Original subtitles

When I came up with the title Songs in the Key of Life, to me, that was a

challenge. To actually do an album relating to life, or

saying Songs in the Key of Life, it's impossible to cover all of what life is

about.

As much as Motown wanted to be finished, and to be done, to be released, I

mean, I wanted to finish it as well, but I didn't want to.

finish it as much as I wanted for it to be a representation of how and what I

was feeling at that time.

He took his

life experiences and he put them all into the Songs of Key of Life

and it worked, you know, it worked.

I felt so proud to be on such a landmark record.

I mean, there was nothing like that before.

Nothing. Stevie Wonder did it, number one.

And he was involved in every aspect of creating it, from the producing to

writing and performing and playing.

And also, he deals with it like extended form. You know, it has a unified theme.

It's subliminal, but somehow it's a unified theme.

Would you like to go with me down my dead

end street?

We recorded songs in the key of life in two studios, the Hit Factory in New York

and Crystal Sound here in Los Angeles.

over the two and a half years it took to make the album we used different

musicians and guest singers throughout the period however there was a core

group of musicians that played on most of the songs nathan watts the bass

player is still with me but i've not seen the other musicians for a long long

time over 20 years we've come together again today for this film to re-record

some old songs and to recall some good times with old friends check it out

To the magic colors, red, blue, and white.

Just give the world a light.

How you doing, man? Good to see you.

Good to see you.

Man, I didn't know you were going to be here.

Oh, man, this is incredible.

I'm sorry, I do not speak your language.

I'm really sorry.

I missed my high school reunion, you know, so... This is just as good. This

is it.

Don't worry about it. You have more fun. In fact, I don't think I graduated high

school.

You know why? Because that's when we went on the road.

That's right. I was like 17 when I got with Steve. So it's like, I don't think

I actually graduated. I left before I got my diploma, so I don't even know if

I made it.

Wait a minute.

Oh my God, what a realization.

That's right, I'm in trouble. I'll never be able to get a job without a high

school diploma.

I challenged myself to at least writing as many different things about as many

different things as I could to cover as many topics as I could in dealing with

the title and representing what it was about.

So in one sense, I had already had lots of songs I'd already done, some that

have still yet to be released.

Hee hee hee.

And the title would give me a challenge, but

equally as important as a challenge, it would give me an opportunity

to express my feelings as a songwriter, as an artist,

and as well to be joined by the people that were a part of working with me on

this.

I had met John some years ago when I first came out to California and did

some of my first recordings at the studio that he conned with his

partner at that time, Andrew, which was Crystal.

And I met Gary at Record Plant LA when I was working on a lot of the stuff that

would ultimately become Inner Visions.

I put the two of them together and said, let's try working together and see how

you all work with each other and all the three of us work together and the kind

of hours that i kept gary would work one day john would work another day and then

sometimes it would be the two of them and they would alternate ultimately uh

it was them working with me through the at least the two and a half three years

and finishing up songs to give life

Well, Songs in the Key Life, as Steve mentioned earlier, it was something that

we were definitely too wrapped up in at the time to really be objective about

it. Looking back on it now, I really have to thank Steve for

giving me the opportunity to sort of make whatever musical history

that we didn't.

think was history at the time, but it obviously is a classic to some people.

It has vision.

It has certainly elements that relate to the time period in which it was created.

But the lyrical approach, the musical approach, go beyond the time to the

extent that it's no surprise to us that 2000 is a few years away.

People will still be able to listen to Sgt. Pepper. They'll still be able to

listen to songs in the key of life.

Stevie Wonder.

especially with that record, you know, made a mark

in music, and that is that popular music can be

art too.

this is

One thing that really made it work great was actually something we just kind of

did by chance, and that is I took the reel-to-reel

Stellavox home with me, a portable recording machine, and

I told Yolanda, I said, look, I want us to get some sounds of, you know, just

Aisha, and that's just the interacting between yourself.

Me and in her all of us just you know Obviously Aisha had no sense of what was

going on. She just knew that what?

When I make sounds and that particular sound there is not Aisha, but it's a

baby that The doctors are a doctor that we knew a doctor friend found and we

were able to get the birth of this this child And that is Yolanda there

Laughing

This is when we were at the Regency apartment hotel.

And she's messing with the dresser drawer.

And just being silly.

Just being a baby.

Baby girl.

