Living for the City

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"Living for the City" is a 1973 hit single by Stevie Wonder for the Tamla (Motown) label, from his Innervisions album. Reaching #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, the record is driven by a slow piano groove that manages to exude a certain amount of tension, an appropriate soundscape for the angry social commentary of the song. Rolling Stone ranked the song #104 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

[edit] The song

The song begins with Wonder describing the life of a poverty-stricken young boy in Mississippi. His family is poor, but his parents work hard and encourage him, in spite of the dreadful conditions they live in: lack of food and money, and racism. As the record progresses, the tension and anger build in Wonder's voice, matching the growing frustrations of the subjects in the song.

A spoken interlude midway through the song has the young boy, now a young man, arriving in New York City for a new beginning. He is tricked into transporting drugs, arrested and sentenced to 10 years in jail. The tension in Wonder's voice boils over at this point into an angry growl, but then subsides again as he ends the song on a positive note.

The spoken interlude can be seen as an electro-acoustic experiment, exploring the composer's main sensory input. Stevie Wonder's growling voice reveals the inner rage that has been building throughout the song. "Living for the City" still holds a substantial edge in social commentary.

[edit] Covers

The song was performed by Jonny Lang as a tribute to Wonder during the 2004 Songwriter's Hall of Fame award ceremony. A different live version appears on Lang's 2003 album Long Time Coming.
The song was performed by Melissa O'Neil during the top 9 week dedicated to Stevie on Canadian Idol's third season and by Taylor Hicks during the top 12 and finals of the fifth season of American Idol.
The song was covered by The Dirtbombs on their album Ultraglide in Black.
The song was released as a picture disk single by vocalist Ian Gillan.