Instruments, mixing and mastering techniques, choices of arrangement and chord progressions etc. (ex. the dryness of drums, lack of reverb, think he used an electro voice for a lot of tracks)

Besides the Upper echelon cast of the album, what really gets you that sound? Ordinary pain, Saturn, As , etc.

 

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About 10 years ago, I had the unmitigated gall, the chutzpah, the nerve, the cajones to slap a reverb on the entire Songs In The Key Of Life album because it's too dry. I'd done the same thing with a 65's Vegh Quartet recording of the complete Beethoven string quartets as well as a few blues recordings from the 50's, 60's and 70's. They're now much more pleasing to my ears. Not exactly what their producers wanted, but I enjoy them better this way.

 

THE CHUTZPAH hahahaha. Thats such a cool thing to do actually

 

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Difficult to put much of anything musically in the class of Songs In The Key Of Life. An old friend was actually in the control room of the studio where parts of it were recorded. He often refers to images of a musical Einstein at work. I see between little to nothing of musicians nowadays that have the training or the musical grit to come up with what Stevie Wonder did at that point in his life. His craftsmanship was a once-in-a-generation sort of thing.

The lack of glossiness, smearing the tracks with reverb and such, would have been out of sync with the times in which "Songs" was made. The '70's in the U.S. were very lean times, burnt out cities, people picking up the pieces of the '60's attempting to figure out what was next, mixed with a good deal of violence and economic strife. It was appropriate for that era to keep the music sounding spare and rough, it fit the time period. It was also when rap/hip hop was coming into play and that genre also kept sound refinements quite spare back then. Let it serve as a reminder that great music doesn't necessarily require a hard drive full of vst's

 

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I'd agree Sir Duke is as dry as sandpaper, bu the whole album?

 

They had Stevie Wonder play live at the Global Citizen concert a year/2 ago or whatever... But he was not the headliner/last act of the show; it was Pharrell Williams. So Pharrell watched Stevie play his set, and he was next. Watching Stevie Wonder play live made him forget the words to his own song. I'm pretty sure the was the end of the concert, as it should have been. There was no following him up.

 

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He's so incredible live , its insane. Who do you think is in the league of Stevie ( if anyone )?

 

Wow, that is a good one. Well, Stevie and Herbie Hancock got me into playing synthesizers via their music as a kid. So, Herbie Hancock is about the only piano/keyboard playing musician that I would name within the same sentence as Stevie Wonder. These guys are just one of a kind legendary. They may have even played better than Ray Manzarek (the doors). Same age group.

But they were born about 10 years apart; so if that's not exactly a generation, it is damn close.

 

Herbie is a much better player than Stevie. But he can't sing and though he's a good jazz composer he can't write timeless songs like Stevie. So imo all around, Stevie wins.

 

Who is in the same league as Stevie? Well, let's see. Stevie is a phenomenal songwriter, pianist, synth programmer, harmonica player, singer, drummer, and producer. I suppose Prince, Paul McCartney and Hunter Hayes comes to mind, but when you think about Stevie playing pop, rock, soul, jazz, reggae, r&b, ambient, gospel, funk, etc, then winning several Grammys and selling millions of albums, he really is in a class by himself.

 

Yeah he has done so much and its all so good . There is this Italian singer named Mina that is similar in how she killed every genre she tried and constantly was innovating ( although didn't play that many instruments). Paul McCartney too...I didn't realize he did disco till the other day .As far as pianists I would have to agree w HH as well. I realllly place him w miles Davis and Wayne shorter in my mind when I think of grouping so that's interesting you think of him w Stevie , although I see what you mean.

 

they are part of a musical mental batch for me, because they were already a little older records than other music in the 80s. Rather than being on a top whatever chart; they would get played by someone like Howard Stern on Z100 z Morning Zoo. ;)

 

Except for solving puzzles Stevie is better at all things mentioned here

 

Stevie had what all the great artistes had back then, something that is missing in most pop music of today - great feel, real instruments and groove.

 

Yep, when I think legends, musical geniuses, I think Paul McCartney and Hunter Hayes. In a recent interview, Brian Wilson said "I used to think Pet Sounds was okay, but then I heard Hunter Hayes! Oh man, I'm nothing. Nobody".

 

I love how he plays the drums:

 

This guy