All-Star Grammy Salute to Stevie Wonder

In the early 1960s, I tuned in to one of the best local DJs, Hy Lit (Hyski O'Rooney McVoutie O'Zoot), and I heard a new song, an instrumental, recorded live, that featured a harmonica being played as I had never heard a harmonica played before. The song ended and Hy Lit informed us, “That’s Little Stevie Wonder.”

For the next 50 years, Stevie and I shared growing up, falling in love, getting married, having children, and life’s many crises.

The times were "Uptight" (but everything was alright). I met a girl at a dance and "I Was Made to Love Her," because "For Once in My Life" I was "Signed Sealed, Delivered," I was hers. She was "My Cherie Amour." She was a "Superwoman" and "I Love Every Little Thing" about her. She became "The Sunshine of My Life." And then Stevie reminded me "All in Love Is Fair" —

But all is changed with time
The future no one can see
The road you leave behind
Ahead lies mystery

But the times they were a changin’ and Stevie helped change them.

This was the ’70s, and there was war and Watergate, disco and disillusionment, the rise of OPEC and the fall of Saigon.

But "Don’t You Worry 'bout a Thing" — Stevie was making music like no one had ever heard. For instance, "Superstition" is about the crazy things that we that believe hurt us, but more, it’s about the music. Here was rock, R&B, big band, jazz, gospel, pop, all rolled up into one dynamite song.

All kinds of love

Stevie wanted to tell the story of not just his world, but the whole world. His songs are about all kinds of people, all kinds of love, all kinds of worlds. Each song is its own story — a particular feeling, a particular time and place, but for Stevie, the particular was a way to sing and make music about universal truths.

"Living for the City" is one of those monumental works that is as true today as the day it was written. It tells the sad story of why we are stuck retelling the story of Ferguson over and over:

I hope you hear inside my voice of sorrow
And that it motivates you to make a better tomorrow
This place is cruel, no where could be much colder
If we don't change, the world will soon be over
Living just enough, stop giving just enough for the city.

But Stevie is no mere social commentator. Stevie was reaching for "Higher Ground."

Genius takes the time in which it is born, masters its vocabulary, and then moves beyond category and the times to bring us something so splendid and real and human that we can only stand back and wonder.

With his Grammy-winning album Songs in the Key of Life, Stevie played the American music catalog — and invented a few new musical worlds along the way. Perhaps his most epic song, "As," summed it all up —

We all know sometimes life’s hates and troubles
Can make you wish you were born in another time and space
But you can bet you life times that and twice its double
That God knew exactly where he wanted you to be placed
So make sure when you say you're in it but not of it
You're not helping to make this earth a place sometimes called Hell
Change your words into truth and then change that truth into love
And maybe our children's grandchildren
And their great-great grandchildren will tell.

Stevie turns truth and love into music that is as entertaining as it is real.

He has made music with all the greats of his time, yet never has lost his own unique voice. And what a voice. Master of many musical instruments, it is little wonder that he is the master of that most human of all instruments, the voice. Take a listen to him soar high above his friends on "That’s What Friends Are For" and "We Are the World."

The winner of 25 Grammys and countless other awards, Stevie Wonder is the American voice of our times. Do yourself a favor, sit down, and listen to this American musical genius — he will change you as he changed me all those years ago.

And that is the greatest sign of his genius — he changes the world he is in.