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"Living For the City" was inspired by?


GregH

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A long time ago, I had heard that Stevie Wonder's "Living For the City" was inspired by the 1960s Lovin' Spoonful song, "Summer In The City." I tried looking up information on the internet to verify this, but couldn't find any. Can anyone verify this?

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I actually thought it was inspired by "What's Goin' On" by Marvin Gaye, which came out a year or two earlier. That was kind of the benchmark as far as introducing social commentary into R&B, or at least one of the first to do so. Some of Stevie's best lyrics, I think. Definitely inspired by the racial issues of the time; segregation, civil rights, lack of equal opportunity employment, etc.

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Yeah, but what I had heard years ago(and I think it was a Casy Kasem show) was that Stevie was inspired by the breakdown in the middle of "Summer" where the car horns are honking and the jackhammer is drilling and the electric piano chords are playing, and incorporated those elements into "Living."

Check out the full length Quick Time "Summer In The City" sample link below:

"Summer In The City"

Also, I would think that the: "A boy is born in hard time Mississippi, surrounded by four walls that ain't so pretty" aspect of "Living" was probably inspired by the: "back of my neck getting dirty and gritty" aspect of "Summer."

http://www.mondaypapers.com/summerinthecity/summersong.html

http://www.lyricsdepot.com/Stevie-Wonder/living-for-the-city.html

However, I can't seem to find anything on the internet that connectst the two songs.

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Thanks, Uncle Joe. Your recollection of this is good enough internet verification for me. :D Also, when you say that the background of "Summer In The City" gave Stevie Wonder the idea for "Living For The City," did you mean the breakdown in the middle of "Summer In The City" where the car horns are honking and the jackhammer is drilling, etc.?

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