The one thing that I usually focus on every time I hear it, though, is her.

I'm sorry, but it is. You know, it's just funny to hear them talking about

me. Oh, hear me talking. Yeah.

Especially when she starts laughing, she's like, ah, it sounds like she said,

beat me.

That's my favorite. I hate that part.

That's my favorite.

Beat me.

Beat you?

She says, beat me. You understand why she's saying, why she's saying, beat me?

We never beat our child. We never did. I promise you.

Come on, get out of there.

I mean, I knew it was good, but I couldn't believe the...

success of it i mean it was just big huge um that was a mistake

there by the harmonica i never corrected that

let's

erase that so they'll never hear that again it's like taking asses off huh

take the harmonica just by itself

That's funny, I never heard that. I'll admit to that mistake.

Punch!

72 was Talking Book, 73 was Inner Visions, and 74 was Fulfilling This

First Finale.

And so we were geared up for this album, and instead of it coming in

the same year or the next year, we had a whole other year.

And it's one thing about any record label that when you do your budgets and

you do all of your cash flow projections and all that, and you have an album

coming off of three big albums like that, then you are in a lot of trouble

when it's a year late.

There's songs to make you smile.

There's songs to make you sad.

But with a happy song to sing, it never seemed this bad.

To me came this melody, so I've tried to put in words how I feel.

Tomorrow will be for you and me.

I am singing of

tomorrow.

The year he did Songs in the Key of Life, unfortunately for me,

unfortunately, his contract was up.

Well, Barry and I have always had a very straight to

the point relationship since I was very little.

I would give my opinion about something, and it wasn't always what he wanted to

hear, and vice versa. I mean, there were things that he would say to me that I

wouldn't always want to hear, but he was very honest and very candid about what

he felt, and as too I was.

He made me pay $13 million, and in those days, $13 million was a

lot of money.

A lot of money.

But it took the people with the vision, like Stevie, to know, to

figure out what's an equitable situation.

Because to me, a good businessman is one that understands the dynamics of win

-win. That's what it's all about.

And I'd heard that was the unprecedented deal, and it was the most it's ever been

paid. And it was in 1976, and I was like, but I had to do it because

there was no way.

that I was going to lose Stevie. I didn't pay attention to that part of the

business until I got stranded in Europe in 1959 and 60 and almost committed

suicide. It was the worst. It was a great time, but it was a rough time.

I didn't pay any attention to that before, and I went back and I had to pay

off debts for seven years and on. I think it probably cemented the concept

of the superstar artist who had to be taken seriously.

and i think stevie from some experience figured he had out he had to do it too

and i saw maine's primary example was picasso unbelievable and it boils

down to being in control of your own destiny because it's a terrible feeling

to think that you get to be 70 years old you know you still have to go out and

talk to some 24 year old executive you know to get a gig man so that's not

happening i didn't really think about

how much it was going to cost or, you know, if they had to bring the price

down to make it compatible, you know, for what was happening in

the music industry.

I didn't really think about any of that stuff.

I was shaking in my boots.

Very fortunately, he was brave enough, brave enough to

take the chance, to take that challenge and say, you know what?

I believe in him enough to do this.

And I believe in the gamble.

And you know what? He was a smart man.

I mean, it was like such a masterpiece because you go from Village Ghetto Land

to Sir Duke and to I Wish, which is incredible.

When I heard I Wish...

You know, I thought like so many other people in the world when they heard the

record, I wish I could be back in those days again, you know, because all the

stuff that he talked about there.

And not only did he express it, he did it in a rhythm that was so

unique.

Stinging? Stinging? Yes.

It's already over here. Just look.

It's already over here.

Look by the box.

This is tight.

That sounds really great.

Thanks, John.

Steve picked everybody.

From the beginning, all these cats, Steve individually chose everybody here.

That's what you told us all these other years, man.

Huh?

But I was going to say one thing. I want to mention one person that's not here

with us. The only one that's not here. That's Raymond.

I don't think any recording

took place in the daytime.

after we stayed up all night.

I wish began the evening after a Motown picnic.

I went to Christo and we started on this piano and we started the first track

with keyboards.

After we did the keyboards, I then put a

drum track down.

If it's magic, then why can't it be everlasting?

Like the sun that always shines.

If It's Magic was a song that I wanted to say,

as I did in the lyric, to say all of the things that

you know, the song represents that is really talking about love. I mean,

obviously, it is love.

