Stevie Wonder | "As"
Aug 24, 2016 18:42:05 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Aug 24, 2016 18:42:05 GMT -5
From 1976's classic Songs In The Key of Life. It only made it to #36 on the Hot 100 and Soul Singles chart upon initial release, but has become incredibly well-known like most of the album.
Pitchfork ranked it #86 on their 200 Best Songs of the 1970's:
LOVE this whole album.
Pitchfork ranked it #86 on their 200 Best Songs of the 1970's:
It was hard to stand out on Stevie Wonder’s brilliant 1976 album Songs in the Key of Life, but “As,” a seven-plus minute song that starts slow and builds to a pulpit-banging sermon, does just that. As a choir gives a glorious account of all the ways nature would have to turn on itself for Wonder’s love to end (“Until the day that eight times eight times eight is four”), Wonder adlibs, the purity of his voice finally matched by a purity of lyrics. Midway through the song, Stevie preaches a growly, rousing message, and from there the song grows wings and takes off, finding a space to land at weddings ever since. Much has been made about the object of Wonder’s adoration: Is it a woman? God? Or is Wonder acting as God talking to man? In his book on the album, Zeth Lundy said that by 1975 Wonder was giving serious thought to quitting music and moving to Ghana to work with handicapped children. Given where his head was, you could think of “As” as a kind of love letter to the world, Wonder’s spiritual impulses finding their ideal expression. –Rebecca Haithcoat
