Stevie Wonder - Live 1969-1970

I like soul/R&B music a lot, especially from back in its 1960s and 1970s heyday. But for whatever reason, it doesn't seem to lend itself to alternative albums as much as some other genres.

One big exception to that though is Stevie Wonder. Unfortunately, I think of all the true musical greats, Wonder has been the stingiest when it comes to allowing the release of archival material, especially considering that it is widely believed that he has hundreds, if not thousands of songs he's written that he's never released.

I really look forward to the day when Wonder's musical archives are opened up. Until then, we mostly have to content ourselves with live material, because he often would perform songs live and then never put them out on album. Plus, just hearing any live music from him at all is a treat, because there's the weird fact that he's only officially released four live albums in his long career, and none of them are very good. One was in 1963, before his career really got started, and one was in 1995, well after his prime years were over. He also put out not one but two live albums in 1970.

Strangely, given Wonder's great musical talent, both of those 1970 albums are poorly regarded, are out of print, and have been largely forgotten. At the time, Motown Records owner Berry Gordy was on some weird kick of trying to turn his stars into cabaret or supper club performers that would do Broadway-type songs for white middle America. Most Motown live albums in the 1960s and early 1970s were ruined because of this. Wonder's two 1970 live albums suffered some from this problem somewhat, where he was obliged to perform hits of the day that didn't really suit him (but suited Gordy's supper club vision), like "Sunny" and "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," and even the "Love Theme to Romeo and Juliet."

That would have been bad enough, but the two albums also suffer from poor performances and sound quality issues. It's well known that Wonder let his recording contract with Motown expire when he turned 21 in mid-1971, and then was able to renegotiate a much better contract with much greater artistic freedom. Perhaps Motown was trying to squeeze the most out of him before potentially losing him by rushing out two live albums based on whatever material they happened to have lying around.

Whatever, the case may be, Wonder could have and should have put out a much better live album in 1970. This is the attempt to make that album. I've only included two songs from his album "Live" and three songs from his other album "Live at the Talk of the Town." The rest are all unreleased and come from TV show performances, because there are no good bootlegs of him that I know of from this year, so that's the only way to get high sound quality.

Speaking of Wonder's hundreds of unreleased songs, even though I had a very limited amount of material to work with to make this album, I was able to find two good songs that he played live in 1970 and were never officially released on any album: "If You Feel" and "On the Outside."

This album is an hour and ten minutes long, which doesn't really fit as a single or double album in that era, but oh well. The first five songs are actually from 1969.

01 Blowin' in the Wind (Stevie Wonder & Glen Campbell)
02 For Once in My Life (Stevie Wonder & Diana Ross)
03 I Don't Know Why (Stevie Wonder)
04 A Place in the Sun - Uptight [Everything's Alright] - Nothing's Too Good for My Baby - It's Not Unusual (Tom Jones & Stevie Wonder)
05 For Once in My Life - Thank You Love - For Once in My Life (Stevie Wonder)
06 Everybody's Talkin' (Stevie Wonder)
07 Sunny (Stevie Wonder)
08 We Can Work It Out (Stevie Wonder)
09 You Met Your Match (Stevie Wonder)
10 If You Feel (Stevie Wonder)
11 On the Outside (Stevie Wonder)
12 Heaven Help Us All (Stevie Wonder)
13 Give Your Love (Stevie Wonder)
14 Bridge Over Troubled Water (Stevie Wonder)
15 I Was Made to Love Her (Stevie Wonder)
16 Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours (Stevie Wonder)
17 Money [That's What I Want] (Stevie Wonder)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15852594/StevieW_1969-1970_LiveAlternte_atse.zip.html

The cover art uses a photo of Wonder performing on the Dick Cavett show in 1970.