If love is magic, then why can't it be everlasting?

But I didn't want to say love.

Like on seashores there are shells

Like the time that always tells

It holds the key to every heart throughout the

universe.

It fills you up without a bite,

quenches every thirst.

If it's special, then with it, why aren't we as careful?

The harp player on If It's Magic was Dorothy Ashby.

She was a great harpist. I mean, she had done a lot of stuff, a lot of jazz stuff

around Detroit, but unfortunately never received the kind of

recognition that she deserved, and I just was so very happy that we were able

to find her, and her grace was with accompanying me with such a...

a great ability as she did have in doing, if it's magic.

As much as I did it on various times, I did versions of it with the piano, the

magic happened with her playing the harp and me singing on top of that.

Why can't we make it everlasting?

Like the lifetime of the sun.

Originally, Sir Duke was done on the 16-track.

I think so. And then you all got a new 24-track. Right.

And we transferred it over. The Studer, exactly.

I remember that.

Because I remember trying to... Listen, see which one sounds the same. Does it

sound the same, Stevie?

For that kind of money. Is that the 24-track or the 16-track?

I think that's the 4-track. Yeah.

Who was the impersonating then, do you think?

He was like the man on the tape.

You know that guy?

500 Church.

is a world within itself the language we all understand

but

you

can tell right away let's say when

the people start to move they can feel it all

They can feel it.

and always will be one of the things that life just won't wear.

Hear that song from Menzik's pioneers.

The time we're not at last to forget now.

When there's Mason, Miller, Satchmo, and the King of Monsanto.

And when a voice like God's bringing out, there's no way the band can lose.

You can feel it all.

you can feel

You can feel it all over.

You can feel it all over.

You can feel it.

And Steve Medeo did it.

One day we were in this studio right here, and I think, I don't know what

album it was.

The Alligator.

Steve was being led in this one room right here where we're sitting right

now, and Steve was walking, taking his rest. Someone was leading him in, I

don't know who it was, but Steve Medeo said something, I just laughed at it

about this very day. Steve was about to take a step. Steve, don't step on my pet

alligator. Steve stopped right there.

That was funny.

You know, he's blind.

And you sit there and you wonder, this man can't even see. But he sees

so many more things that people with sight don't see.

It's like he sees things of the soul more than things of the world

of our quote-unquote reality.

So much of what...

What Stevie has is not

through outside training, but through his own studies, through his

own development.

He's a profoundly creative person and a profound human being, too.

And we match those two things together.

A giving person. He's such a giving person, and that's all part of that

whole thing.

I don't know how to explain it or analyze it, but I felt it for a long

time. The whole world felt it.

He studied a lot of things himself and learned a lot.

And also stumbled on a lot of things, perhaps out of ignorance,

because he maybe wasn't so jaded by the

rules that a teacher might... tell us.

The one drawback with education is that they teach you rules, but they don't

teach you that the rules are just guidelines and they can be broken.

And I said, what is that?

I said, what is that?

He said, oh, that's just something I'm working on. I said, what is it, though?

He said, oh, it's a Stevie song. I said, I've never heard that before.

I've never heard this song before. I said, whose is it? I said, whose track

is this?

He said.

I'm just someone working on it. LV had just walked in maybe an hour before I

did.

And I said, it's mine.

I said, I'm what you want for it. It's mine. I want it.

That song really, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it.

I wanted to have that kind of string feel of say an Eleanor Rigby, a Beatles

song, but I wanted to take it to

to dealing with a lyric that would make without question you understand exactly

what we're talking about.

This version of it starts with a gong that comes in and it's

backwards.

That was difficult to do. That entailed turning the tape upside down, figuring

out where you go in.

where you're going to come out and it it takes time to do it but was very

effective and is a result of the gong at the end of the tune that's what gave

steve the idea that we should go put one backwards at the front the other element

that's very important to the song is a yamaha dream machine a large synthesizer

that was polyphonic It allowed Steve to

play many notes at a time instead of the traditional way, which was to layer one

note at a time. A very tedious, long process.

Now he could play big arrangements and it changed the way we could work and

we used it a lot on this album. It was very important to the album.

