I CALL IT PRETTY MUSIC…BUT THE OLD PEOPLE CALL IT THE BLUES / Little Stevie Wonder:
Side 1:
Listen: I Call It Pretty Music But The Old People Call It The Blues (Part 1) /Little Stevie Wonder
I
Listen: I Call It Pretty Music But The Old People Call It The Blues (Part 2) /Little Stevie Wonder
I
Side 2:
Listen: Workout Stevie Workout / Little Stevie Wonder
Workout
Listen: Monkey Talk / Little Stevie Wonder
Monkey
When it comes to hitting puberty and it’s accompanying voice change for males, I often wish Little Stevie Wonder had never grown up to be Stevie Wonder. Michael Jackson’s keepers allegedly had the good sense to castrate the fellow in order to avoid losing that money printing vocal ability.
So when speaking of voice alone, I prefer the early days as exemplified on this EP, hand’s down.
Although ‘I Call It Pretty Music But The Old People Call It The Blues’ may be one of the best song titles ever, it pales as rather standard early Motown next to ‘Workout Stevie Workout’ and ‘Monkey Talk’.
Now these two songs have the imaginary ability to transport me outside the window ledge at 2648 West Grand Boulevard in Detroit, looking in. The songs are like a soul steam bath, possibly amongst the greatest examples of the assembly line sweat shop known to produce the Motown sound and all their wonderfully tambourine heavy swinging singles.
And then, there’s Little Stevie Wonder toiling away his publishing and performances in the middle of it all. Nowadays that might be considered a child labor offense. I never did follow the blow by blows of the label’s financial abuse accusations towards their artists, but he has stayed with the company for his entire career, so go figure.
It’s not hard to see why all those English soul nuts clamored over this initial UK EP release, with it’s aforementioned musical content and period piece primitive artwork.