Stevie Wonder was the "support act" for the Rolling Stones tour in March of 1972. Gene Allan and I were invited backstage by Trevor Howard, Stevie's bandleader.
Stevie Wonder was the “support act” for the Rolling Stones tour in March of 1972. Gene Allan and I were invited backstage by Trevor Howard, Stevie’s bandleader. What an incredible experience for us both at that time in our career. We had hired Trevor to play piano on a recording sometime earlier.
Having released his groundbreaking album, “Music of My Mind” in March, 1972, Stevie would go on to release another epochal album, “Talking Book” and by year’s end, this placement, along with his hard-edged hit, “Superstition” released in October of that same year, did much to increase Stevie’s visibility to rock audiences.
Stevie and his band would, sometimes, join the Stones at the end of the group’s performance for an encore medley of Wonder’s 1966 hits, “Uptight (Everything’s Alright” and “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction”. This was a major experience in the career of both, myself and my partner, Gene Allan. We were astounded when Stevie remember us through a song called, “I’m Dreamin’ of a Black Christmas” which was recorded a few years earlier.
This song was released and probably got some R & B radio play, but really never earned either of the writers or publishers any meaningful royalties.
Stevie’s memory was absolutely astounding in this instance when he mentioned this to us. I am sure that Gene Allan was inspired to write the beautiful lyric of, “What is Black”, a story about a blind boy who asks his brother to explain what “color” is, and what it means to him. This is the most touching lyric I have ever heard or been associated with. The song was recorded by Billy Proctor who was an outstanding vocalist but, in my own opinion did not do the song justice.
Hopefully, one day a Church type of African American artist will record a version of this song which will be the one to be the right one providing the true meaning of “color” to a blind boy.