So many people live...

in a past, whether it be in a time where they've, you know, where for them

segregation was a good thing, a great thing to do, and racism and just

whatever the evils of the world were, they wanted to kind of live and

celebrate those things. And then there's the other group that, you know, spending

most of their lives living in a future paradise, living in a time or living in

the spirit of

the day when people will be one, when all of what has been prophesied becomes

the reality.

So they were looking forward to that.

The other elements in this song that are important are the percussion, and the

percussion is really anchored by these Hare Krishna bells. Steve had the idea

for the song that it would have a universal theme if he put in.

Hare Krishna bells and he arranged to have a group of Hare Krishna devotees

come and play and They're used throughout playing these bells And then

later on they'll come in and they'll start to chant along with that

percussion we have cowbells we have congas that go along

with that we have Hand claps, but I think they're really stick

claps

Rhythmically, I wanted to give it a kind of Latin feel, as it had, with a little

twist of the backbeat thing, you know, kind of influenced by the whole Earth,

Wind & Fire groove that was happening back then.

I had done a few, well, one of the recordings of Past Time Paradise where I

tried putting drums on it, which at that time, I guess you would say, like,

having an orchestra, like, with a Barry White kind of feel, where they're

like...

along with that then we layered vocals which is his lead vocal and

two other vocals that will double him in various parts of the song and then a

third very high vocal that gives an eerie quality to certain parts of the

song here we have the hari krishna's coming in

and then it's going to be followed

by the large choir very large gospel choir so

you get the quality of the hari krishna chant against we shall overcome which

makes it a very haunting song i'm very glad that ultimately i did not keep the

drums on them on the song because it worked really good with the latin feel

and with the bass and the whole thing

There's various counter rhythms.

It's Steve's view of the whole album, which is, you know, people should be

together and take care of each other.

And so in the end is the gong, which is what gave him the

idea to do the reverse gong at the front.

So that's what Gangster's Paradise is. It's not a rap song.

People call it a gothic rap song. They try to come up with all these names for

it. But what it really is, is a new Negro spiritual.

Why are we so blind to see that the ones

we hurt are you and me?

Dissipation.

Race relations.

Constellation, segregation,

dispensation, isolation, exploitation,

mutilation, mutation,

creation,

to the evils of the world.

I've been spending most of my life living in a bedtime paradise.

I've been spending most of my life.

Living in a gangsta's paradise

We all have this dysfunction where we can't sleep anymore.

Because our bodies don't know.

I went to the Betty Ford Center.

I went to the Schick Center.

And I said, look, I got this problem. I seem to want to stay up and record music

all night long. Can you help me?

And I sleep every two or three days.

And essentially, what he did is he turned us all into vampires.

I mean, I'm the only guy that goes to Japan and actually is on the right

schedule.

Saturn.

Saturn. As we say on our planet, right? Saturn.

Just thinking about that whole

thing with Saturn, obviously I was...

I wondered what inspired you to take what I had as the original concept

of going back to Saginaw to write Going Back to Saturn.

What happened with it? How did you do that?

You know, it's like, the way, it's so amazing, Steve. The way that you write,

it's like the song is already written in there. So when I heard, you just have to

chip away at the...

at the rock and find the, because your syllables are like, you kind of channel

this other language, it sort of turns into English, and I just sort of moved

some of the syllables around and the song was like basically written by the

time you gave me the tape because you were saying Saginaw.

And it's the funny thing how when you're sort of driving around in a car or

something or you're not paying attention and you listen to something on tape, you

know, you remember back in the days when we would try to get stuff off of records

and we'd write all the wrong lyrics down, you know, and we'd find out years

later it's something else. Well, I thought you were saying Saturn.

Really? Yeah, it sounded like Saturn for a minute. And Saturn, it basically just

represents a Shangri-La or a perfect kind of place where people are...

realizing their true potential as spiritual beings. I mean, because we are

basically spiritual beings having a human experience.

Speaking of Saturn, speaking of, you know, I was like looking at your hair

here. Yeah, well, you know, you kind of got me in this. Remember, I was probably

the first Italian to have hair braided back in the 70s, because, you know, I

remember I tried to do cornrows like you, and my head bled.

My head swolled up like a big watermelon, and it bled, so...

I said, I have to find my own religion.

So I basically started the Pastafarians, which is the Italian Rastafarians,

because they wouldn't have me in the regular Pastafarians, being that I ain't

from Jamaica. So you see what I did is I started, inside of each one of these

here spindle-like things here is pasta.

