Stevie Wonder without sunglasses (1980.) Today is his 69th birthday.
At that time Keith Richards couldn't manage the same walk with perfect vision
On that same tour, Stevie Wonder's drummer quit the band after a night of partying at the Playboy Mansion and so Stevie had to cancel until he got a replacement, Keith Richards then exploded on him and cussed out Stevie using foul language that no biography felt comfortable printing (which is to say, considering the subjects... one must assume; quite bad). So theres that.
Yeah, Richards can be a temperamental asshole according to stuff I’ve read. Hell, it not Stevie’s fault his drummer quit. Let Charlie sit in until they find a replacement, ffs.
Cocaine will have that effect on people
You've never seen emotional disregulation like a man in the depths of a cocaine binge.
I was never very angry (or even all that agitated) on the blow, but 5-MEO-DiPT turned me into a goddamn lunatic.
Of course he was a temperamental ass hole. They were doing copious amounts of drugs an were like the hottest shit in the world.
While I love Charlie and have a couple of his jazz albums I don’t think he’s funky enough to be Stevie’s drummer in the 70’s.
Most big names can. Musicians are sensitive people and tempers and egos run high in addition to all of the drug use.
KR was a DICK to Terri Gross on Fresh Air
Stevie is a real good drummer, if he had a extra pair of hands he could probably play keyboards and drums at the same time.
It's possible with two hands actually, a drummer for one of the band's I played in would play the snare with his left hand and play a 1/4 scale keyboard with his right hand that was mounted to his lap. The most impressive part being it actually sounded good and he could keep time with both.
The band Paris Monster has a fellow that does this.
When I saw LCD soundsystem they had a guy playing an analogue keyboard with one hand and bells with the other
In my opinion, "real good drummer" is still underplaying it. Stevie is playing the drum tracks on nearly all of his songs from the 70s. For my money, there are very few drummers with a feel as good as his.
Stevie couldn't find a decent drummer to fill in on short notice? That surprises me, i would think there would be several just waiting for such an opportunity.
Oprah once had a contractor let her down because the contractor's employee let her down in a similar manner. She said that it was the contractor's job to have dependable workers, and a contingency plan. So, fired.
Love Stevie's music though. Inspired genius.
True I’m starting a side venture to my existing business, am buying lots of new equipment, and shopping for a backup operator already, in case I ever have equipment failure.
I'm not sure Keith could currently manage any walk with perfect vision
Let’s be honest, in ‘73 his vision was impaired af too
I've heard the exact same story about Ray Charles. He would also request the same room at the hotel because he would memorize the layout of the room and the distance to the stairs.
I’d be really interested in seeing scans showing how big the hippocampi of people blind from birth are, and of getting some idea of how they can create mental models for spatial navigation without ever having sight to form a basis for visualization.
Musicophilia by Oliver sacks goes into this somewhat but it more focuses on how people that are blind process music. But fascinating either way
That's cause that motherfucker can see.
How exactly would he "get it down" if they're in a city for one night? He'd have to not only know the number of steps but where the obstacles are. Did everyone just play along? "Ohlook at Stevie "totally-not-blind" Wonder."
It was the same hotel chain, like a Holiday Inn or some shit, so I'm guessing all the lobbies are layed out and designed the same way.
He was born six weeks premature which, along with the oxygen-rich atmosphere in the hospital incubator, resulted in retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), a condition in which the growth of the eyes is aborted and causes the retinas to detach, so he became blind.
Would a NOT oxygen rich environment have saved his vision? Or was it necessary for him to live otherwise? I mean, if it happened in this day and age would things have turned out differently possibly?
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5.1y
There is routine screening and extremely effective laser surgery for ROP for all premature babies today. He wouldn't be blind if he'd been born today. Source: am paediatrician.
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Are those from random cades or perhaps special cases where trestment wasn't an option due to other circumstances or where other complications occured?
paedetrician here. the amazing thing is that science is now working on that 0,5% of ROP cases where the most modern treatments do not work. Instead, by using radiation therapy and biogenetic modulation we can introduce in these children, 100/100 vision. Effectively, eyes of an eagle. However, the treatment is still experimental, but in a matter of years, will be a viable option for parents whose children are born premature with this very unusual condition.
A quick click on his profile shows that u/adumbpolly has claimed to be a teacher, an aviation catastrophe engineer, and now a paediatrician. Which he misspelled as paedetrician. So yeah, bullshit.
One naturally wonders if similar treatments could give other older people essentially augmentation via medical science? Heck, forget plastic surgery if can instead hack the human body into having super powers!!!
