"Living for the City" is a 1973 single by

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, pop, s ...

from his ''

Innervisions ''Innervisions'' is the sixteenth studio album by American singer, songwriter, and musician Stevie Wonder, released on August 3, 1973, by Tamla, a subsidiary of Motown Records. A landmark recording of Wonder's "classic period", the album has bee ...

'' album. It reached number 8 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart and number 1 on the R&B chart. ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'' ranked the song number 104 on their 2004 list of the "

500 Greatest Songs of All Time "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" is a recurring survey compiled by the American magazine '' Rolling Stone''. It is based on weighted votes from selected musicians, critics, and industry figures. The first list was published in December 2004 i ...

Story and production

Born into a poor family in

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

, a young black man experiences discrimination in looking for work and eventually seeks to escape to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

(alluding to the Second Great Migration) in hopes of finding a new life. Through a series of background noises and spoken dialogue, the man reaches New York by bus, but is then promptly framed for a crime, arrested, convicted and sentenced to ten years in prison. Wonder played all the instruments on the song and was assisted by

Malcolm Cecil Malcolm Cecil (9 January 193728 March 2021) was a British jazz bassist, record producer, engineer and electronic musician. He was a founding member of a leading UK jazz quintet of the late 1950s, the Jazz Couriers,

and

Robert Margouleff Robert Margouleff is an American record producer, recording engineer, electronic music pioneer, audio expert, and film producer. Career The Birth of TONTO Margouleff was an early customer, friend and collaborator of fellow New Yorker and music in ...

for

recording engineering An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduction, ...

and

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

programming. Tenley Williams, writing in ''Stevie Wonder'' (2002), feels it was ''"one of the first

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun '' soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest att ...

hits to include both a political message and ... sampling ... of the sounds of the streets - voices, buses, traffic, and sirens - mixed with the music recorded in the studio."''

Reception

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large adverti ...

'' described "Living for the City" as a "spectacular production of a country boy whose parents sacrifice themselves for him," and also praised the vocals and horn playing. The song has won two

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

s: one at the 1974 Grammy Awards for Best Rhythm & Blues Song, and the second for

Best Male R&B Vocal Performance The Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance was awarded between 1968 and 2011. The award has had several minor name changes: *In 1968 it was awarded as Best R&B Solo Vocal Performance, Male *From 1969 to 1994 it was awarded as Best R&B ...

at the 1975 Grammy Awards for

Ray Charles Ray Charles Robinson Sr. (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential singers in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Ge ...

' recording on his album ''Renaissance''. It reached number 8 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart and number 1 on the R&B chart. ''

'' ranked the song number 104 on their 2004 list of the "

Personnel

* Stevie Wonder – lead vocal, background vocals,

Fender Rhodes The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, t ...

, drums,

Moog bass The Moog Taurus is a foot-operated analog synthesizer designed and manufactured by Moog Music, originally conceived as a part of the Constellation series of synthesizers. The initial Taurus I was manufactured from 1975 to 1981; a less popular re ...

, T.O.N.T.O. synthesizer, handclaps * Calvin Hardaway (Wonder's brother); Ira Tucker Jr.; a New York police officer; attorney Jonathan Vigoda - other voices.

Influence

Public Enemy "Public enemy" is a term which was first widely used in the United States in the 1930s to describe individuals whose activities were seen as criminal and extremely damaging to society, though the phrase had been used for centuries to describe ...

sampled the ''"get in that cell, nigger"'' in their song '

Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" is a song on the American hip hop group Public Enemy's 1988 album, ''It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back''. It was released as a single in 1989. The song tells the story of a conscientious objector who ...

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Living For The City 1973 singles Stevie Wonder songs Songs about New York City Funk songs Motown singles Protest songs Songs about poverty Songs written by Stevie Wonder Soul songs Tamla Records singles 1973 songs Ray Charles songs Ike & Tina Turner songs Songs against racism and xenophobia Song recordings produced by Stevie Wonder