The above pictures are concept pictures I made if the song Too High became a full-fledged TV Show, complete with a title pictures, and a theme song (“Too High”).
(Only a few days after this album was released, Wonder got in a nearly fatal car-crash. Most fans associate this album with that event, and see it as his visions of renewed purpose with the idea of “life is short, do something right”
Simply put, NYC in the 1970s was in absolute chaos. The economy was out of control, leading to an increase in poverty and AIDS because of lack of funding for public, social, and medical services. People desperately turned to drug use, as seen with the rise in heroin. With this, crackdowns and arrests on drugs skyrocketed, mainly in poor African American and Hispanic neighborhoods. This ultimate domino effect of racism with poverty, drug use, and crime drove NYC to a brink where even news outlets today are still calling it the biggest economic crises NYC’s ever experienced.
So how is Stevie Wonder’s 1973 album Innervisions relevant to this situation? It’s simple. Though not written about any city in particular, Innervisions describes life in NYC in the 70s and covers all of the issues previously described. From tracks like “Too High” about drug use to “Living in the City” about racism and poverty in cities, Stevie Wonder captures the issues surrounding NYC. In his first track on Innervisions “Too High”, he talks about how the main character, a woman, “Is living a superficial paradise. She had a chance to make it big once or twice. She wasn’t very nice.”
His anti-drug stance relates to NYC’s drug crisis with heroin, as the city was trying to figure out how to curb it, and whether or not to punish drug addicts. Looking back in time about fifty years ago, NYC wasn’t jailing as many people as it does today, especially not for drugs, with fewer people going to jail and those going receiving lighter sentences. The jump in difference in NYC can be attributed to the Rockefeller drug laws, named after the New York governor who championed them, Governor Rockefeller. Although there was criticism of these rules at first, mainly from drug treatment experts, politicians, and many New York District Attorneys, the rules were quickly adopted by each state.
Racism at this time also had a key connection to these drug busts. The majority of people being put in jail over drug use under the Rockefeller Laws were almost all entirely from African American and Hispanic neighborhoods, when actually many white people were using a lot of drugs and committing crimes. This motif can be seen in Innervision’s track titled “Living in the City” where the main character gets off the bus in New York City after travelling from the south, and is arrested for a drug bust simply because he is African American.
At the time of Innervsions’ release, music in the west differed from years later as it had spawned a rise in a number of different musical genres, such as the increasingly popular disco and funk. Other generations evolved to have a 70s flavor, such as soul, jazz funk, and Motown. Rock also remained very popular throughout the decade, spanning different subgenres like progressive rock, glam rock, art rock and many others. The decade was noted for its contribution to electronic music, with many artists incorporating synthesizers and harmonizers into their music. The genres that Innervisions really draw from are Motown, soul, funk, and jazz. As the 70s evolved from the 60s, Stevie’s career at this point had also grown, as he was no longer the “Little Stevie Wonder,” and released his 16th studio album that showed his ability to question the world around him with realistic passion in each track.
Stevie Wonder’s album Innervisions is a wonderfully fused blend of soul and funk that initially begins with despair but ends with hope. It is a simple human album that says that evil is present but can be changed. Ultimately, this album gives a deeper understanding to NYC and fuses its context with its music in a wonderful blend. This album is a piece of history, representing the musical and societal expression in 1970s NYC. This connection to the past, coupled with its humanistic, empathetic, empowering and story-telling appeal, raises Innervsisions’ quality to bring out the awareness in people and the ability to shows them for what they are, damage to positive life in the city.