Once genetics unlocks these super powers. People will start making designer kids.
100/100 vision? What is the difference of that and 20/20? I am no doctor but I have been trained in a medical care field of practice that does cover eyesight evaluation and emergency care and I have never seen eyesight measured at 100 feet. I also checked Google and the first result that included and mention of eyesight measurements that included -/100 was a reddit post that was about the 10th result down, so my interest is genuinely piqued.
With the odds of being correct over 99% of the time I'd say that's enough for reasonable amount of certainty.
If it was poker I'd shove all-in every hand with those odds.
He was born at 34 weeks so he probably wouldn't even get respiratory distress syndrome due to antenatal steroids. If he had, he'd have had some surfactant which would have almost certainly sorted him out. I've never seen or heard of a 34 weeker getting ROP. It doesn't happen these days. Nothing is certain but actually this is pretty close.
Yes, oxygen to toxicity is a thing. That wouldn’t happen today. Work in NICU for premature babies. We don’t pump the environment with oxygen. Only give the babies oxygen through their nose or tube in the mouth. And that oxygen is “blended” to a certain concentration. Regular air is 21% oxygen. Most babies need some higher. And only sometimes do they need 100% for lung function. It is toxic to the eyes but, lungs > eyes. Back in the day they didn’t know that it caused damage so they gave the kids as much oxygen as possible to try to help them
Thank you, that’s exactly what I was stevie wondering.
Get out
If I could slap you foppishly across the face with an upvote, I would.
With your kid gloves, no less!
That's very informative. Thank you for taking the time.
Real name Steveland Hardaway Judkins, the young Stevie Wonder was born six weeks premature in Saginaw, Michigan. The stunted growth of blood vessels in the back of his eyes caused his retinas to detach. The oxygen pumped into his incubator exacerbated the condition, leaving the tiny baby permanently blind.
My hometown!
Okay but would a not-oxygen rich environment have possibly saved his vision?
Possibly, bordering on probably, seems to be the answer.
But would we have Superstition, Sir Duke and, I Just Called To Say I Love You?
Exactly. It’s sad that Stevie has had to go thru life blind, but being blind from birth, it’s all he knows. I believe the blind school he went to taught him piano. Lots of blind people were trained to be piano tuners back then. We had a blind guy who would come to my 1960s era elementary school and tune our pianos. He had a Golden Retriever as a guide dog. ❤️
I was six weeks premature as well! Thankfully no ROP for me (born in 93, so that may be part of it...)
Not every 34 weeker requires oxygen higher than 21$, which is the blend that room air is. You might have dodged a respiratory bullet!
Thanks to modern medicine that's barely even premature at all now! We regularly save babies born at 22 weeks gestation now.
I like my oxygen at a crisp 25$ USD
I am a fool in man's clothing.
My aunt was eight weeks premature, born in the early 50s. She lived to be 30, and died unexpectedly of a brain aneurism. She was always delicate. 😢
My nephew was born at 23weeks gestation, which is only 3 weeks past the half way point. He was having this issue with the blood vessels in his eyes, but thankfully medical technology has come far, and they were able to stop it with a few procedures! Ita crazy what medical science can do!
Is that a Jackson in the background?
Good eye!
(Edit: I realized immediately upon posting this that it sounds like an insensitive and uncreative joke, but I swear I was genuinely impressed with your observation.)
It was a great joke!
I didn't think it was your intention initially.
Jermaine?
More than likely... He did stay with Motown.
No, not exactly pertinent but he'd just like to know.
Nice...
Present.
The Jackson 5 was in the studio with Stevie at least once when he recorded his single, "You Haven't Done Nothin'". That would put this photo at around 1974.
Michael was also one of the background chorus singers on Wonder’s ‘All I Do.’
That would put this photo at around 1974.
I think it's Jermaine like the other guy said. Add that, plus the clothes... I think it's '76-'78.
At that time, The Jackson's bounced Motown. Jermaine stayed on account of his wife.
Tito!
Is that a Jackson in the background?
Possible, Jackson guitars were found in 1980.
Looks like Jackie Jackson to me.
My guess is Jackie or Jermaine. Definitely not Tito, who was shorter.
The madman. He knows he can't see without his glasses!
Technically the truth
They’re sunglasses. That’s why he’s all squinty without them.
For some reason I thought he was way older
To be fair, he was younger in 1980.
This we have in common.
And younger before then too if you can believe that!
Probably because he has been around forever. His first big hits were well over 50 years ago but he started very young. He was originally Little Stevie Wonder and had his first hits when he was 12.
Same here: I tend to forget he started his career very young.
