Where I'm Coming From
Where I'm Coming From | ||||
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Studio album by Stevie Wonder | ||||
Released | April 9, 1971 | |||
Recorded | July 1970–February 1971 | |||
Studio | Hitsville U.S.A., Detroit | |||
Genre | Soul, pop, funk | |||
Length | 34:46 | |||
Label | Tamla | |||
Producer | Stevie Wonder | |||
Stevie Wonder chronology | ||||
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Singles from Where I'm Coming From | ||||
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Where I'm Coming From is the 13th studio album by Stevie Wonder. The album was released by Motown Records on April 9, 1971 and peaked on the Billboard Pop Albums at #62, and on the Billboard R&B Albums Chart at #7. All nine songs were written by Wonder and Motown singer-songwriter Syreeta Wright, his first wife. It was the last album produced under his first contract with Motown Records. Including live albums, this is Stevie Wonder's fifteenth album overall, and thirteenth studio album.[2]
History
Motown's founder Berry Gordy had maintained tight control over his company's productions, but as the artists' careers progressed, they began to feel the need for the allowance of social consciousness and artistic freedom in their recordings. Stevie Wonder was one of the Motown artists, along with Marvin Gaye, who wanted to expand with new styles and musical techniques, some of which became more apparent in the earlier album For Once In My Life.
Although Wonder had begun producing his own recordings, Motown still retained control over the content of his albums. Tensions increased as Wonder approached his twenty-first birthday; his contract had a clause which allowed Wonder to void it upon becoming a legal adult. When the president of Motown approached Wonder about renegotiating his contract, Wonder refused and asked for his contract to be voided.
Anticipating this event, Wonder took advantage of the fact that Motown would be forced to accept whatever he gave to them, and was able to produce Where I'm Coming From without any outside interference from the company. In particular, the song "I Wanna Talk To You"--which portrayed a racially-charged dialog between a black man and an old southern white man (Wonder portrayed both characters)--is also a covert reference to his breakaway from Gordy and Motown (particularly apparent in the ad-libbed line "I'm gonna take my share...!").
Where I'm Coming From, which departed drastically from the Motown Sound employed in previous Stevie Wonder albums, yielded the U.S. number-eight hit single, "If You Really Love Me." The soft ballad "Never Dreamed You'd Leave In Summer" (a predecessor to the later recording "Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You?)") was also successful. Much of the rest of the album was social commentary and war-themed songs.
The album foreshadows Wonder's "classic period" albums with its production approach and range of material.[3] Wonder further developed the use of the Hohner clavinet that was to be fully explored on the classic period albums.[4][5][6] Like Wonder's earlier albums, several tracks on Where I'm Coming From use Motown studio musicians the Funk Brothers, and also make use of string orchestras. This is also the first Stevie Wonder album to feature Wonder playing synth bass on the majority of its tracks – the two exceptions being "Think Of Me As Your Soldier" and "Take Up A Course In Happiness," which feature electric bass.
Reception
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [7] |
Christgau's Record Guide | B+[8] |
PopMatters | (favorable)[9] |
Rolling Stone | (unfavorable)[10] |
Rolling Stone | [11] |
Virgin Encyclopedia | [12] |
Yahoo! Music | (favorable)[13] |
Released at around the same time as Marvin Gaye's What's Going On album, with similar ambitions and themes, they have been compared; in a contemporary review by Vince Aletti in Rolling Stone, Gaye's album was seen as successful, while Wonder's album was seen as failing due to "self-indulgent and cluttered" production, "undistinguished" and "pretentious" lyrics, and an overall lack of unity and flow.[2]
Track listing
All songs written by Stevie Wonder and Syreeta Wright.
Arranged by David Van DePitte, Jerry Long, Paul Riser and Stevie Wonder. One version of the original record label listed the final song as "Sunshine In Their Eyes/Everything Is Happenin'".[14]
- Side one
- "Look Around" – 2:45
- "Do Yourself a Favor" – 6:10
- "Think of Me as Your Soldier" – 3:37
- "Something Out of the Blue" – 2:59
- "If You Really Love Me" – 3:00
- Side two
- "I Wanna Talk to You" – 5:18
- "Take Up a Course in Happiness" – 3:11
- "Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer" – 2:53
- "Sunshine in Their Eyes" – 6:58
References
- ^ "Stevie Wonder - if You Really Love Me".
- ^ a b Vince Aletti (5 August 1971). "review: Where I'm Coming From and What's Going On". Rolling Stone.
- ^ John Bush. "Review by John Bush". AllMusic.
- ^ Bogdanov, Vladimir; Woodstra, Chris; Erlewine, Stephen Thomas (2001). All music guide: the definitive guide to popular music (4 ed.). Hal Leonard Corporation. pp. 447–448. ISBN 0-87930-627-0.
