Living for the City

I kind of scoff at some of the more optimistic moments, although now that I'm a father myself, Isn't She Lovely means more to me.

You made a statement before that you didn't think there were any of those edgy protest songs or those, you know, city in turmoil tunes like Superstition or Living for the City that had come earlier in Wonder's classic period.

And I beg to differ.

And I'm going to play one of those.

And it's true.

I think Stevie was really there.

Living for the City, wow.

He's Mr. Know-It-All, directed at Richard Nixon.

but too late.

What was the push for getting Living for the City as a single? Who pushed that for it to

happen? The record company.

Personally, I preferred the original.

know those songs were my arrangements and I think they worked for the band Trouble was

good yeah Trouble really worked well

but living for the city you know come on it's Stevie you

know

He has to maneuver his way through the dealers on the streets, the dealers and the hookers, into the building that is just filled with crack smoke and junkies, where he finds his brother getting high.

And Spike Lee choreographs the whole thing to Stevie Wonder's Living for the City.

Oh yeah.

So you remember that, right?

I was asking you guys, what's the best socially conscious Stevie song? Great suggestions here.

Living for the City, He's Mistre know-it-all, You Haven't Done Nothing, Blowin' in the Wind, A Place in the Sun, Jesus, Children of America, Village Ghetto Land, Joy Inside My Tears, Black Man, Big Brother, They Won't Go When I Go, Pastime Paradise, Evil, Skeletons, Front Line, and Ribbon in the Sky.

But you know, what can you say? It's Higher Ground.

Um, yeah, uh, big shout-out to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who I will admit introduced me to this song, and I do love their version, but, uh, you know, it's all about Stevie at number 238.

Living.

Living for the city.

Ooh, whoa.

Yeah.

Living for the city.

I'm excited to connect with Andre Duthard, whose Paramedia Sound label and collective represents exactly the kind of self-built, community-rooted creative infrastructure that has redefined Detroit's most important musical moments across every generation.

So you, after high school, you went to study business, music business-

Ooh, whoa.