Yeah, I'm off by about 20 years.
He's not 69. He's immortal.
He made all of his most famous albums in his early 20s. He's something like 23 here. Puts me to shame.
Isn't he lovely!?
Isn't he wonderful?
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Insert Stevie can actually see conspiracy
That mf can see, I know it
Catches mic knocked over by Paul McCartney
whys stevie gotta sit courtside huh? whats he need 4 big screen plasmas for huh?
What conspiracy? Stevie ain’t blind. Everyone knows this.
I'm actually genuinely interested, what evidence is pointing towards that? When I looked it up everything I saw could easily be coincidence.
Well there was that time that George W Bush waved at him. Of course W has done a lot of strange things nobody can rightly explain so it could just be a coincidence.
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Lol, Paul McCartney definitely doesn't want any of your "stevie wonder aint blind" shit.
The majority of blind people can see a little.
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Neither has he!
Good God
Jesus Christ, reddit.
Came here just for this
Stevie ran into Tiger Woods at a charity event, and said, "Hey, how about we play a round of golf some time?" . Tiger said, "That's great, I didn't know you played. If you don't mind me asking, how do you play, you know, being blind and all?". Steve explained that he had some custom golf balls that emitted a beep, and he could tell be listening where the ball was. Tiger, impressed, said "Sure, I'd love to play a round with you! When would you like to do this?". Stevie said, "I don't know, you pick a night".
Stevie Wonder is better than everybody else at like every instrument, hell everything music.
He might not be the technical best in all aspects(Most definitely not), but he can play that shit like you didn't even know that's what you wanted to hear until he played it.
He's a true savant.
Can you imagine being tutored by the Funk Brothers at the height of Motown? Damned fine drummer and even his harmonica sound is distinct! Did he and Prince ever meet up?!?
Prince and Stevie were great friends. Prince was a big admirer of Stevie, and they would often show up and join each other’s band’s at on stage performances. Prince also presented an award to Stevie in the 90s, were he mentioned that Stevie was so great that artists thanked him when he didn’t release an album that year, so they could have a chance to win the Album of the Year Grammy (Referring to Paul Simon who won in 1975 during Stevie’s 3 album in a row winning streak of 73, 74, and 76)
Oh, man... how they never combined in the studio is a damned shame. Jesus, there probably wasn’t an instrument in the room at least one of them couldn’t play the Hell out of! Heck, imagine if Michael Jackson decided to drop in the studio that day? THAT’S the kind of material I’d have loved to hear on that USA For Africa compilation they all had a hand in.
I was at his live show at Hyde park back in 2016 and it was the whole of Songs in the Key of Life ( which was incredible, goes without saying really)
He played easily over 10 instruments throughout the gig.
The epitome of r/oldschoolcool. Happy Birthday, Wonderman!
We need a Stevie Wonder biography movie. It's time.
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5.1y
Would this include any visuals? And furthermore who would it be read by?
Morgan Freeman?
That man could read a phone book and make it sound interesting
Here lives the Johnson's family, from New York, 555-2683-1839 is the phone number, they have a bakery and a bar, bakery's number is 555-7284-2832 and the bar next to it it's 555-7284-2833. It sounds boring af, but with his voice i would watch it.
Oh hell yeah. I saw him in concert in LA. He did Talking Book and Innervisions in their entirety. Very political. Lots of bathroom breaks. Super playful and he must live a pretty healthy life because his voice sounded very strong and clear.
Paging Jamie Foxx... again!!!
People tend to fuck these up something awful with a few remarkable exceptions. I just cringe imagining the "big names" they'd through at the motion picture while at the same time not giving Stevie's story the respect and attention it needs. "Get On Up" is a good example of this
I liked the way they used the music in Get on Up to drive the story along. The songs seemed to be chosen and placed with alot of care. I don’t really know too much about James Brown’s life before Get On Up except that he was kinda crazy. I liked it alot better than most musician biopics, but maybe it’s just that James has better music than most musicians.
Stevie and Paul McCartney are probably the greatest living songwriters on earth right now.
And Stevie plays 2x the instruments 2x better than Paul. Just as a pure instrumental musician he’s on another level.
Paul’s first one or two (or three?) solo albums were totally solo-recorded, multi-instrumental affairs. Stevie and Paul are both total beasts and insanely musically talented. Paul just opted for musicians later on but he was a multi-instrumentalist on several tracks (some Beatles ones too).
Smokey Robinson - your favorite songwriter's favorite songwriter.
