Stevie Wonder: Fulfillingness' First Finale (Motown)
This article originally appeared on Hit Parader, January 1975
THERE IS more of the 'Sunshine Of My Life' ballad side of Stevie Wonder on this new LP than the rocking 'Living In The City'. With that slant, it is another Wonder masterwork, another piece of the superb popular musicianship which makes him the world's most universal musical artist. Not since the prime of Ray Charles' career has anyone expressed so perfectly and innovatively the range of funkiness to middle of the road that has been Wonder's hallmark for years.
One of the album's highlights is 'Heaven Is 10 Zillion Light Years Away', which has a fifties rock ballad melody, and is a reminder that Stevie has not left what was good about Motown behind him. In the structure of an infectious melody and fine soul chorus is a typically Wonder message about heaven and God in today's world. 'Boogie On Reggae Woman', and 'You Haven't Done Nothin'' are the album's two rockers in that they have strong rhythms and are upbeat; but both are relatively subdued compared to some of Stevie's other work. All of Fulfillingness is markedly mellow, even the sweet harmonica rock riffs in 'Boogie on...'.
'Bird Of Beauty' is a jazzy arty number with the lyrics translated into Portuguese for one verse "to enable me to speak to my people of Mozambique and the beautiful people of Brazil." The words are some of Stevie's best — evocative and abstract.
Basically, it is the ballads that Fulfillingness will be remembered for however, since five of the tracks are in the middle-of-the-road vein, destined to be forever repeated by the Andy Williams' of the world because of their tender melodies and lovely love lyrics. The most passionate and memorable is 'They Won't Go When I Go', which again shows Stevie's biblical side and concludes with 'No One Can Keep Me From My Destiny', a theme that has been omnipresent in Stevie's hints of an early retirement from music, and of course the album title 'First Finale'. The album cover underlines this theme with a montage of drawings of images from Stevie's past including pictures of Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy, as well as several younger Stevies. The other ballads include two sweet love songs, 'Too Shy To Say', and 'Creepin'' and one goodbye song 'It Ain't No Use'.
The album ends with another one of Stevie's specialties — hits — with 'Please Don't Go', a magnificently catchy rock song in the classic Wonder style, complete with harmonica.
Overall, Stevie Wonder once again shows how to be heavy and light at the same time... though even a great admirer of this album like myself, cannot but hope that Stevie will make another foray into the rhythmic rock frontier beyond 'Superstition' before he makes his last finale.
