Stevie Wonder-As

one of the most prolific singer songwriters of the 1970's, in IMHO, Music of My Mind, Innervisions, Fulfillingness First Finale, Talking Book, and Songs In The Key Of Life, one after the other quite a string.

So glad to read that someone here decided to bring up Stevie Wonder. His music sounds great today as it always did in the past. And the remasters are very good. The tag "genius" has been used for others but he is real one. "Music of My Mind," "Innervisions," Songs in the Key of Life," and "Talking Book," all merit a serious listen. His double live disc is also a masterpiece. Never forget that he could and often did play all the instruments on his recordings, plus lead vocal, wrote and produced the songs, and all this as a blind person. Although he doesn't look very good today, it's silly to berate an unsighted person who has overcome his disability to make a significant contribution to the world of music, and society as a whole.

This Elton John commentary about Steve Wonder for Rolling Stone is interesting: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5939219/the_immortals__the_greatest_artists_of_all_time_15_stevie_wonder

Ssw him last night on the Grammys! Stevie Wonder was the best artist of the 70's and certainly one of the musical greats of our times. I just listened to Songs in the Key of Life last week, first time in years and I forgot hopw great this collection of music was and still is!!

In an effort to reconcile Audiofeil's comments with others in a productive and educational way, you can see both Mr Wonder's talent and girth in the PBS special "We Love Ella".

Coincidentally, I was listening to "If its Magic" and "As" last night on my PC based desktop system.

To my ear, those two tracks are so different, but transition from one to the next in a very beautiful and flowing way - the type of magic that you can find throughout that album even after years of listening.

Songs in the Key of Life definitely helped me to become an audiophile and learn to calibrate turntables and speaker placement. Musicquarium is also a classic. The Secret Life of Plants was also interesting, with similarly layered sounds, voices and instruments.

The earlier stuff I also like, but IMO had a grittier and less layered sound, both in terms of music and the quality of the recordings.

My vote is also in the "genius" camp.