DEEP DISCOG DIVE UPDATE 3.17.26 (Patreon)

Hey hey people people! Hope you're all doing well and having good and cool weeks so far. It's absolutely bleh here on the east coast - we're now in the part of the season where nature is flinging us between Actual Nice Spring Weather and The Murkiest Murk To Ever Murk. It's a good excuse to stay in and write at least.

WHERE I'M CURRENTLY AT

In case you're new as a paid member, the next DDD is on Stevie Wonder. I've completed his mainline discography, as well as his live albums and a good number of his collaborations.

If you're interested in seeing my thoughts on any specific album or song, I recommend going back through those older posts. They're fun! LOADS of good music in them.

WRITING PROGRESS

I'm now properly hashing out the script proper. It's going well so far! In fact, here's a lil sneak peek at the prologue section:

(If you're curious, the bold parts denote when I'm on camera.)

FUN ANECDOTES

As I've been fleshing out the script, I've been getting into one of my favorite parts of the job - finding the stories of songs, plus the figurative tissue that connects them. Here are some fun stories I've learned in the process:

I always think of Motown as this super successful label (which they are), but when Stevie joined, they were also in their infancy. By the time Stevie released his first album, Motown only had one hit (Shop Around by The Miracles). So in a way, seeing Stevie's rise is also seeing Motown's rise.

Stevie was close to getting dropped after his fourth beach-themed album released, so the fifth album Uptight was a last chance to show Motown he had the juice. He got a lot of help from Motown's first in-house female songwriter, Sylvia Moy. She would go on to work with Stevie throughout the late 60s.

And speaking of Uptight - it was heavily influenced by the Rolling Stones' I Can't Get No Satisfaction! Very cool to see Stevie pull from rock like that.

Not everyone was a fan of the direction Stevie took on Uptight. Smokey Robinson called him up to put him on blast for it.

I Was Made To Love Her has a really specific vocal performance from Stevie, one that sounds like he's a preacher at a church. That's because Henry Cosby took Stevie to a baptist church and had him mimic the preacher in the studio.

How Can You Believe from Eivets Rednow was sampled on Madvillian's Great Day.

You know For Once In My Life? One of the greatest love songs ever done? Not only is Stevie's version a cover of a MUCH slower song, but Berry Gordy haaaaaated it and had it shelved for a year. Absolute bad call from Berry. And it wasn't his only airball - he also hated Marvin Gaye's I Heard It Through The Grapevine at first.

My Cherie Amour was actually a b-side for I Don't Know Why from the album For Once In My Life. Radio stations were playing it so much that Motown decided to re-release it as a single.

A SONG TO CHECK OUT

My listening to new material has slowed down since I got deeper into writing. But I have been revisiting I Was Made To Love Her after learning the story I mentioned above. Gives me a whole new appreciation for the song.

AN UPDATE ON WHEN IT'LL RELEASE

Last time, I said that I was aiming to release the DDD next week. But I've since realized A) it will need more time in the oven, and B) the other things in my life will keep me from making the video the best it can be IF I try to rush it.

That won't mean a massive delay - I'm now aiming for the first week of April. Still I apologize for getting folks' hopes up about a late-March release. I just wanna make sure I get this right, AND do it without locking myself away for days on end and depriving myself of food and sleep and sunlight. I recently read a listicle that said those were important!

And that's it for now! I'll see you all later this week for a new main-channel video.