Hacker News Reader

Comment by Lio | Hacker News Reader

I remember "discovering" a second hand copy of Innervisions whilst at university in the early 90s.

Up to that point I knew Stevie Wonder as the guy who recorded "I Just Called to Say I Love You", a song I hated as a kid. Well that opinion changed pretty sharpish I can tell you.

I've bought so many albums and singles since that I really, really like but I don't think Innervisions has ever been bettered. Just my humble opinion of course.

View on HN

Very similar experience here with that same album except I was in high school and it was 1999. That album, from "Too High" all the way though "He's Misstra Know-It-All", is a piece of perfection.

Ah, that song is one of Jack Black's "Top 5 Crimes Perpetrated by Stevie Wonder in the 80s and 90s" -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjRqwUfwp7s

I didn't know this for many years of listening to that album. But I was blown away when I found out that on many tracks, Stevie is basically playing every instrument. It's quite astounding. I found out by being really drawn in by the drum work of "Too High". I looked it up. Well damn, that's Stevie.

Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innervisions#Track_listing

My first rule of music is that any artist that became popular before the '80s, was terrible in the '80s. Look at Aretha Franklin. Who's Zoomin' who? What? Aretha darling, what were you thinking? There are a few exceptions to the rule, like Michael Jackson.

Oh that works really well, I'm going to add that to my own first rule of music: Any "band" completely made up of singers is probably rubbish[1][2].

[1] there may be a few exceptions but they're Higgs-Boson rare.

[2] feel free to take it with a pinch of salt if you actually like that kind of "music". :P

Reply on news.ycombinator.com