Bootleg City: Stevie Wonder in '74

Time to get to Higher Ground

Bootleg City: Stevie Wonder in '74
Why does this tape smell like weed?

Welcome back to the weekend, citizens of Bootleg City! To celebrate the temporary death of our professional obligations, let us gather together and celebrate the genius of one Stevie Wonder, captured here making a stop at the Rainbow Theatre in London during January of 1974.

This was, obviously, a glorious high point in Wonder's career; he'd just released Innervisions several months before, and he'd come back with Fulfillingness' First Finale about six months later. Little more than a year previous, he'd released Talking Book. It was a great time to be a Stevie fan.

If anything, this set is slightly disappointing because it's relatively brief, but it's still a marvelous snapshot from the midst of one of the most amazing imperial periods of the rock era. You also get a 20-minute version of "Contusion," so all's well that ends well.