Audio By Carbonatix
Stevie Wonder in 1973 — when he was damned near the most powerful live performer around
Been trying to find a reason to post a link to the most amazing unreleased concert recording ever — which may be overstating it, but not by much — when it occurred to me that, hey, Buddy Miles lives in Fort Worth. Hot damn — so there’s your local connection to this just-posted 1973 Stevie Wonder concert at the Berkeley Community Theater on March 4, 1973, during which the former Band of Gypsies drummer-singer-songwriter joined Wonder for a nearly 11-minute-long workout on “Superstition” that doesn’t last long enough. (Other tenuous local link: During the show, Wonder performs a snippet of “Summer Breeze” by Texans Jimmy Seals and Dash Crofts; Jimmy’s brother, Dan, began his musical career in Dallas. So…there.)
“Superstition” (covered famously by Oak Cliff’s Stevie Ray Vaughan — a-ha!) was the last song played during a concert that included marathon renditions of Wonder’s Motown songbook (including “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours”), a Dylan cover (“Blowin’ in the Wind”), Billy Paul’s “Me and Mrs. Jones” and Wonder’s ’73 hits, among them “You Are The Sunshine of My Life.” If you want — and you should, trust me — it’ll likely be up for a short time only; get it now, and it’ll see you through the long, hot summer. –Robert Wilonsky
