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solo, all of the components of this recording were put together by Wonder
through the tedious process of studio overdubbing. It is remarkable, then,
that piece sounds for all the world like a studio jam of a band, lead vocal-
ist, and backup singers. The song degenerates at the end after more than
7 minutes of music just as a real studio jam might do when the band had
not quite worked out a proper ending, or before the record producer had
constructed the song s fade out.
Possibly because of its very modest success as a single release, the best-
known song on Music of My Mind was Superwoman (Where Were You When
I Needed You Most). The success of this song is surprising, considering what
the sociopolitical tone of the United States was at the time of its release. For,
Superwoman appeared just as the women s movement was gaining steam.
In the world of Carole King s Tapestry album, not to mention Helen Reddy s
song I Am Woman, and other overtly political popular songs of women s
liberation, Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You Most)
seemed out of place. In particular, the differences between the overall lyrical
sentiment of the Stevie Wonder song and some of the more radical songs of
women s liberation John Lennon and Yoko Ono s ill-titled Woman Is the
Nigger of the World is perhaps the most extreme example is absolutely
striking. Although the sentiments of some of the songs of the early 1970s
women s movement have not worn well (especially the aforementioned
Lennon-Ono song and the often-parodied Helen Reddy song), the plight of
women in American society generally has been acknowledged as one of the
primary areas in which significant political and social change has been seen in
the past several decades. Because of that, Superwoman perhaps has fared
worse than just about any other Stevie Wonder composition in terms of last-
ing acceptance.
Basically, Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You Most)
is a juxtaposition of what easily could have been two separate songs. The
first section, the one that deals directly with the dreams of the Superwoman
character, is what can really make feminists angry. Wonder s lyrics describe
the hopes, dreams, and visions for the future of the woman who wants to
have it all. The problem lies in the fact that Wonder or the character he
is portraying as he sings the song downplays these dreams: they are just
things that are really in her mind. He continues by suggesting that these
dreams of what she wants to be are the things she needs to leave behind.
Because Mary, the Superwoman character, wants to boss the bull around,
and because Wonder s character indicates that he simply is not going to allow
this to happen in this relationship, he makes it clear who is boss at least in
32 The Sound of Stevie Wonder
his mind. The dismissal of Mary s hopes and dreams and the pointing out of
who in this relationship ultimately will win being placed in male versus female
terms comes off as condescending and patronizing. Mary s hopes and dreams
are to take second place to the dreams of Wonder s character, for he is the
bull not to be bossed around.
The tone of Mary s partner s putdown of her dreams in Superwoman
causes the listener to deal with a basic rhetorical problem as he or she digests
the song: Are the words and attitudes coming from the heart and soul of
Stevland Morris/Stevie Wonder or from a character he has invented for
the song? As I mentioned before, this is the real dilemma of Music of My
Mind the listener is not given adequate direction by the liner notes or by
the lyrics alone. For example, on one hand, the listener hears the male figure
described as the bull. Stevie Wonder fans might know that his astrological
sign is Taurus, the bull, and that his publishing company was called Black
Bull Music. However, the kind of self-serving love expressed by that char-
acter goes against the forms of love espoused by Wonder in virtually every
other song he had recorded up to that point. It also contradicts the notions
of universal love without hidden agendas and a lifelong purpose of building
others up that forms the basis of his post Music of My Mind corpus. So, just
who is singing Superwoman?
The second part of the song, which features some tasteful jazz-based guitar
work by Buzzy Feiton, might provide some clues as to the true identity of
the singer of Superwoman. In this part of the song, which harmonically,
melodically, and even tempo-wise, contrasts with the first half, Wonder s char-
acter asks his lost lover just where she was when he needed her most, last
winter. It seems as though some time has gone by and Wonder s character is
reflecting on how bitter words came between the couple and dissolved the
relationship. The lyrics imply that Wonder s former lover, however, was really
the one to blame, as she tells him that she has changed. He reiterates that
he needs her. So, why don t the two get back together? Pride? The listener
never gets an answer.
Why do I suggest that Superwoman is even more embarrassing today
than when Music of My Mind was first released in 1972? Didn t the main male
character get what he deserved? To the extent that the song seems to sug-
gest that he lost at love because his attempts to control the heart, mind, and
even the very life, of Mary failed, one could argue that he did get what he
deserved. The problem with this character and his just reward is that the basis
of his question, Where were you when I needed you, last winter, suggests
that he just doesn t get it. He simply does not realize why Mary left him. He
also continues to frame literally everything around himself. For example, he
even seems to get Mary to admit that she was wrong to have dreams of her
own. Despite the beautiful major-seventh chords that suggest the commer-
cial contemporary jazz of the time, and despite the soaring melodic material
and how well Stevie Wonder handles it as a vocalist, his character remains
The Independent Artist, 1971 1973 33
a fellow who is only too ready to put a woman under his thumb, where
he feels she belongs, to bring fulfi llment to him. He is not lovable; he is
regrettable. The problem for the listener is that it is not necessarily clear how
he or she is supposed to react: both the lyrics and the relationship of the
music and the lyrics send mixed signals. The beauty of the musical setting of
the second half of the song paints the main male character as someone with
whom Stevie Wonder would have us empathize. Music of My Mind overall
presents more mixed signals of this type than any other Wonder album. Inci-
dentally, the single release of Superwoman was not particularly successful:
the song reached No. 13 on the Billboard R&B charts and only No. 33 on
the Billboard pop charts.
The song I Love Every Little Thing about You follows Superwoman.
Here, Wonder the lyricist expresses a love that is considerably more focused
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