I'd let you be
Ordinary pain, ordinary pain
Scott free without some pain from me
Ordinary pain, ordinary pain
I heard your song and took a chance
Ordinary pain, ordinary pain
But to your music I can't dance
Ordinary pain, ordinary pain
Go tell your story 'sob-sad'
Ordinary pain, ordinary pain
About you blowin what you had
Ordinary pain, ordinary pain
Since one ain't good enough for you
Ordinary pain, ordinary pain
Then do yourself see how you do
Ordinary pain, ordinary pain
Ordinary pain, ordinary pain [Repeat]
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Altre recensioni
Di Socrates
Le "Canzoni in chiave di vita" ... la "tonalità" della mia esistenza musicale l'hanno cambiata.
Con questo lavoro Wonder conduce la musica soul in una nuova epoca, senza perdere le caratteristiche migliori della "musica dell'anima".
