Been fiddling around with Stevie Wonder

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mikeonb4c
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Been fiddling around with Stevie Wonder

Post by mikeonb4c » Sat Jan 04, 2020 8:27 pm

Well it'd be rude not to. Happy 2020 all and here’s a musical left turn from MOB to start the year.

Uptight (Everything’s Alright)
writers: Stevie Wonder, Sylvia Moy, Henry Cosby
performed: Steve Wonder (1965, Tamla Motown)

https://soundcloud.com/mobbing_it_up/up ... ng-version

Like a lot of kids of my generation, I listened to and loved the soul music of the Sixties – I was probably more of an Atlantic and Stax man but I loved Tamla Motown also. I also liked ska and reggae. My partner is a soul fan (an original Northern Soul girl) so I try and think of songs I might do for her, though I’m not really a soul singer, but I found myself singing Stevie Wonder’s ‘Uptight’ the other day. I used to love Little Stevie Wonder and that song especially. And then I thought hmmm – rather than do the original arrangement, maybe do it as dub reggae and do something new with the song. So I did, and I think it came out rather cool. Reading up on it on Wiki, I learned that:

“As Wonder presented his ideas, finished or not, "he went through everything," remembered [Syliva] Moy. "I asked, 'Are you sure you don't have anything else?' He started singing and playing 'Everything is alright, uptight.' That was as much as he had. I said, 'That's it.

On the day of the recording, Moy had completed the lyrics, but didn't have them in Braille for Wonder to read, and so sang the song to him as he was recording it. She sang a line ahead of him, and he simply repeated the lines as he heard them. In 2008, Moy commented that "he never missed a beat" during the recording.

So, hope you enjoy this homage to that song, please share it if you do, follow MOB on Soundcloud and/or Facebook at

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1465586503597444/

…and give me feedback if you can.
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Muzorewa
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Re: Been fiddling around with Stevie Wonder

Post by Muzorewa » Sat Jan 04, 2020 9:50 pm

I like it, lots of echo but I like it.

In another musical U-turn, last night I went to Bath to see the Mike Westbrook quartet in action, in the 60s he formed Ronnie Scott's house band and at 83 years old (you've got plenty of time yet MIke :lol: ) he's most definitely still got it, a couple of hours of Friedrich Hollaender (Google to the rescue!) classics.

Best for 2020 Mike, we'll surely meet up in a field some time.
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Re: Been fiddling around with Stevie Wonder

Post by Bob » Sat Jan 04, 2020 10:59 pm

Cracking Mike. =D>
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mikeonb4c
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Re: Been fiddling around with Stevie Wonder

Post by mikeonb4c » Sun Jan 05, 2020 1:06 am

Muzorewa wrote: Sat Jan 04, 2020 9:50 pm I like it, lots of echo but I like it.

In another musical U-turn, last night I went to Bath to see the Mike Westbrook quartet in action, in the 60s he formed Ronnie Scott's house band and at 83 years old (you've got plenty of time yet MIke :lol: ) he's most definitely still got it, a couple of hours of Friedrich Hollaender (Google to the rescue!) classics.

Best for 2020 Mike, we'll surely meet up in a field some time.
Ha ha love that. Yes Uptight was a deliberate exercise in echo delay, a technique used by dub reggae artists and producers like Dennis Bovell and something i always dug and wanted to try out. In fact dub reggae is more of a groove than a song so Stevie Wonder's lyric is positively cerebral in that respect. :lol:

Glad you like it too Bob :-)
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