“Golden Lady” (Stevie Wonder)

Today’s classic song of the day is Stevie Wonder’s “Golden Lady.” This song was never released as a single in the U.S., although it should have been. It was a standout track (the fourth and final track on side one) on Wonder’s 1973 album, Innervisions.

Innervisions was the third of a string of five career-defining albums from Stevie Wonder. The first, Music of My Mind, came out in 1972, quickly followed by Talking Book (1972), Innervisions (1973), and Fulfillingness’ First Finale (1974). The grand finale, Wonder’s capstone moment, was 1976’s epic Songs in the Key of Life, one of the top ten or even top five albums of the modern era. I can think of no other artist save for the Beatles with as many powerful albums in a row over such a short period of time. The accomplishment was remarkable.

“Golden Lady” is typical of many of Stevie’s songs in that it isn’t anchored in a single key throughout. Whereas most composers tend to start on the tonic (I) chord in a given key and proceed logically within the key from there (typically to the vi, iii, IV, or V chords), Stevie hears things differently. In the case of “Golden Lady,” Stevie employs an upward-leaning chord progression in the verse that plays fast and lose with any underlying harmonic structure. The chords go IMaj9 – ii9 – iii7 – #iv7 – II7sus4; in the key of Eb (sort of), that’s EbMaj9 – Fm9 – Gm7 – Am7 – D7sus4. Very interesting stuff.

In the chorus, the chords take a similar nontraditional journey, this time in the related-but-not-really key of G minor, going i – iMaj7 – im7 – im6 – bIIMaj7 – i – im7 – mi6 – i7 – bIIMaj7 – IMaj7 – viim7 – III13. (Sort of; one can argue that the shift to the IMaj7 actually shifts the tonal center.) In the key of G minor that’s Gm – Gm(Maj7) – Gm7 – Gm6 – AbMaj7 – Gm – Gm7 – Gm6 – Gm7 – AbMaj7 – GMaj7 – Fm7 – Bb13. This is not your standard I – IV – V chord progression, it’s way more harmonically sophisticated.

Note the pedal point on the Gm chord while the top note moves from the root to the major 7th to the minor 7th to the 6th, which is the way Stevie tends to hear things. He likes to start with a given chord in a given key and then move to variations of that chord, such as moving from the major chord to the minor, or adding various extensions. (See my review of “Until You Come Back to Me” that he wrote for Aretha Franklin, where he swings from an AMaj 7 to an Am7/D—extremely unusual but incredibly sophisticated.) It’s like he’s just playing around with different combinations under his fingertips but in a way that is totally surprising yet natural sounding. Wow.

The ending adds to the mix by modulating each successive chorus up a half step by changing the III13 chord (which actually functions as a V13 that circles back to the I chord in the original major key) to a sharped III13 to pivot to each new tonic. It just keeps going up and up, seemingly forever, much to the chagrin of vocalists everywhere.

The album Innervisions was recorded earlier in 1973 at the Record Plant in Los Angeles and Mediasound studios in New York City. Stevie played most of the instruments himself—depending on the song, acoustic piano, Fender Rhodes electric piano, T.O.N.T.O. synthesizer, Hohner clavinet, Moog bass, harmonica, even drums. On “Golden Lady,” Stevie played everything except Hammond organ (played by Clarence Bell), acoustic guitar (Ralph Hammer), and congas (Larry “Nastyee” Latimer).

Innervisions, released on August 3, 1973, included nine tracks, all immediate classics: “Too High,” “Visions,” “Living for the City,” “Golden Lady,” “Higher Ground,” “Jesus Children of America,” “All in Love is Fair,” “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing,” and “He’s Misstra Know-It-All.” The album peaked at #4 on Billboard’s Top LPs & Tapes chart and #1 on the Soul LPs chart. Billboard ranked it as the #4 album of the entire year and it won Grammy Awards for Album of the Year and Best Engineered Non-Classical Recording. The song “Living for the City” won the Grammy for Best R&B Song. The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.

To my mind, Stevie Wonder is one of a handful of artists who really mattered in the ’70s. (The others include Steely Dan, Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Bruce Springsteen, and Elvis Costello.) His music is soulful, sophisticated, and inspiring—and it never gets old. “Golden Lady” and the rest of Innervisions sound as fresh today as it did when I first heard the album 50 years ago in high school. It is simply superb.