See? And we wrap the pasta up here, see? And then over here is our prayer beads.

See? We pray over here on these things here.

How do you communicate with the people from Saturn? This one over here is

Saturn. Take this one here. You just want to say a few words to the people

from Saturn there? Hey!

How you doing? Don't forget, talk in our original tongue.

I'm always intrigued by his orchestral use of synthesizers.

It's always interesting.

He doesn't fall into a certain trap that I often fall into.

I very often try to duplicate acoustic sounds.

on the synthesizer, try to make the strings sound like real strings, or try

to make the brass sound like real brass.

And Stevie lets the synthesizers be what they are,

something that's not acoustic.

Now we had, between John and Gary and myself, we'd come up with a...

assimilated...

string sound to give us the feeling of, you know, an orchestra doing a kind of

a...

And he played this classical arrangement through the phone,

which had just him humming some of the lyrical dimensions to it.

And I said, what is that? He said, it's called Village Ghetto Land.

And I asked him to explain the concept that he had in mind. And he began to

talk about this whole idea of people who were at the bottom and the sort of

dichotomy of people at the top in another world while reality was

occurring all around them.

Would you like to go with me down my dead

end street?

The night I finished the last draft, I went to work on the all-night show.

At 5.20, he called me in the studio and said, I'm ready for the song.

We had not talked in that three-month period.

So I said, I don't have it with me, but it's at home. When I get home, I'll call

you in the studio. It was in Los Angeles.

I called him.

I read him the lyrics. He said, man, that's fantastic.

That's exactly what I wanted. That's it. Give it to my secretary.

So I gave her the lyrics. Now, I'm really excited now.

I hang up the phone, and I'm saying, yes.

The phone rings 15 minutes later, and he says, oh, I forgot to tell you. I added

another verse to the arrangement.

So write the other verse and call me back in 10 minutes. I'm recording it

now.

And it took me three months to get the drafts right. He wants this verse in 10

minutes. I said, okay.

So I got up and I wrote something, you know, thinking that maybe this is in the

flavor of what we're talking about. And he called back. He called back in 10

minutes. He said, you got it? I said, yeah, I read it. He says, that's it. And

pow, there it was.

There was a great lyric written by Gary Bird because I knew what I wanted the

song to say, to kind of not only make Macri of a condition, of a situation,

unfortunately, that still exists in certain parts of the

world, but pretty much so throughout the world.

So as much as the world has gotten smaller because of mass communication,

we still have people starving, living in very bad conditions.

We still have people who do have enough to give, not giving anything at all.

I wonder what would happen to them.

But anyway...

Gary had written a great lyric for the song, Gary Bird, and it really worked

for that emotion and feeling that I wanted to get across.

Families buying dog food now. That was a very distressing line to a lot of

people, families eating dog food, but that's a reality.

I think it's a reality today in ghettos.

Some things haven't changed in 20 years.

But again, I think just the dryness and the intimacy of the piece lends itself

to what Steve is trying to say.

Families buying dog food now, starvation rooms, the street.

Babies die before they're born, infected by the grief. Some people say that we

should be glad for what we have. Tell me, would you be happy in 1996, 7, 8,

9, 2000?

I

like

great songs. I like stuff that is different.

and unique, but also saying something that the public

can relate to on whatever level. And Stevie had a little subculture going

with all of his stuff, as well as the obvious, which makes a great writer,

great producer, great artist.

Everything has that special Stevie Wonder touch to it, you know, that

special beauty, special...

interesting harmonic relationship or a

special funky kind of rhythmic component.

And he's just one of the great geniuses of our time.

And he excelled in every field.

It wasn't just his writing that was creative and mixed, but it was his

producing that was unique, and his sound that was unique, his chord structure

that people are still trying to figure out today.

You know?

We beat this thing.

We kicked it down.

On the ground.

I'm on work, thing. So I said.

It refused.

It's quiet right now, actually.

But once it gets to tape... You turn it off, you work it again, you know what's

going to happen.

I went to the 90s on this particular sound.

This is a simulation of the sound we're going to use from the ARP synthesizer.

You gots to work with what you gots to work with.

We'll work with this. Okay? Cool.

So now that we've done the first part, we're going to do a second part and

after that a third part. Now the reason for us doing this, even though this is a

polyphonic keyboard, we're doing it monophonically so that we have more

control.

I have more control of the individuality of each part.

