Milestones: Fulfillingness’ First Finale by Stevie Wonder
Following the morally-charged, sometimes despair-inducing sentiments explored within Innervisions, Stevie Wonder returned with another masterpiece.
During the most fertile and commercially fruitful stage of his career, Stevie Wonder bestowed upon the world his seventeenth studio album, Fulfillingness’ First Finale. Two years prior, he had secured an unprecedented deal with Motown, granting him total creative control over his music. He was, moreover, unrelenting in his productivity, producing albums annually and showcasing his musicianship by playing nearly every instrument on each.
The following year, in 1973, Wonder had become a cultural ubiquity, even appearing on the television show Sesame Street. By this time, it was an annual ritual for Wonder to be laden with an armful of GRAMMYs. Fulfillingness’ First Finale followed suit, amassing a total of four of the coveted awards. His three preceding albums, namely Music of My Mind, Talking Book and Innervisions, painted a vivid and incisive commentary on societal issues of the time, from racial discrimination to the Nixon administration. Notably, the song “Higher Ground” from Innervisions held connotations of reincarnation, a theme that would eerily echo events in his life.
In the summer of 1973, Wonder was traveling to a radio interview while on tour, when he was embroiled in a severe car crash. The incident resulted in profound head injuries and he remained in a coma for four days. When he finally regained consciousness, his memory of the collision was vague, and he experienced a temporary loss of smell and taste. In an interview with the New York Times, Wonder expressed that he believed in reincarnation, adding an eerily prescient note to “Higher Ground”, which he had composed prior to the accident. He viewed this incident as a second chance at life, a wake-up call to accomplish more and appreciate life itself.
The impact of the accident was a profound one, spurring Wonder on with a refreshed sense of purpose. His creative output was even more immense, and the sheer volume of songs he composed for Fulfillingness’ First Finale led him to contemplate releasing a double LP, a move that wasn’t met with favor by Motown. It marked one of the rare instances where the label would counter one of Wonder’s ideas. In an interview with Melody Maker in 1974, he expressed his desire to share all the songs he had written for the album, claiming that the unheard half of the album was superior to what was actually released.
Wonder briefly toyed with the idea of releasing a Fulfillingness’ First Finale, Vol. 2 in 1975. Elaborating on the urgency to release the album in an interview with Melody Maker, Wonder stated, “Otherwise, it’s going to be another year before it comes out – and by then, I’ll have new material that I’ll want to work on.” He finally achieved his ambition of releasing a double LP with the follow-up album, Songs in the Key of Life, in 1976.
Following the brush with fate, a discernible shift characterizes Wonder’s creative approach to Fulfillingness’ First Finale. His compositions, for the most part, appear softer, with a standout emphasis on interpersonal connections and spiritual liaisons. This subtle shift is most prominent in the album’s inaugural track “Smile Please,” a veritable watershed moment encapsulating the end of one artistic phase and the advent of another for Wonder.
The subject matters delicately broached in Fulfillingness’ First Finale would subsequently find themselves in sharper focus in his later works. While the core message of “Smile Please” is pretty straightforward, it’s articulated with a grace and elegance that characterizes Wonder’s lyrical style, magnificently demonstrated in verses such as “A smiling face is an Earth-like star…There are brighter days ahead.” Adding to the harmonic richness of this journey is the relatively unknown, yet immensely talented, Deniece Williams with her ethereal background vocals.
“Heaven Is 10 Zillion Light Years Away” emerges as a stunning reflective exercise on notions of divinity and its profound influence on human existence. Wonder refrains from endorsing a specific religious doctrine, but instigates provocative rumination on the existence or notion of a superior entity, avoiding the evangelism and pomp that often accompanies such messages (“They say that heaven is 10 zillion light years away… ‘where is your God?’… ‘Cause we’ve got so far to come”). Despite my personal atheistic beliefs, I am frequently drawn towards this particular composition when I yearn for a semblance of spiritual grounding. Moreover, “Heaven Is 10 Zillion Light Years Away” boasts of robust background vocals from the likes of Syreeta Wright, Shirley Brewer, Larry “Nastyee” Latimer, and Paul Anka.
Featuring the Jackson 5 as a form of resonant chorus, “You Haven’tDone Nothin’” is a distinctive rebuke from Wonder. His forthright assertions such as “We are weary of your ceaseless song, pronouncing your imminent change of wrongs. If indeed you wish to understand our perception, you’ve achieved nothin’” was his most scathing critique of Nixon, who intriguingly resigned from his presidential duties two days post the release of the song as a single. Although Fulfillingness’ First Finale strays from Wonder’s prior undertakings, it admirably serves as a conduit to his work that many perceive to be his crowning achievement, Songs in the Key of Life. The most astounding facet of Stevie Wonder’s career is the fact that all these significant epochs occurred before he completed his third decade of life.
Masterpiece (★★★★★)