With the exception of the Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder had been one of the few real bright spots for Motown in 1970 — not only on his own, with the superb Signed, Sealed & Delivered album, but as writer-producer of the Spinners' hit "It's a Shame." The next step was to take charge of his own music — and with Berry Gordy's go-ahead, that's what Stevie designed 1971's Where I'm Coming From to demonstrate. Co-writing with his wife Syreeta Wright (who as Rita Wright had a 1968 Motown hit with "I Can't Give Back the Love I Feel for You"), Stevie made a real sleeper — it's been largely buried from memory by the truly original stuff that would follow, and as the stepping-stone between the fast-eroding Motown formula and what Stevie would cook up on his own (with banks of synthesizers), it's often fascinating.

Where I'm Coming From is the closest any classic Motown artist got in replicating the kind of albums that got played on free-form early FM rock radio. "I Wanna Talk to You" makes it clear that Stevie had been listening to Frank Zappa and the Bonzo Dog Band as well as the Beatles and the… read more »