If I decided to bend a particular note that I didn't decide to bend the first

time, it gives it a...

It's own kind of character.

So this is the second of three.

And after three, we're gonna do another time, which is none.

Okay, here we go.

Go back again. I gotta rest.

I rest.

I rested.

This is the third and final pass.

And if I mess up on this one, I'll kick my own. Ask me no question.

Tell you no lie. Okay.

I put down the arp, which we weren't able to get working

on the actual presentation today, but that was the next thing that I did. We

did three different tracks of the arp.

I did the low part first, then the middle part, and then the high part,

which is the melody that I used.

After doing that Nathan Watts put down his bass part.

I called in the horn players as we had in this demonstration here.

The only difference is on the session we used the late

Ray Maldonado, who played trumpet.

But we are fortunate to have the talents of Larry Giddens.

who actually had played on some of the stuff that we had done later on with

Larry Giddens on this particular presentation.

So we used Trevor Lawrence, Hank Redd, Steve Medea,

and on the record, Ray Maldonado, and on this presentation,

Larry Giddens.

The way it was mixed, the way the horns were so crisp and they had that presence

to it.

I mean, these guys, Steve Medeo, Hank Redd.

Trevor! Where are you Trevor? Come on over here Trevor!

Come on over here!

Talking about I Wish, the sound of that horn section.

These three guys, man, were killing it. Ray Maldonado is gone now, but it was...

It was a wall. It's a really massive sound. Yeah, it was. It was a wall of

sound.

Incredible. Incredible. Hot horn section.

The thing with I Wish, which I found out just recently, I didn't get a credit for

playing drums. Didn't I play drums on I Wish?

Okay, Steve.

That's messed up.

We're sorry.

Stevie is from that old mold.

The old mold of black people that really believe that anybody can

do anything they want to do.

I don't think he's ever felt limited in his life. He always felt that he could

do anything he wanted. See, because he can't see, it gave him an

advantage over a lot of people because color really, really didn't mean shit to

him because he...

Never saw color anyway.

So he had the God-given talent, and he had the structure around him and the

support around him so that he could be himself.

And he was a unique character. Even as a kid, you know, he was full of pranks. He

was doing all kind of stuff. Never felt sorry for himself because he was blind.

You either have that thing or you don't.

I don't know what it is, but he's got it.

You either have it or you don't, and I think that's the divinity first.

It's a person really surrendering to themselves to become a terminal.

That's really what it's all about.

Once you decide you are cause and manifestation, you usually get in

trouble because you're taking God's job away.

We always just say that in the studio, leave the space for God to walk through

the room. Stevie does.

I worked on songs the key of life when I decided even

against the many people that felt it was not a smart idea to release a double

album but there were those that felt you know yeah but it's time they didn't know

where it was gonna go and what we were gonna do and I can't tell you that I

knew exactly what was gonna go either and what was gonna do but I I went on

faith. I believed that God would give me the songs, the music, the ideas, and

so I went out really on faith in believing that there was a lot that

needed to be said, and I knew that there was a lot, you know, I wanted to say.

When he got to Songs and the Key of Life, not only his own evolution as a

creative artist, but the evolution of what was going on from let's say 69, 70,

where Curtis Mayfield begins to do a range of concept albums, and Isaac Hayes

is coming with a concept, and then Marvin Gaye drops What's Going On?

I think those projects are very pivotal to understanding the point at which

Stevie is doing Songs and the Key of Life, that he took the concept idea, the

idea of the concept album, and at that point laid perhaps the most massive

canvas of creativity that had been done at that point.

he also had become a master of how to express those social ideas through music

and how to, in effect, communicate past the kind of human biases that especially

operate in a territory and framework of the United States and to actually reach

past those and to reach people who otherwise might not want to listen to

that kind of message but through his musical genius would not only listen but

would digest it and understand it.

I said to Steve, I said, you know, to a lot of people here that are Buddhists

and they haven't done that, even in practice, and you think we could, you

know, take like 20 minutes to do that.

He said, oh, absolutely.

And he said, as a matter of fact, hey, he spoke to his brother and everybody

said, let's go chant with them, you know. And he made everybody go in and

chant with us.

So we all chanted Nam-myoho-renge-kyo for about maybe 10 minutes.

And then we did this book, but of course only... CB didn't have the Braille book.

