R&B artist Stevie Wonder will soothe the soul

Posted January 2021

By Natalie Hebert

Cub Reporter

Stevie Wonder is one of the all time favorite R&B artists, with instrumentals and vocals that will soothe the soul.

In Aug. 3 1973, Wonder released his album Innervisions, one of the released songs being Higher Ground. Wonder created and recorded the song in three hours in May of 1973. The main lyrics are, “I'm so darn glad He let me try it again ‘Cause my last time on earth, I lived a whole world of sin.” Wonder thanks God for a second chance of living a sin-free life. He strangely recorded Higher Ground three months before he was almost killed in a car accident. The car Wonder was in happened to be behind a truck carrying logs. The truck abruptly stopped, sending a log through Wonder’s windshield. The accident put Wonder in a four day coma. While he was in his coma, his good friend and road manager Ira Tucker Jr. sang the song Higher Ground directly into his ear. The first time he sang the song he got no response, but when he visited Wonder the day after, his fingers started moving to the beat of the song, the first sign that he was going to recover. Wonder said that he felt like something was going to happen while he was writing this song.

Without the melody in Higher Ground, the song wouldn’t be complete. The melody brings life to the song, the constant sounds getting stuck in the listener’s head throughout the day. Rhythm plays a big role as well. The consistency of the rhyme flows through the whole song. Wonder fans will tap their feet to the beat from the first lyric, “People, keep on learning,” to the outro “'Cause the rest of the world will bring you down.” Wonder’s soothing voice provides a good tone for Higher Ground. His diminuendos add flair to his song, and listeners will definitely notice that he uses his original voice and uses his vocals to tell the world a story.

Reaching a “higher ground” is defined by abandoning “sin” for a better life and the highest point at which a person is closest to God. The song is about reaching a higher ground where everyone can feel more spiritually awake. The song is saying as everything goes on it won't be too long until he reaches his higher ground, or his highest connection to God. This can be interpreted to what anyone believes is their spiritual guide. The highest ground is when people feel safe with the spiritual world and their spiritual well being.

"I would like to believe in reincarnation,” Wonder said to The New York Times. “I would like to believe that there is another life. I think that sometimes your consciousness can happen on this earth a second time around. For me, I wrote Higher Ground even before the accident. But something must have been telling me that something was going to happen to make me aware of a lot of things and to get myself together. This is like my second chance for life, to do something or to do more and to face the fact that I am alive."

The special wah-clavinet sound that starts the song and continues till the end was made with a mu tron III envelope filter pedal. The bass line is provided by a moog synthesizer and using overdubs, drums and percussion are used throughout the song, all played by Wonder himself.