| | Songs in the Key of Life (Music) |
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TVTItem |
| | Songs in the Key of Life (Music) |
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Songs in the Key of Life (Music) |
| | Songs in the Key of Life (Music) |
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SongsInTheKeyOfLife |
| | Songs in the Key of Life (Music) |
comment |
Songs in the Key of Life is a double album released in 1976 by Stevie Wonder. It was his 18th solo release and one of the best selling albums of his career. It debuted at #1 in the Billboard Pop Albums Chart where it spent another 12 weeks, and was awarded Album of the Year at the 1977 Grammy Awards. It spawned hits such as: "Sir Duke," "I Wish," "As," "Isn't She Lovely", and "Pastime Paradise."In 2005 it was inducted in the National Recording Registry for being culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant. It was also subject of an episode of the TV music documentary series Classic Albums.The album title is so well known that TV Tropes has none less than two Pun-Based Title articles based on it: Songs in the Key of Panic and Songs in the Key of Lock. |
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2024-02-10T03:54:25Z |
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2024-02-10T03:54:25Z |
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DBTropes |
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type |
Protest Song |
| | Songs in the Key of Life (Music) / int_16d8476f |
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Protest Song: "Pastime Paradise," and to a lesser extent "Black Man" and "Village Ghetto Land:" |
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type |
Face on the Cover |
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Face on the Cover: His face is seen on the album cover, but as a drawing, surrounded by circles. |
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type |
Crapsack World |
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comment |
Crapsack World: The tracks "Village Ghetto Land" and "Pastime Paradise," an attack on all the stuff Wonder considered awful: The rest of the album is a celebration of life, but these songs underpin that life has its bad moments. The album's working title was Let's See Life the Way It Is, after all. |
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Babies Make Everything Better |
| | Songs in the Key of Life (Music) / int_23f1384a |
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Babies Make Everything Better: "Isn't She Lovely" about Wonder's baby daughter. |
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type |
Alliterative Title |
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Alliterative Title: "Summer Soft," "Ebony Eyes," "Pastime Paradise." |
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Special Guest |
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Special Guest: Among the people present during the sessions were Herbie Hancock, George Benson, Michael Sembello, and Minnie Riperton. |
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type |
Bilingual Bonus |
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comment |
Bilingual Bonus: "Ngiculela – Es Una Historia – I Am Singing" which repeats its verse in Zulu, Spanish, and English (with an additional bridge in English) |
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type |
List Song |
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comment |
List Song: "Black Man" lists the achievements of several people of different races who did great deeds in history. |
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type |
Concept Album |
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comment |
Concept Album: The album tries to capture what life is all about. The title supposedly came to Wonder in a dream and he and his band worked to live up to it. |
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Uncommon Time |
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Uncommon Time: "Contusion" frequently changes metre signature; many of the examples fall into this trope. |
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type |
Sampling |
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comment |
Sampling: In keeping with the theme of the title, the album has several sound clips strewn throughout. In addition to those mentioned in Spoken Word below, there's the sounds of evening crickets as a transition between "Pastime Paradise" and "Summer Soft," and of girls jumping rope between "Saturn" and "Ebony Eyes." Also, in 1995 Coolio used "Pastime Paradise" as the basis for his "Gangsta's Paradise." A lot of "I Wish" ended up as the main theme from the Will Smith movie Wild Wild West. |
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type |
Casual Interstellar Travel |
| | Songs in the Key of Life (Music) / int_56855fa3 |
comment |
Casual Interstellar Travel: "Saturn," where Wonder decides to leave Earth and all its misery behind and go to Saturn. |
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type |
Manly Tears |
| | Songs in the Key of Life (Music) / int_64e975cf |
comment |
Manly Tears: "Joy Inside My Tears:" |
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type |
Pep-Talk Song |
| | Songs in the Key of Life (Music) / int_6732af17 |
comment |
Pep-Talk Song: "Ngicuela - Es Una Historia - I Am Singing" (see also The Power of Love), but especially the final verse of "As." |
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Non-Appearing Title |
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Non-Appearing Title: The album title doesn't appear in any of the lyrics. |
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| | Songs in the Key of Life (Music) / int_6a696742 |
type |
The Power of Love |
| | Songs in the Key of Life (Music) / int_6a696742 |
comment |
The Power of Love: "Love's in Need of Love Today", "Knocks Me Off My Feet", "Another Star", "As", "Isn't She Lovely", and "Ngiculela - Es Una Historia - I Am Singing", which has the following lines: |
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The Power of Rock |
| | Songs in the Key of Life (Music) / int_6a6c1f35 |
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The Power of Rock: "Sir Duke" is a homage to jazz and soul musicians Stevie admires: |
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type |
Epic Rocking |
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Epic Rocking: "Isn't She Lovely", "As", "Another Star", "Black Man", "Joy Inside My Tears", and "Ordinary Pain". |
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type |
Instrumentals |
| | Songs in the Key of Life (Music) / int_74b7629c |
comment |
Instrumentals: Track four is "Contusion", a Jazz Fusion piece inspired by Chick Corea and John McLaughlin. |
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type |
Nostalgia Filter |
| | Songs in the Key of Life (Music) / int_75f626a5 |
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Nostalgia Filter: "I Wish," about Wonder's youth. |
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One-Man Band |
| | Songs in the Key of Life (Music) / int_9e94650e |
comment |
One-Man Band: Most of the instruments were all done by Stevie himself, recorded on separate tracks brought back together on one tape. |
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type |
Re-Cut |
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comment |
Re-Cut: Initial CD releases of the album append each side of A Something's Extra to the end of each disc, with "Saturn" and "Ebony Eyes" closing out disc one and "All Day Sucker" and "Easy Goin' Evening (My Mama's Call)" closing out disc two. The 2000 remaster instead places the full EP at the end of disc two to better mimic the original vinyl release. |
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type |
Shout-Out |
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comment |
Shout-Out: "Sir Duke" provides a shout-out to... "Black Man" references several historical characters of different race and lists their achievements, among them: Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison, Bruce Lee, Harriet Tubman, Sacagawea, and Hiawatha. Wonder thanks none other than Frank Zappa and David Bowie in the liner notes. |
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| | Songs in the Key of Life (Music) / int_d0f0a80d |
type |
One-Word Title |
| | Songs in the Key of Life (Music) / int_d0f0a80d |
comment |
One-Word Title: "Saturn," "Contusion," and "As." |
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type |
Spoken Word |
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comment |
Spoken Word: The baby noises of Wonder playing with his daughter in "Isn't She Lovely" and the call and response outro to "Black Man". |
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type |
Artistic License – Space |
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comment |
Artistic License – Space "Saturn," apart from Stevie's rather casual plan of planning to live there he has a rather unrealistic idea of life on this planet: |
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type |
Fictional Country |
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comment |
Fictional Country: "Village Ghetto Land," which depicts all the horrors of street life amplified in one place. |
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type |
Love Makes You Dumb |
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comment |
Love Makes You Dumb: "All Day Sucker." |
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