Lennon and McCartney called him the greatest American poet, which I full heartedly agree. His songwriting credits are insane, he was giving out hits to every Motown artist at one point, along with writing hits for his group The Miracles. Smokey was fire on that new Anderson .Paak song too.
Ah, a man of culture, I see.
Smokey's amazing, and more people need to know that.
David Gilmore, Roger Waters, Elton John, The entire Rolling Stones band (pretty impressive considering the fact they're over 70 years old.)
Pretty sure Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen are still alive too...
With all due respect to everyone else on the planet, Bob Dylan is the greatest songwriter alive. Dude has been pumping out quality songs since 1961. Nobody comes close to matching his output.
All these other people being mentioned—McCartney, David Gilmore, Roger Waters, Elton John, Bernie Taupin, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel—have acknowledged being influenced by Dylan. As has pretty much every other great songwriter of the last 50 years.
One of Stevie Wonder's first hits was a cover of "Blowin' in the Wind."
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5.1y
Dylan wrote so many songs back in the early days he literally forgot he wrote "Love is Just a Four Letter Word" and complimented Joan Baez on it. To which she had to inform him it was his song. Dylan's back catalogue is insanely big and all his old shit is still being periodically released in volumes.
With Dylan, although he has plenty of quality he had plenty more quantity.
IMO I'd say McCartney has written more great songs in general than Dylan.
Billy Joel is still kicking it too
David Gilmour is nowhere near the songwriter the others are, he is my favourite guitarist though. His wife writes all his lyrics and started doing so for the Division Bell in '94. I think the last song he wrote for the classic line up of Floyd was Childhood's End in 1972.
I've been on an Elton bend the last few days. Anticipating the Elton film, hear it's been getting good reviews.
That is the hairiest baby I've ever seen.
Smoke preserves food quite well so... The stones are alive due to be smoked and preserved in alcohol
Aka Ebony and Ivory
Neil Young needs to be mentioned here.
Very good point. Neil Young is great. I don’t know if he’s on Stevie/Paul’s level (in my book), but he’s damn close. Much of his work from the late 60s to late 70s is amazing.
Is that a CS-80 behind him?
Yes, that's a CS-80.
His friends used to fuck with him by rearranging his furniture
I had the pleasure of attending a talk by one of Stevies ex-assistants, apparently one of Stevies favourite jokes is when someone new starts touring with him, when they are getting on the coach, Stevie sits in the drivers seat as everyone is getting on
His ex-assistant also told us two stories, one where he had to drive Stevie to his mums house and asked Stevie where it was to which he replied “don’t know never seen the way” waited a few seconds then started laughing And he stopped to get petrol and someone came up and asked if it was Stevie in the car and his assistant did everything he could to stop this person getting to the car but he was so insistent he popped his head in and said someone REALLY wants to speak to you, sonhe said ok, the person popped their head in said “Hi Stevie” to which he replied “oh hi Bootsy”
I love hearing Stevie stories, he sounds like such a prankster
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Relatable AF
There aren't many musicians who have touched my soul like Stevie.
I heard that he's super rude. If you cross him on the street, he will just act like he didn't see you.
Barry Bonds?
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My favourite conspiracy theory is that Stevie can actually see.
Surprised to see Stevie without his glasses. From what I understand, he's very superstitious.
Other people: leaving beautiful comments about his life and career
Me: haha 69
This is the first year I've known that I've had the same birthday as Stevie wonder...
Haha he turned the sex number
Is that Jermaine Jackson sitting in the background or am I seeing things?
He can feel it all over.
Is that Jermaine Jackson sitting behind him?
Asked the same question...
I feel his pain, I also lost my sunglasses
Amazing talent. His run of LPs from 1972-1976 can't be touched. Saw him in Spring '73. What a show!
This man is a natural treasure. For all good accolades, I still don't think he gets recognized enough.
This is a rare sight!
He can totally see
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My buddy tried to convince me stevie wonder isn't blind lol I've never heard such a pointless argument
Yeah, there's a whole conspiracy theory about this that a lotta people believe. crizzzy.
He catches a falling microphone on SNL. There's a huge camp of believers
One of the most incredibly talented men to ever walk the planet. Earth shatteringly talented
Happy birthday music man!
Isn't he lovely.
Served dinner to this guy in downtown Detroit one time.
How talented, he can play with his eyes closed!
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There’s a great story in Keith Richards’ autobiography about when Stevie Wonder opened for the Stones on their ‘73 tour. He says they always stayed at the same hotel chain when they got to the next city, so Stevie would memorize exactly how many steps it took to get from the front door to the concierge desk, and from there to the elevator. Once he got it down, he’d make the walk unassisted just to fuck with everyone.