Song of the Day 9/21: Stevie Wonder, “He’s Misstra Know-It-All”

Jann Wenner, the founder of Rolling Stone magazine and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, embroiled himself in controversy this week – not for the first time – when he botched a New York Times interview for his just-published book of interviews, “The Masters.”

When David Marchese pointed out that the seven “masters” he cited were all white guys (and, he might have added, all quite long in the tooth), Wenner responded that female artists were “not articulate enough on this intellectual level” to be included, and that Black artists “just didn’t articulate at that level.” The Hall of Fame kicked him off its board of directors the next day.

Such interviews are, by their nature, exercises in public relations. Marchese’s question came in high and hard, but it was still a softball. Wenner might have said that these were all old interviews, and he regretted not having conducted similar sitdowns with, say, Joni Mitchell and Stevie Wonder. Instead he joined a long list of aging Boomers who’ve demonstrated that their involvement with rock music shouldn’t be taken as a guarantee of liberal attitudes.

It’s not as if Rolling Stone didn’t interview Black musicians, or that they were inarticulate when they did – this 1975 RS piece about Wonder demonstrates that, though very little of the article is devoted to his philosophical musings. But can Wenner credibly argue that Mick Jagger and Jerry Garcia are more intellectual than Joni Mitchell? Apparently not, and given his responses to easier questions than that, he’s probably better off not trying.

Wonder had been recording for a decade but was still just 22 when he toured as the opening act for the Rolling Stones in 1972, exposing him to a rock audience and kicking off his decade-plus classic period. This tune, from 1973’s “Innervisions,” failed to chart as a single, but it seems appropriate for today.