Chicapah In 1971 Stevie Wonder came of age in more ways than one. Upon turning 21 his contract with Motown expired and he held all the renegotiation cards. Barry Gordy, the head of the label, had no leverage whatsoever and knew if he was to keep his grown up prodigy in his stable he’d have to give up virtually all control and a big chunk of royalties. Stevie deservedly made out like a bandit but the music world was the true beneficiary because from that moment on Wonder stopped being a 45 rpm machine and became the explorer, the innovator and conqueror of new worlds he was born to be. He never looked back. He took the wheel of his own ship and courageously steered it directly into waters that no musician, black or white, had sailed upon and “Music of My Mind” was just the first of many overflowing treasure chests he brought back from his adventures.

This album came out in March of ’72 but it wasn’t until later that year that musicians in the rock & roll and jazz realms started spreading the buzz about it. Most of us (me included) were highly skeptical that “little” Stevie Wonder could possibly be doing anything that’d be of interest to us sophisticates but one by one we became believers as this LP gained more and more spins on our turntables. It wasn’t that he was just employing synthesizers (many rockers were already doing that quite effectively) but that he was integrating them into black music in ways that no one else had thought or dared to. He wasn’t just making cool noises with them; he made them sound like naturalized instruments and what we were absorbing from this album forced us to reevaluate everything we thought we knew about the man. Not to mention what we thought we knew about R&B.

From the moment the needle settled into its vinyl groove it became apparent that Stevie was fully committed to creating something different and that he couldn’t care less what anyone thought. He was finally free of the ropes that compelled him to aim all his endeavors at the Top 40 charts and the opener, “Love Having You Around,” confirmed it. Not only did it lack the usual pop intro but here Wonder was blatantly parading his own one-man band, presenting a track that flew in the face of traditional, accepted methodology. The song has excellent momentum, probably the hardest thing to accomplish since he was the drummer and had to keep the entire arrangement in his head while concentrating on tempo. Art Baron’s trombone is a nice surprise but this is Stevie through and through as he chortles with glee “every day I want to fly my kite/every day I want to get on my camel an’ ride.” The playful ending he tacks on is further proof of the unbridled joy he’d found in becoming his own boss. “Superwoman” follows and it’s a great tune that displays his ongoing evolution as a gifted songwriter. The number’s second movement is ethereal and flowing and it’s here he proved to his peers they could bring Arp and Moog synthesizers out of novelty land and into the mainstream. Yet his most valuable asset, his incredible (and still youthful) voice, was ever the main attraction and he delivers lines like “where were you when I needed you last winter, my love?” with astounding passion and conviction well beyond his 22 years.

A drifting Rhodes piano leads us into “I Love Every Little Thing About You,” a delightful song featuring a cascading chorus I couldn’t get enough of for the longest time. Stevie is fearless as he peppers the track with offbeat sighs and asides and his drum fills toward the end are splendid. “Sweet Little Girl” is the oddest of the selections in that it alternates between being a New Orleans-styled stomper chugging along like a steam engine and a lazy shuffle loping beneath a randy voice-over. “Happier Than The Morning Sun” sports an unconventional intro where an energetic clavichord and vocal set the pace and maintain a healthy rhythm throughout sans drums. The tune has a jazzy chord progression and Wonder cleverly plays his voice like a musical instrument, especially during the slowed-down latter part where his intertwining vocal lines never get tangled. On “Girl Blue” he takes advantage of the percussive aspects of the synthesizer to compliment his drums. It’s a tad loose but you get the feeling he’s so ecstatic to be exploring endless possibilities that he refuses to fret over how tightly it all fits together. “Seems So Long” is a composition that could’ve been presented in tried and true fashion but he opts to let his unfettered imagination and creativity embellish the tune with his new-found paint brushes, the Arp and Moog. Yet he never lets things get so bizarre that the basic melody and structure get lost.

A synth pulse drives “Keep On Running” at the beginning, then subtle drums take over the beat to guide us on a romp through the suburbs of Funkville where he tactfully avoids overcrowding the groove and one must give him props for including a false ending. Remember, this is all Stevie so spontaneity was not an option. Every angle had to be planned out in advance but somehow he makes it sound like it all just “happened.” An appropriate deep, dark synth drone meanders underneath the gospel-tinged “Evil.” He steadily builds the intensity as the stirring chorale becomes the prominent presence and his voice gets wholly caught up in the emotional impact of his accusatory words. “Evil/why have you broken so many homes?/leaving sweet love all alone/an outcast of the world,” he sings as he brings the album to a satisfying climax.

While it’s no masterpiece, it certainly requires no apology from its mastermind. The overall impression this record leaves me with is akin to what I’d expect from a hungry kid let loose in a candy store. He’s so thrilled to be in that fortunate situation that he gets caught up in the moment and scampers from one aisle to the next without a clear plan except to indulge without restraint. And who can blame him for that? The memory of and lessons learned from the experience itself is more important than the eventual work that resulted from such a spree and that’s what we should treasure most about “Music of My Mind.” It’s an exhilaratingly honest product from a genius who had no desire or intention to play it safe once he’d procured the independence he’d earned after years of indenture to his owners. No artist has ever so completely altered the public’s image of what he was about with one album as Stevie Wonder did with this release. And, in retrospect, it gave us but a tiny glimpse of where he was going to take us with his music over the following decades.