RIP Coolio

Saw Stevie at the Detroit 300th anniversary concert
Played for three hours
Fantastic
As merging into Another Star might be the best 20 minutes of music ever recorded

 

I think the word "genius" gets thrown around pretty loosely. I would reserve it for those whose talent seems almost inexplicable, on a level above the very best.

In modern music, I think there are two people who are (or were) just flat-out geniuses: Miles Davis and Stevie Wonder. I won't argue with anyone who wants to make a case for Prince.

Stevie's run from "Music of My Mind" through "Songs in the Key of Life" is just absurd.

 

It was that kind of run:

In 1976, when Paul Simon won the Album of the Year Grammy for his Still Crazy After All These Years, he wryly noted, "I'd like to thank Stevie Wonder, who didn't make an album this year."

 

Exactly.

And then Stevie won it the following year.

 

Stevie was among my top three concerts
He’s in there with the Neville Brothers at House of Blues in New Orleans during Jazz Fest
No.1 is CSNY in Toronto w/the Band and Jessie Colin Young

 

It is worth adding that there are many songs/albums where Stevie played all the instruments, or all but one or two.

I have never seen him live, and I dearly hope to get the chance. Genius. Period.

 

Music of my Mind was all Stevie except for a trombone solo

 

I “saw” Stevie at Live 8 in 2005.

The reason “saw” is in quotes is because my dumb ex-wife wanted to leave our sweet vantage point of the previous eight hours and head back to the train right before he came on.

It took us pretty much his whole set to fight through the crowds on the Ben Franklin Parkway, so I managed to catch the whole thing on the giant screens they had erected everywhere.