But everybody, even the non-Buddhists, sat there while we did the ceremony. It

was just fantastic that they were open enough to do something on the spur of

the moment like that. That's spiritual.

Because a lot of people are not free enough to do that.

For as much as we know and learn is as much as we become liable for

what we do or do not do.

And when I say we, I mean we. I'm talking about me, you, you know, all of

us. We have that responsibility. So I just hope that in the end,

as I said, God, you know, he knows our hearts.

So I hope that he will know my heart, and I hope that I will have done.

enough good to be there in that good place.

He's a great terminal, and I think the higher power appreciates a person

that's willing to become a huge terminal like that, because the cup will be

filled up if you surrender to that.

There are people who have let the problems of today

Lead them to conclude that for them life is not the way.

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.

When you feel your life's too hard,

just go have a talk with God.

And Stevie was always digging and growing right with the technology.

So he, heaven help, leaving Stevie in the room with all those decisions and

all those choices, you know, because he would try every one of them.

We all had the same fever.

I wonder what it would sound like this way and explore it.

Now this sound, as you hear, is...

the, what, the time modulator? Yeah, Marshall Time Modulator.

And this was one of those devices that we were given to experiment with.

You know, when people came up with different things, they would always say,

check this out, Wonders.

No, they would say, you know, to John or to Gary.

They would say to John or Gary, you know.

Let's see how it would work for what you're doing. And so this is one of

those things that we use for Black Men. Now, come on in with that bass, baby.

Now, what have we been on first?

Well, we thought that the Rhodes probably was one of the first things

to come on.

Because that was our standard modus operandi in those days was to start off

with a fender roads.

Most things then go go right to a base and then drums.

How are you going to wait? I think we have to hold. Well, I don't know how

we're going to do this. Okay.

Hey, go.

it'll probably stay in the time modulator thing time modulator yeah

right as soon as you do that okay let's do this again okay

yeah now

if you hear the drums the toms we use the uh neutron sound which is like a

there's a filter that triggered the uh

to opening up the filters, closing the filters up, as you can hear.

If

you

listen very carefully, you'll hear me hit various times the microphones, the

sides of the drums.

You know, I wasn't looking at the drums too well.

And that was part of the sound. That's what made it funky.

I

remember

we worked on this song on the 4th of July in

1976.

We did.

Do you remember that?

I'm not really sure. We worked on this one. We worked on it in 75. I think it

was 76 we worked on it.

So you didn't give us Fourth of July off. Didn't get it off. Boy, that's

unusual.

Barbecue was at the studio.

Yeah.

Remember Calvin and the barbecue pit? Yeah, he could barbecue.

Use the profession.

So, and then we had, did we?

And we did similar things with the synthesizer there.

Do you remember the horn section, Steve?

Yeah, I did like the... Were you inspired by the Fourth of

July? Oh, without question.

You got to give the gift to everybody.

And we've been fortunate enough to be together as a collective at one point in

life to share music, man.

That's the main thing. And Steve gave us all the opportunity to do that together.

You know, because, I mean, everybody here was from somewhere else.

Without Steve, we would have never met.

That's right.

Well, this is exciting for me, because I had been playing on the road with Buddy

Miles and them.

And then the guy asked me, did I want to audition for Steve?

And I was living in a garage at that time.

i lived in garage for two years then i took my change that i had like 80

dollars and uh went down and got up got my horn out of the pawn shop and went to

audition that's when i got wonder love and this is coming right in at what

point what year that was right in the very beginning of coming into 74.

yeah so this is all pretty songs right i came into the audition of it and then

then met nate and then raymond and then yeah i remember when we went to new york

i was 75 and we did ass with this cat here steve said Man, I got this drummer

in New York, man. He's bad, he's bad, he's bad, he's bad.

I said, okay, Steve. Because Randy was playing all the other stuff. I said,

okay, okay, okay, okay.

Okay, yeah, okay, okay. Got there, it was me, Michael, and Herbie was there,

and Greg.

This cat laid such a hell of a thing on the ass. Greg Brown, this boy had a

pocket. I couldn't, I know, I was like, whoa!

Whoa! Whoa!

Whoa!

I was telling them on the way here, when they pick us up from the airport,

playing with you is like, you just, I ain't know, there's very few bass

players I play with that make me sound good. I'm a superstar.

You just, all the information is in your fingers.

