"Little Stevie Wonder"
8th Wonder of the World (Tamla Motown)
The history of the Blues is all about conquering disadvantage. The most disadvantaged blues men and women of all were those who had a disability that reduced their capacity to earn by working in the fields and on the plantations.
The story of the disabled bluesmen was brought home to me when I went as a young medical student and went to see Sonny Terry and Brownie Maggie at LSE in London in the early 70s. Here were 2 blues legends; one crippled musician leading on his blind colleague.
There are many blind musicians in the annals of the Blues and there are probably many more who are now forgotten and unrecorded. Some were great musical geniuses while many would have played on street corners as buskers do now. There are many musicians with the prefix Blind….. and some of the most well known blind musicians included Blind Blake, Robert Bradley, Bo Carter, Ray Charles, Art Tatum, Cortelia Clark, Reverend Gary Davis, Sleepy John Estes, Blind Boy Fuller, Blind Roosevelt Graves, W. C. Handy, Jeff Healey, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Willie Johnson, Bryan Lee, Blind Willie McTell, Blind Mississippi Morris, Blind Joe Reynolds, Teddy Darby, Blind Sonny Terry.
The young Stevie Wonder
This Roll of honour includes some of the most influential of all on the Blues Road. Were they musicians because they could not do anything else or was it the absence of one of our most precious senses that gave them that special genius to create music about their lives, loves and hardships. More recently, blind black musicians such as Ray Charles and Art Tatum have been able to scale the heights of 20th century popular music and become household names.
Many of these issues passed through my mind as I stood at the Pyramid stage in Glastonbury this June to hear one of the most famous all black blind musical entertainers.
At last we were celebrating a blind musician who had made it to the very top, but whose path had been shaped and trodden by the myriad of blind musicians who preceded him. A musician who owes so much to those who passed along Highway 61 before.
Blind Lemon Jefferson
Blind Willie Mctell
Ray Charles, King of Soul
Stevie Wonder, born Stevland Hardaway Judkins in Saginaw, Michigan(May 13, 1950) is a multitalented instrumentalist, singer song writer, record producer and Human Rights Activists. Stevie became blind soon after his birth due to retinopathy of prematurity. He moved with his mother when he was four to Detroit, where he began singing in a church choir and playing instruments, including piano, harmonica, drums and bass. He was apparently discovered by Gerald White of The Miracles and it was soon after that the artist “Little Stevie Wonder” (The 8th Wonder of the World) signed with Motown Records and he has stayed loyal to the same label ever since. His subsequent hits include classics such as “Superstition”, “I Wish”, “I just Called to Say I Love You” and many more. One of his first singles, "I Call It Pretty Music, But the Old People Call It the Blues", acknowledged the blues influence on his early music. He has recorded more than thirty U.S. top ten hits and received twenty-two Grammy Awards, the most ever given to a male solo artist. He has won an Academy Award for Best Song and has been inducted into the Rock and Roll and the Songwriters Halls of Fame. American music magazine Rolling Stone named him the ninth greatest singer of all time
He is not so well known for his work on Human Rights and as a political activist. He has never forgotten is hard childhood and has campaigned relentlessly for the downtrodden around the world. It was his campaigning which led to the adoption on Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday as a national holiday in the USA and in 2009 he was named United Nations Messenger of Peace.
Happy Birthday Glastonbury
This was my first Glastonbury and I was ever so fortunate that it was the driest for many years. I saw many great acts but one of the most unforgettable was seeing Little Stevie Wonder who Motown once billed as the 8th Wonder of the world, fulfilling the aspirations and dreams of all those black blind musicians who came before him!
Hugh caught by the Glastonbury Green Police
One of the other great legends to appear this year was Willie Nelson. A hard living country maestro in the mold of similar giants such as Johnny Cash. He was one of the Alternative Outlaw Country Stars of the 1970s. Time has turned this once hard drinking rebel into one of the old grandees of country music. His music was angry white Blues and his message was that of the poor and underprivileged white country folk. I was so privileged to see him along with Stevie.
The Gem of Glastonbury "No Bones Jones"
A special thanks to my hosts at Glastonbury. Gill and Hugh Jones are very special people and together with their 4 fabulous boys and all their friends operate one of the best culinary gems of the Festival. If ever you come again, don’t forget to call at “No Bones Jones” the best Vegan/Vegetarian food stall EVER!
No Bones
P.S. Try the Fritters and Granny Jones’ Bread and Butter Pudding
Gill and Fraser
