stevie wonder prodigy in the dark

Blind since birth, Stevie Wonder went on to become one of the world’s most renowned musicians. Steveland Hardaway Morris (nee Judkins) was born in 1950, and by the age of eleven had already signed with Motown Records. His fate sealed as a child prodigy and a budding soul, rhythm and blues star, the next several decades of his career brought “Little Stevie Wonder” increasingly into the mainstream spotlight. By the 1980s, Stevie Wonder had become a fully-fledged pop star, with more than twenty Grammy awards under his belt, an Academy Award, a Lifetime Achievement Award, and an induction into the Rock and Roll hall of fame (“Famous People with Visual Impairments,” n.d.). Being blind did not make Stevie Wonder any more famous than he would have been otherwise, just as being blind would never have prevented him from making his mark on the world.
Early Years
Stevie Wonder was born prematurely, causing the retinopathy that led to his blindness (Huey, n.d.). When little Stevie was four years old, his family moved from Saginaw, Michigan to Detroit and almost instantly Stevie began to show a predilection towards music. He became the junior deacon and sang solo in the Whitestone Baptist Church, and even harbored dreams of becoming a minister (Weisman, 1985). However, Wonder’s reach would be far broader than the ecclesiastical community. Wonder did infuse his music with the passion and power of gospel, though, never removing the deep spiritual dimension that ignites his songs.
Playing numerous instruments with panache, including harmonica, drums, and piano by the age of nine, Stevie started to play for secular crowds and thereby earned himself an instant reputation in the supportive musical community of Detroit (Huey, n.d.). Ronnie White of the Miracles takes credit for “discovering” the nine year-old prodigy, helping Stevie get an audition with Motown’s maestro Berry Gordy (Huey, n.d.). The rest was history; Gordy immediately signed Stevie under the name Little Stevie Wonder and his first albums were released on the Motown label in 1962.
Perhaps inevitably, Stevie Wonder admired Ray Charles. With an older and substantially famous blind African-American role model to remind him of the power of sound in a sightless world, Stevie was perhaps better equipped to overcome the type of self-doubt that might have otherwise plagued him. One of the first albums he released on Motown was in fact called A Tribute to Uncle Ray, in which Stevie Wonder performs cover songs of his idol. Stevie also released an orchestral arrangement of songs on the album The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie. Yet it was not until the 1963 live album The 12 Year Old Genius was released that the world took note of the prodigy in the dark. The album featured the song “Fingertips,” an instrumental harmonica song so infused with Wonder’s “irresistible, youthful exuberance” that it actually propelled Motown Records into new territory (Huey, n.d.). Then puberty hit, and with it, the inevitable change to vocal range. Motown nearly dropped Little Stevie from their roster but other artists believed in his staying power and committed to working with him even if it meant waiting a few years before his next hit record might come out (Yenigun, 2017). During the period in which his voice had yet to shed fully the innocence of childhood but still had not found its adult soul, Stevie Wonder studied classical piano at the Michigan School for the Blind and naturally dropped the “Little” from his stage name (Huey, n.d.). Stevie also started to come into his own as a fully-fledged songwriter, and it was through his self-empowerment that Wonder found his truest voice.
Little Stevie Develops a Social Conscience
Stevie Wonder entered the 1960s as a visionary force, as he started to compose more of his own songs and find his voice as a young adult. It would have been nearly impossible for Stevie to ignore the tremendous social and political changes taking place in the world around him. Wonder did recognize that he could directly contribute to the political discourse to bring about positive social change. He increasingly used music as a vehicle for sending social messages, whether through his own music or the choices that defined his career. Stevie Wonder would partner with like-minded musicians from different backgrounds to embody solidarity and harmony. For example, in 1966, Stevie Wonder covered Bob Dylan’s ”Blowin’ in the Wind.” Reaching white audiences was not something Wonder had to try to do; his approach to music was inherently populist because he “appeals to a highly diverse audience, his best listeners are sensitive idealists,” (Weisman, 1985, p. 137). Wonder’s music during the 1960s remained lighthearted.
The idealism that characterized the initial years of the hippie movement never faded from Wonder’s music; he never became cynical or jaded like many of his counterparts even when expressing deep sorrow at the world’s affairs. Wonder did not ignore the racial tension and violence around him but sang about it, practically presaging the way early hip hop became a musical messenger for African American communities. Songs like "Living for the City" and "Village Ghetto Land" encapsulate Wonder’s dedication to social change. “Living for the City” was more than seven minutes long, a “narrative that touched on systemic racial inequality in employment, housing, the criminal justice system, and damn near everything else,” (Hamilton, 2016, p. 1). “So deep is his apparent commitment to political change that he is frequently labeled a blind visionary and social prophet,” (Weisman, 1985, p. 137). Like Tiresias urging Oedipus to cultivate wisdom and self-awareness, Stevie Wonder became the archetypal blind prophet for America.
