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GOODY TWO SHOES
2CD Deluxe Editions (Occasional Threesome), Expanded Reissues and Compilations
All Info From The Discs Themselves
No Cut and Paste Crap
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"… Love's In Need Of Love Today…"
The tired eyes of over-stimulated music lovers: but will we ever rub moody on this urge to splurge double-album crescendo bombshell from 1976 on the mighty Motown Records – I seriously doubt it.
Presently resplendent in my 65-year-old body-buggered belly-flop dotage – I am one of those nerdy Rock boys who saw, bought and raved unto the joy fantastic for the 2LP set "Songs In The Key Of Life" - and has drooled at the mere sight of it ever since. I can still feel the awe I felt when I first saw copies of this Soul beast in an Irish Record shop in Dublin’s Grafton Street – it was a chunky bugger and expensive. But I knew in my Shamrock-Shaped Y-Fronts – it had to be mine. Let’s update the story...
After a few 80s clunky fat-jewel case reissues - 8 May 2000 finally saw the Kevin Reeves Remaster of this double-album and its 4-Track Something Extra EP make it onto a slim-line UK 2CD set. And here in September 2023 - Motown 157 3572-2 (Barcode 6012215735727) from May 2000 has remained the go-to purchase point for most – eight quid or less depending on where you buy. But this is one of my top fave raves so I wanted something approximating better.
Up step the Japanese who know how to tease my long-suffering bank account and using the 2000 remasters – they put out the Motown 50: Stevie Wonder Paper Sleeve Collection – SHM-CD reissues in Mini LP Repro Artwork with Booklets etc. Here are the Ordinary Pains...
JAPAN-only released 28 January 2009 - "Songs In The Key Of Life" by STEVIE WONDER on Tamla UICY-93936/7 (Barcode 4988005546265) sports the American 2LP artwork from 1976, the full booklet and is on the Super-High-Materials Format.
Disc 1 (42:47 minutes):
1. Love's In Need Of Love Today [Side 1]
2. Have A Talk With God
3. Village Ghetto Land
4. Contusion
5. Sir Duke
6. I Wish [Side 2]
7. Knocks Me Off My Feet
8. Pastime Paradise
9. Summer Soft
10. Ordinary Pain
Tracks 1 to 10 are Sides 1 and 2 of the double-album "Songs In The Key Of Life" - released 28 September 1976 in the USA on Tamla T13-340C2 and October 1976 in the UK on Tamla Motown TMSP 6002. It had a 24-page booklet with complete musician credits, lyrics, artist influences and "A Something's Extra" 4-track EP (played at LP-speed) that has been tagged onto the end of Disc 2 here.
Disc 2 (62:15 minutes):
1. Isn't She Lovely [Side 3]
2. Joy Inside My Tears
3. Black Man
4. Ngiculela - Es Una Historia - I Am Singing [Side 4]
5. If It's Magic
6. As
7. Another Star
A Something's Extra Bonus:
8. Saturn
9. Ebony Eyes
10. All Day Sucker
11. Easy Goin' Evening (My Mama's Call)
Tracks 1 to 7 are Sides 3 and 4 of the double-album "Songs In The Key Of Life" - Tracks 8 to 11 are the 4-track EP that came with original copies of the vinyl 2LP set
I love the KEVIN REEVES remasters (done in 2000 at Universal using original tapes) - warm and full of presence - bringing songs like "Isn't She Lovely" and the astonishing vocal bitterness and synth-funk in "Ordinary Pain" to life. There have been other reissues in Japan – namely the 18 December 2013 Platinum SHM-CD Version (Motown UICY-40044/5 – Barcode 4988005798435) that apparently uses a new 2011 DSD Flat Remaster. But despite genuinely beautiful packaging and presentation in a Gold and White Mini Box Set - they are deleted, ludicrously expensive (fifty-quid plus) and I bought one for the Rolling Stones "Sticky Fingers" and hated its dead sound so I have left any of them alone.
What can you say about "Songs In The Key Of Life" - it feels like "Blonde On Blonde", "The Beatles", "Exile On Main St." and "Physical Graffiti" - a double album you'll never dip into for years to come and still seemingly find something new. It opens with the truly gorgeous "Love's In Need Of Love Today" and the brilliance (and social conscience) rarely lets up. I love the instrumental "Contusion" and Minnie Riperton and Denise Williams in the Backing Vocals of the acidic "Ordinary Pain' - with Shirley Brewer singing the angry 'response' lyrics with such conviction as to be positively unnerving. Album nuggets include the gorgeous slow drawl of "Joy Inside My Tears", social injustice in "Pastime Paradise" and his soaring vocals in "Ngiculela - Es Una Historia - I Am Singing" brings tears to my eyes.
Stevie Wonder would annoy everyone with the indulgent 1979 2LP extravaganza "Journey Through The Secret Life Of Plants" and then regain his crown with the slimmer "Hotter Than July" in 1980. But this Seventies marvel (along with "Talking Book", "Innervisions" and "Fulfillingness First Finale") are the bedrock of his reputation - and rightly so.
You could of course buy the UK/Euro 2CD Remaster from 2000 for cheapish amounts of dosh – but I like that extra oomph this SHM-CD format offers. "Songs In The Key Of Life" is the kind of album I covet and I have to have it in the best way poss...