- ^ Cramer, Alfred William (2009). Musicians and composers of the 20th century. Vol. 5. Salem Press. p. 1645. ISBN 978-1-58765-517-3.
- ^ Brown, Jeremy K. (2010). Stevie Wonder: Musician. Black Americans of Achievement. Infobase Publishing. p. 57. ISBN 978-1-60413-685-2.
- ^ Allmusic review
- ^ Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: W". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 089919026X. Retrieved March 9, 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.
- ^ PopMatters review
- ^ Rolling Stone review
- ^ Rolling Stone review
- ^ "Virgin Encyclopedia review". Archived from the original on 2011-04-29. Retrieved 2009-06-18.
- ^ Yahoo! Music review
- ^ "Vinyl Album: Stevie Wonder - Where I'm Coming from (1971)".
- Swenson, John. Stevie Wonder. Harper & Row, 1986. ISBN 0-06-097067-7.
- v
- t
- e
- The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie
- Tribute to Uncle Ray
- With a Song in My Heart
- Stevie at the Beach
- Up-Tight
- Down to Earth
- I Was Made to Love Her
- Someday at Christmas
- Eivets Rednow
- For Once in My Life
- My Cherie Amour
- Signed, Sealed & Delivered
- Where I'm Coming From
- Music of My Mind
- Talking Book
- Innervisions
- Fulfillingness' First Finale
- Songs in the Key of Life
- Hotter than July
- In Square Circle
- Characters
- Conversation Peace
- A Time to Love
- Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius
- Stevie Wonder Live
- Live at the Talk of the Town
- Natural Wonder
- Stevie Wonder's Journey Through "The Secret Life of Plants"
- The Woman in Red
- The Last Dragon
- Jungle Fever
- Looking Back
- Stevie Wonder's Original Musiquarium I
- Song Review: A Greatest Hits Collection
- At the Close of a Century
- The Definitive Collection
- The Complete Stevie Wonder
- "Fingertips"
- "Hey Harmonica Man"
- "Uptight (Everything's Alright)"
- "With a Child's Heart"
- "Blowin' in the Wind"
- "A Place in the Sun"
- "Someday at Christmas"
- "Hey Love"
- "I Was Made to Love Her"
- "I'm Wondering"
- "Shoo-Be-Doo-Be-Doo-Da-Day"
- "You Met Your Match"
- "Alfie"
- "For Once in My Life"
- "I Don't Know Why"
- "My Cherie Amour"
- "Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday"
- "Never Had a Dream Come True"
- "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours"
- "Heaven Help Us All"
- "We Can Work It Out"
- "Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer"
- "If You Really Love Me"
- "What Christmas Means to Me"
- "Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You)"
- "Superstition"
- "You Are the Sunshine of My Life"
- "Higher Ground"
- "Living for the City"
- "Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing"
- "He's Misstra Know-It-All"
- "You Haven't Done Nothin'"
- "Boogie On Reggae Woman"
- "I Wish"
- "Sir Duke"
- "Another Star"
- "As"
- "Pops, We Love You (A Tribute to Father)"
- "Send One Your Love"
- "Master Blaster (Jammin')"
- "I Ain't Gonna Stand for It"
- "Lately"
- "Happy Birthday"
- "That Girl"
- "Ebony and Ivory"
- "Do I Do"
- "Ribbon in the Sky"
- "Front Line"
- "I Just Called to Say I Love You"
- "Love Light in Flight"
- "Part-Time Lover"
- "That's What Friends Are For"
- "Go Home"
- "Overjoyed"
- "Stranger on the Shore of Love"
- "Skeletons"
- "You Will Know"
- "Get It"
- "Gotta Have You"
- "For Your Love"
- "So What the Fuss"
- "From the Bottom of My Heart"
- "All About the Love Again"
- "Faith"
- "Can't Put It in the Hands of Fate"
- "My Love"
- "How Come, How Long"
- "California Roll"
- "You and I (We Can Conquer the World)"
- "I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)"
- "Golden Lady"
- "All in Love Is Fair"
- "They Won't Go When I Go"
- "Love's in Need of Love Today"
- "Knocks Me Off My Feet"
- "Pastime Paradise"
- "Isn't She Lovely"
- "Black Man"
- "We Are the World"
- "Just Good Friends"
- "Seasons of Love"
- "True to Your Heart"
- "Stop Trying to Be God"
- "It's a Shame"
- "Tears of a Clown"
- "Tell Me Something Good"
- "Uptown Festival"
- "Let's Get Serious"
- "You're Supposed to Keep Your Love for Me"
- Category