The Blind Prophet
Blindness characterizes Stevie Wonder, as it did Ray Charles. For musicians whose blindness became part of their identity and persona, it is difficult to imagine their career trajectories had they been sighted. Being blind might have added to Stevie Wonder’s panache, and he even calls his blindness a “gift from God,” (Weisman, 1985, p. 139). That any musician could go on to master multiple instruments as well as compose songs and write their lyrics would have been a tremendous feat; to do so as a blind African American male was something else entirely. Stevie Wonder’s inability to see also perhaps underscored his musicality. “His lack of sight must heighten his other senses, his ability to imagine and feel. It makes his music very visual, very graphic,” (“100 Greatest Singers of All Time,” 2010). Being blind also lent a high degree of credibility to Stevie Wonder’s racial identity. He wore his hair “either in a natural Afro or in corn rows,” wearing the “occasional dashiki” and using Black slang to showcase his solidarity with his community (Weisman, 1985, p. 140). The anger and bitterness that could have consumed Stevie Wonder due to discrimination instead propelled him to reach a wider audience. His on-stage persona became iconic: his sunglasses, his swaying, and of course, his infectious smile.
Being blind did not make Stevie immune to race consciousness, but uniquely capable of transcending the “racial polarities” that impeded social progress in America (Weisman, 1985, p. 140). His social consciousness took root in the politically charged 1960s, and again flowered in the 1980s. Wonder was a vocal supporter of making Martin Luther King Day a federal holiday as “the right thing to do...something that should just happen because, you know, it's for everyone,” (Yenigun, 2017, p. 1). Also in the 1980s, hit duet with Paul McCartney “Ebony and Ivory” of course represents a commitment to racial harmony. Touting his skills as a prophet of the nation, Stevie Wonder even claimed, “I knew that Barack Obama was going to become president, I knew that,” (Yenigun, 2017, p. 1).
Beneath the Surface
Since his Motown years, Stevie Wonder seemed to have a knack for writing songs that appealed as much to musicians as to a general audience. Being able to deftly transform musical prowess into popular songs might not give Stevie Wonder credit as an underground sensation, but as one who builds bridges between disparate worlds. What he cannot see with his eyes he understood with his heart. When on his 21st birthday he broke with Motown Records, Stevie Wonder “was no longer content to release albums composed of hit singles and assorted filler,” (Huey, n.d., p. 1). He knew that being a pop star would provide little satisfaction and no endurance, detracting from his core spiritual beliefs. His passion for making the medium the message fueled Wonder, who honed his personal style in a way that had mass appeal but without pandering.
The Double-Edged Sword
Stevie Wonder’s visual impairment seems to have had little bearing on how society viewed him, how musicians or producers treated him, and how he saw himself. If anything, being blind meant that Stevie Wonder was more capable of achieving his goals as a musician. His admirably positive attitude belies what Wonder must have actually gone through as a child and adolescent in Detroit, and even as an adult. It would have been impossible for Stevie Wonder to have never experienced hardship, but hardship never defined him. Stevie Wonder never focuses on his blindness as an impediment, inspiring both sighted and the visually impaired to see past their perceived limitations and fulfill their highest potential. If being blind does heighten other means of sensory perception, then for Stevie it also increased his overall awareness, his insight and intelligence.






References
“100 Greatest Singers of All Time,” (2010). Rolling Stone. 3 Dec, 2010. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/100-greatest-singers-of-all-time-147019/stevie-wonder-18-226342/
“Famous People with Visual Impairments,” (n.d.). https://brailleworks.com/braille-resources/famous-people-with-visual-impairments/
Hamilton, J. (2016). The greatest creative run in the history of popular music. Slate. 19 Dec, 2016. https://slate.com/cover_story/2016/12/the-greatest-creative-run-in-the-history-of-pop-music.html
Huey, S. (n.d.). Artist biography: Stevie Wonder. All Music. https://www.allmusic.com/artist/stevie-wonder-mn0000622805/biography
Weisman, E.R. (1985). The good man singing well. Critical Studies in Mass Communication 2(2): 136-151.
Yenigun, S. (2017). Stevie Wonder reflects on Motown, God, and Prince. NPR. 30 Aug, 2017. https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2017/08/30/547029912/stevie-wonder-reflects-on-motown-god-and-prince