What's the best track on "Fulfillingness First Finale"?

Voted "They Won't Go When I Go", but this - my favourite Wonder album - is crowded with great songs!

Stuck between "Boogie On Reggae Woman" and "Smile Please." I can't remember "Bird of Beauty" or "Please Don't Go."

George Michael's cover of "They Won't Go When I Go" horrified me when I first heard it; then I finally got to Stevie's better sung version and it still left me cold.

It was between "Smile Please" and "Bird of Paradise," but I like most of the songs on this album (or at least I'd say that even the ones where the preachiness gets to be too much for me still have a lot going for them). "Bird of Paradise" is one of his Brazilian-tinged songs, Alfred, maybe that will jog your memory.

Please Don't Go

creepin, it is so very spooky.

i love this album, but it always sounds a little odd to me, quite dark, and melodically a little off centre.

I felt the same way for years, but eventually I've warmed up to it and it's now just about my favorite along with Hotter Than July.

"Too Shy To Say"

This is possibly my favorite Wonder album, though it's hard to pick just one from this great period. (So I guess I agree with Geir on something!)

I don't know how anyone in good conscience vote against that farting, leaping synth-bass from "Boogie-On Reggae Woman". (I guess I should mention that this is my least favorite classic-era Stevie album not counting Secret Life of Plants, and that's probably my favorite song he did in that same era.)

"You Haven't Done Nothin'" for me, thanks. "Boogie on Reggae Woman" would probably be my second choice.

I voted "Boogie On" too.

(Though it is atypical for this album, which is more about the sinister ballads.)

I don't know why, but I've always found this the dullest record of his 1971-1976 peak. And I'm going with "You Haven't Done Nothin'".

I think so too. Like I said already, "They Won't Go..." stops the album cold.

I couldn't disagree more. "They Won't Go" is absolutely stunning - and harrowing. To me, Fulfillingness is Wonder at his most joyfully exuberant ("Boogie On", "Bird of Beauty") and at his most soul-searching ("They Won't Go", "Heaven Is"), and it also features some of his most emotionally complex and soul-baring romantic songs ("Creepin", "Too Shy to Say"). Not a dull moment.

The religious countent tends to particularly bug me on this album. I'm with the people who ask him where his God is.

Stevie's God = recording and fucking.

I don't think you have to subscribe to Wonder's religious beliefs to be able to empathize with his struggle to find meaning and value in life.

The thing I like about the religious songs on this album are that they don't feel glib. He's not parroting simple, unquestioned verities - each statement of faith feels like something hard-won - a stone (small, hard and smooth) that has been polished by the grinding sand of bitter experience (if you'll forgive my metaphors).

You all do know this is the album he recorded after his near-death experience, right?

If I got smashed in the face with a tree trunk, I'd probably find it in me to write something like "Heaven Is 10 Zillion Light Years Away" too.

I voted for "They Won't Go"

so much of Wonder's music is directly inspired by church music, if the songs with 'religious content' make you uncomfortable it is safe to say you have missed the point. the thing that matters with this song is that when he finally brought it into the lyrics, the statement was not trite, it was searing and it still amazes me this song is on a mainstream record

each statement of faith feels like something hard-won

"They Won't Go." It's taking God so long to get here because he's so far away, but really he lives inside of me. If that's hard-won, I'm not impressed. It's on a par with "From a Distance."

It's sloppy thinking and, yes, it does get in the way for me.

"People sinning just for fun They will never see the sun" isn't trite? I agree Stevie Wonder is incredibly talented musically, but these lyrics are annoying me, and I'm afraid I've gotten the point.

(Admittedly, I am probably that much more critical for having been surrounded by this kind of stuff when I was growing up.)

I mean that they're hard won in terms of the emotional experience that led to them, not in terms of logical reasoning, which arguably is not the most relevant gauge to use for spiritual truths anyway.

"People sinning just for fun They will never see the sun" isn't trite?

less trite coming from a blind guy than from some other people

it's wherever it falls, for me stevie not only gets away with it, he makes a good case, but even just as a detached musicologist, that song is the one where the lyrical content sync with the source, after a typical album pace that bounces back and forth between funk and soul we suddenly go careening back all the way into flat out gospel source, if you're allergic to that then that's where the album loses the plot but if you're paying attention that's where the whole album comes together

my vote goes out to
"you haven't done nothin'" cause
J5 DOO DOO WOP

Though it is atypical for this album, which is more about the sinister ballads

Exactly why it's his best.

I'd like to see you in the raw under the stars above.

"You Haven't Done Nothin'" as it's one of those recordings that made me appreciate to be living.

Bird of Beauty has been a recent favorite though.

My favorite Wonder transcription: "Ko Ko Ko."

"Heaven Is" for me. Can't put a finger on why, but it's always what I want to hear when I pull this record out. It's probably that wonderful melodic turnaround when he goes "...and I think it's takin' him so long..." Faboo.

You all do know this is the album he recorded after his near-death experience, right?

i was just wondering where this album fell in the narrative of stevie's life... 'sinister' is an awesome word to describe the ballads, because they are awesomely, profoundly dark. and the upbeat tunes on this album are almost effervescently so. it seems an album of contrasts.

i admire 'they won't go where i go' more than enjoy it, so dark and morose. less mawkish perhaps than 'evil' off music of my mind - but like milton sez, there's something powerful in the way stevie will drop references to sight/sightlessness in his songs. its a constant trope - there's a reference in 'evil' to "why have you taken all god's children's eyes before they could see", obviously.

anyone heard Luther Vandross' version of "Creepin'"? He scrubs away the sinisterness. Not bad on its own terms.

what is that on? i have a few of his albums that i still haven't really explored yet...

The Night I Fell in Love. Also on the essential Essential comp.

Food for thought: Stevie wrote all of Fulfillingness First Finale from the POV of a ghost.

Besides "They Won't Go..." I also have a soft spot for "Too Shy To Say", which continues sort of in the same vein as "You And I" did two albums earlier.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Well, there you go!

Great results!

Damn singles voting lurkers!

I must've not been paying attention when these results were unveiled. The one that got zero votes actually deserving zero votes shockaH!

'it ain't no use' is pretty great i reckon.

man the "sinner Sinner SINNER" backing vocal part of "Heaven is..." is so menacing.

I love "They Won't Go When I Go"

i love this album so much

Creepin' wuz robbed!

^

Yep. Creepin' is my favourite Stevie Wonder song.

not my favourite Wonder album, but They Won't Go When I Go is the gothiest thing he ever did.

George Michael's choosing that song to cover impressed me.

"Please Don't Go" got robbed.

Wonderful song

Please Don't Go followed by Heaven is Ten Zillion or Bird of Beauty. Impossible to reorder. Perfect album.

Somehow, the only song on the album I have anything less than full affection for was also the song that got zero votes here.

Yeah Please Don’t Go would’ve been my choice.

Fancy having The Jacksons come by though just to do such a tiny part of the record.

Have to assume a repoll would push "Creepin'" up a few slots.

I'll give "It Ain't No Use" a push b/c of its drumming and "each other we must do without."

The whole album deserves a push for its drumming

Have to assume a repoll would push "Creepin'" up a few slots.

― temporarily embarrassed thousandaire (Eric H.), Tuesday, December 3, 2019 10:33 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

otm, if only because it would get my vote

I saw Stevie a couple of years ago finally and Heaven was on my wish list but I thought it was a long shot then when he actually played it, I was literally sobbing, tears down my cheeks

This is the dark horse in the Stevie purple patch but I love it so much. Shout out to Bird Of Beauty, too - whenever Stevie does Latin it is a wonderful thing.