#100 the week of March 12, 1988
What was #1? “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley in the first of two consecutive weeks.
Following the tepid response to Taylor Swift’s The Life Of A Showgirl, a friend and I were trying to think of musicians who remained at the top of their game almost 20 years into their career. After some thought, we eventually hit upon Stevie Wonder. Stevland Hardaway Morris’ career began in 1961 when he signed to Motown at the age of 11 as Little Stevie Wonder, and was still going strong through his 20th studio record, 1985’s In Square Circle, which produced his last Hot 100 #1, “Part-Time Lover.”
It was Wonder’s follow up record Characters that marked the true end of his imperial phase. Characters was met with muted praise and was his first record since 1972’s Music of My Mind not to break the top ten on Billboard’s album chart, petering out at #17. The singles weren’t hot either. Lead single “Skeletons” peaked at #19, “You Will Know” stalled at #77.” Even “Get It,” a funky duet with Bad era Michael Jackson slumped at #80. If the two princes of Motown can’t sell a track, what hope is there for the rest of us?
And so, after a run unlike any other, at the age of 37 Stevie Wonder entered into legacy status. Two years later, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In the nearly four decades since, he’s remained a cultural icon, a welcome TV guest star, and a live performer who still plays to sells out crowds, but he’s only released three studio albums. I’ve never been keen on his post Hotter Than July (1980) work, even though The Woman In Red (1984) produced his best selling single, “I Just Called to Say I Love You,” so I like to joke that like Jesus Christ, Stevie Wonder performed all of his miracles before he turned 33.
Now, that sacrilegious comparison might seem out of pocket, except on “You Will Know,” Wonder literally plays God. The song’s first verse tells the story of an addict; its second is about a single parent. Both verses are told in third person and end with the protagonist praying to heaven for an answer to their struggles. The chorus is a direct message from God (sung in first person), saying they’ll know the solution to their problem when it arrives, “every life has a reason/For I made it so.”
There are a few good songs about God as an individual (Tori Amos’ “God” is probably the best one) and may bad ones (Bette Midler’s “From A Distance,” Joan Osborne’s “One Of Us”), and this one is definitely on the bad side of the scales. Wonder’s God* offers empty platitudes on loop. Fully the entire back half of this five minute song is the chorus repeated without variation or even an instrumental break. With just two verses, this repetition makes the song feel half-finished, like Wonder was going to add another verse, or a bridge but was beset by writer’s block.
*As the old joke goes, if God is love and love is blind, than God is blind; and as Stevie Wonder is blind, does that make Stevie Wonder God?
Wonder has touched on similar themes before in his career, primarily on Songs in the Key of Life album opener “Love’s in Need of Love Today.” That lightly funky, gospel influenced track also repeats the chorus for almost the whole length of the song, so what makes that song a classic and “You Will Know” a snoozer. For one thing, the musical arrangement is simply more interesting and Wonder varies the arrangement, choosing different phrasings and even scatting at times. On “You Will Know,” Wonder’s repetition is rote.
There’s also the perspective shift, on “Love’s” Wonder still casts himself as one of us, pondering humanity’s connection to elements of the Divine. On another Key Of Life track, “Have A Talk With God” Wonder advised “But every problem has an answer, and if yours you cannot find/You should talk it over to Him/He'll give you peace of mind.” On “You Will Know,” all the Almighty can offer is that “Problems have solution/Trust and I will show.” When once he said God will show you the way, when Wonder plays God, all he can offer is vagaries and no actual assistance to the desperate protagonists of his verses. This is my own non-belief speaking, but it feels like Wonder accidentally wrote a song condemning an absent and indifferent God who asks for devotion and gives nothing in return.
Either way, it’s not a good song; and a reminder that despite his divine talents, even Stevie Wonder is not omnipotent.