Sapped

I don't know why, but over the last couple of weeks I've been listening to the music at the sappier end of Stevie Wonder's spectrum.


Stevie is a master of the sapitudinous style, and he wrote some songs that were straightforward proclamations of love (such as the cringe-inducing 'I Just Called To Say I Love You', and his ode to his newborn daughter 'Isn't She Lovely'*). However there's an undeniable bitter-sweet vein that runs through a lot of his music.


'My Cherie Amor' is about being infatuated with a girl you're too scared to approach. 'Yester-me, Yester-you, Yester-day' is about consigning a relationship to the dustbin of history. 'Lately' is about a man struggling with his suspicions about his wife's faithfulness, beautifully written so that it seems that the character is treating himself as being too suspicious, when from what he reveals there's a strong likelihood his suspicions are well-founded.... it's almost as if he doesn't want to think too hard about what's going on because he's terrified of what he might have to face if it's true.


Songs about romantic love are a lot easier to take when there's a good dose of pain swirled into the mix. Even so, I'm kind of worried. Listening to sappy Stevie Wonder songs, fretting over duck death... I don't know what's wrong with me lately.


* This song has always bothered me, given the fact that Stevie Wonder is blind. I mean, how did he know whether or not his daughter was lovely? For all he knew she may have been the most hideous infant in Christendom.