Maps of Music

Where I'm Coming From (1971)

Where the lyrics of Where I'm Coming From take you, and where it was really made.

Wonder made this album under his first Motown contract, refusing to renegotiate and using a clause that let him void the deal at 21.

Key places

Recorded at Hitsville U.S.A., Detroit (1971)

Recording site Hitsville USA — The album was recorded at Hitsville U.S.A., the Motown studio in Detroit, Michigan. The point marks the studio building itself. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Where I'm Coming From: 13th studio album by Stevie Wonder, 15th album overall including live albums
• Released by Motown Records in April 1971
• All nine songs written by Wonder and Syreeta Wright, his first wife
• Last album produced under his first Motown contract

Background

• Motown founder Berry Gordy kept tight control over the company's productions
• Artists began to want social consciousness and artistic freedom in their recordings
• Wonder's contract had a clause allowing him to void it on becoming a legal adult
• Tensions rose as he approached his 21st birthday
• When Motown's president asked to renegotiate, Wonder refused and asked for the contract to be voided
• Motown would have to accept whatever Wonder gave it, so he produced the album without outside interference from the company
• The song 'I Wanna Talk to You' covertly refers to his breakaway from Gordy and Motown

Recording

• Wonder had already begun producing his own recordings, but Motown still controlled the content of his albums
• The album departed drastically from the Motown Sound of his earlier records
• Several tracks use Motown studio musicians the Funk Brothers, and some use string orchestras
• The album foreshadows his classic-period albums in production approach and range of material
• Wonder further developed the Hohner clavinet, later fully explored on the classic-period albums

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Stevland Hardaway Morris, known as Stevie Wonder, was born May 13, 1950 in Saginaw, Michigan, and became blind shortly after birth.
• He signed with Motown's Tamla label at age 11 in 1961, receiving the name Little Stevie Wonder.
• His single "Fingertips" topped the Billboard Hot 100 when he was 13, the youngest solo artist ever to do so.

Career

• Music of My Mind and Talking Book (1972) marked the start of his classic period, moving away from the Motown sound toward synthesizer- and keyboard-driven music.
• Innervisions, Fulfillingness' First Finale and Songs in the Key of Life (1973–1976) won three consecutive Grammy Awards for Album of the Year, and he is the only artist to have done so.
• In the 1980s he campaigned to make Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a federal holiday and scored several number-one hits, including "Ebony and Ivory" and "I Just Called to Say I Love You".
• He has sold more than 100 million records and won 25 Grammy Awards, the most by a male solo artist.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Vince Aletti in Rolling Stone compared this album with Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, which they were released alongside
• Aletti saw Gaye's album as successful, while Wonder's album was seen as failing
• The criticism centred on production described as self-indulgent and cluttered, and lyrics described as undistinguished and pretentious
• The review also found the album lacked unity and flow overall

Reappraisal

• The album is described as foreshadowing Wonder's classic-period albums
• Much of the rest of the album carries social commentary and war-themed songs

Records

• Peaked at No. 62 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart
• Peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard R&B Albums chart
• Yielded the U.S. number-eight hit single 'If You Really Love Me'
• 'Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer' was also a successful release from the album

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• 'I Wanna Talk to You' portrays a racially charged dialogue between a Black man and an old southern white man, with Wonder playing both roles
• This is the first Stevie Wonder album with Wonder playing synth bass on most of its tracks
• The two exceptions, 'Think of Me as Your Soldier' and 'Take Up a Course in Happiness', use electric bass
• The album was released at around the same time as Marvin Gaye's What's Going On and has been compared with it
• Syreeta Wright co-wrote all nine songs as Wonder's first wife

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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