7 Stevie Wonder 7

generation of electronic keyboard instruments made
him a pioneer and an inspiration to rock musicians, the
inventiveness of his vocal phrasing was reminiscent of
the greatest jazz singers, and the depth and honesty of his
emotional projection came straight from the black church
music of his childhood. Such a fertile period was unlikely
to last forever, and it came to an end in 1979 with a fey and
overambitious extended work called Stevie Wonder’s Journey
Through the Secret Life of Plants. Thereafter his recordings
became sporadic and often lacked focus, although his
concerts were never less than rousing. The best of his
work formed a vital link between the classic rhythm-
and-blues and soul performers of the 1950s and ’60s and
their less commercially constrained successors. Yet, how-
ever sophisticated his music became, he was never too
proud to write something as apparently slight as the
romantic gem “I Just Called to Say I Love You” (1984). He
was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989
and received a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement
in 2005. In 2008 the Library of Congress announced
that Wonder was the recipient of its Gershwin Prize for
Popular Song.

The Sex Pistols

The original members were Johnny Rotten (byname of John Lydon;
b. Jan. 31, 1956, London, Eng.), Steve Jones (b. May 3, 1955, London,
Eng.), Paul Cook (b. July 20, 1956, London, Eng.), and Glen Matlock
(b. Aug. 27, 1956, London, Eng.). A later member was Sid Vicious
(byname of John Simon Ritchie; b. May 10, 1957, London, Eng.—d.
Feb. 2, 1979, New York, N.Y., U.S.).

T

he Sex Pistols created the British punk movement of
the late 1970s and, with the song “God Save the
Queen,” became a symbol of the United Kingdom’s social
and political turmoil.