Maddenation
Sir Duke
Often, when listening to Stevie Wonder, I hear some instrument do a subtle tweak of its natural movement or the bass line will go into a complete euphoric seisure. It’s always satisfying.
Just now I decided to listen to Sir Duke, which, for about four or five years, I have referred to as the best song ever recorded. It’s true, there is no argument, there are some great songs out there and then there is Sir Duke. The song is about Duke Ellington and many other musical greats who inspired Stevie. It’s also about how music affects people and influences lives. Most notably, though, the song describes where you can feel the music. The answer? All over.
If you listen to it, you’ll notice the first verse has a play on words. I’m not sure if it’s intentional, but I hope it is. It goes,
Music is a world within itself with a language we all understand
With an equal opportunity
for all to sing, dance, and clap their hands.
But open your ears. The word “opportunity” is pronounced as “opera-tunity”. Woah! Is that on purpose? Not sure. I kinda want to google it, but I also kinda don’t want to know if there’s a story. Pretty awesome, huh?
Dan • Observations • 03/15/06 • 6 comments
Comments
AJ • 03/16/06 • 12:22 AM:Sounds like “Opera Tune a-T” actually.
Dad • 03/17/06 • 9:26 AM:I don’t know which I like better, the sassy, whining horns or the perfection of the strutting base line, or Stevie’s vibrant, excited voice. This is truly a great song. Oh wait, those drums! That guitar pickin’.
David • 03/20/06 • 11:42 PM:It is no doubt a phenomenal song. However, I don’t even think it’s Stevie’s best. Superstition is better. More boombastic, more jazzy, more riproaring. It’s one of those songs that I imagine I had heard many times growing up. But I remember hearing it for the first time while living in Jax. One day on the drive home from school it came on the radio. I was like - WHOA! what is THIS?!?! It blew my mind, and still does. That hearing was an epiphany. Perhaps had Sir Duke come on the radio instead that fateful day I would feel differently now.
Patrick • 03/20/06 • 11:59 PM:My vote is for “Sir Duke” over “Superstition,” even though both songs are awesome. Other songs that are “best ever” status are “The Wind” by Cat Stevens, “Carry On, Wayward Son” by Kansas, and “Sweet Home, Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd (Hey: if you misspell it “lynrd skynrd” in Google, Google won’t even bother asking you “Do you mean “Lynyrd Skynyrd”? It just goes right to the proper search results. That must have been some Skynyrd fan working at Google who just overrode the system, no?)
Dan • 03/21/06 • 12:33 PM:When I hear “Superstition” I can’t help but bounce up and down the entire time just like Stevie does in his seat when he plays it. I can’t fault Dave for liking it more than “Sir Duke.”
It’s a common musical theme in Stevie’s songs that, indeed, you can feel it all over.
By the way, I am going to assume you are all like I was before I bought “Songs in the Key of Life” and have never heard the song “Ngiculela-Es Una Historia-I Am Singing”. Ahem. You’re welcome.
Dad • 03/21/06 • 2:04 PM:In looking for “Superstition”, I ran across this essay by Robert Green Ingersoll, written over 100 years ago. Be careful. It is long and strongly anti-religious. However, he does make a compelling case against superstition. And it’s hard to refute his point that religious faith may not be fundamentally different from superstition and witchcraft. However, the science that Ingersoll espouses has limitations as well, and no means to reach ultimate truth. Ingersoll died before relativity and quantum mechanics shook up physics; before the uncertainty principle and the incompleteness theorem shook up determinism. Atheists may feel comfortable confronting the unknown with a shrug of the shoulders, but they must ultimately make an act of faith no more rational than that of the believers.
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