So just being on that one tune, just having that one association makes

me feel that I'm so happy I was

at the right time, at the right place, you know, to be, just have one little

part.

that project.

I think the greatest thing that somebody can give you is a time in their life and

you know when you're when you're in it you really I mean you you're so much in

it that you really don't understand almost you don't appreciate the

significance of that time.

So it was just a very special time, and I think it's hard to describe what it's

like to work on something like this.

I just recently started to think about what it meant to work on this, and I

think what it means is that you actually leave something behind.

One of the thousand things I love about Stevie is he knows where the music came

from, so that's why he knows where to go, and is sure-footed when he goes

there, because that's very important is to know what happened before.

And I always respect the young dudes.

Well, Stevie's not as young as 12, but he's still a young dude.

He knew what everybody was doing. He was right into it. He was aware, and I love

him for that. But that's just natural with him.

I felt that John and Gary should have been...

nominated and definitely should have received a Grammy for this album because

they opened up so many different avenues.

To me, it's almost like the

songwriter who can

play keyboards or play guitar or whatever and sing his or her melody.

You still need that person to take whatever you have and to be able to

arrange it to make it get from that place that's inside your head that's on

the guitar or keyboard that you're playing to then if you use other

musicians to be able to create what you want to be captured on paper so that the

other musicians can read it and follow it.

That's equally as important in the case of an engineer to the artist.

If you don't have someone to capture that emotion, to take all that you have

that you're expressing and put that on tape, you know, you're lost.

See, Stevie had a wonderful way of taking his life experiences

and putting them to music and making them

real, raw.

and yet very commercial. Now, that's very hard to do.

And he was saying that I was mumbling the words to I Wish. I said, no, I'm not

mumbling the words. It's just, you know, we haven't enqueued it yet. And he said,

no, you're ridiculous.

And I think I said, I told him that I had lots of different people. I said,

George Benson. He said, well, George Benson, you're ridiculous. George

Benson, you know, he sounds better than you. He's, you know, you're ridiculous.

It really is a place where you wish those days.

would come back. You know, you have those moments where you want to go back

to that period.

And I think he captured it for us and captured it for us in, I just think, a

very special way. Very special, very special, unique way.

I wish, when that came out, that was around the time I first started going to

parties. And we would stand on the wall.

We would stand with our backs on the wall.

And everybody was, you know, we were young, so we used to be kind of scared

to dance, especially with the lights on.

But when I Wish came on, you had to dance.

surely david bring speaking out of the back door to hang out with those who

love to go

outside

I wish those days could come back once more. Why did those days have

to go?

I wish those days could come back once more. Why did those days have

to go? Because I love them so.

Just don't tell her I give you anything you want in this whole wide world.

Mama gives you money for Sunday school.

You treat just for candy. Have the cherry brew.

Smoking cigarettes.

Write something nasty on the wall.

You nasty boy.

He'd just send you to the principal's office down the hall.

You grow up and learn that kind of thing

ain't right.

But what you were doing is you're about to sign up with some states.

That was one of the best works he's done.

that has come out.

Because we all know that this... We know what's in the can.

And I remember sitting on Vine and Sunset with Steve in the car

and actually turning the stations and hearing it on every station.

All at the same time.

Which is pretty phenomenal.

And just being part of it because I went out on tour with these guys later.

but steve and i were you know really good friends for a long time but i

always felt as though these guys were family and to have a part and to

participate in this record which i think is a landmark record in music history is

a great experience we listened to it 20 years later it's still just a great

record yeah and when it came out it's so different than anything that was

happening at the time and it just sort of changed the whole music thing into

another dimension it took it to another place

forget stevie for everybody i must admit i was extremely unhappy about 13 million

dollars of course until songs in the key of life was released

and it came into number one then i thought what a brilliant negotiator you

are to myself if you sit down now and you listen to that album all the way

through it takes you through life i would place him Right alongside all the

greats, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Marvin Gaye.

He is like an example of the

best of what a human being can be.

As much as I'm sure all of us feel that Songs in the Key of Life was a very high

point in our life, it is not the highest point.

I just feel that as much as we have been blessed and honored with the opportunity

of creating music and them engineering,

it's almost like when they used to ask Duke Ellington what is his most favorite

song, his greatest song, he would say, I haven't written it yet.

I just think there's so much more that we'll all do.

But it is definitely a time and a space that we cannot...

ever forget.