“The blessing of life”: The musician Stevie Wonder admired the most
You have good musicians, and you have great musicians. Then you have Stevie Wonder and Prince, two of the most untouchable gods to ever walk the planet.
Of course, it’s easy to get swept up in superlatives. We’re all guilty of it, and there’s no point in trying to feign anything to the contrary. It’s often seen as an over-indulgent flaw, but when it comes to the groundbreaking double bill of Wonder and Prince, surely they collectively carry enough gravitas to let it slide, just this once.
Touch wood, while Wonder is still alive and healthy enough, the world has the opportunity to tell him just how much he means to the scores of the musical canon. Tragically, for Prince, that chance was lost all too early, and instead, the masses were left to mourn his death in 2016, knowing that there should have been so much more to give.
The mark of such an iconic musician and the seismic hole he left behind was seen in the sheer number of star tributes that were paid to him, with Wonder obviously prime among them. Yet even in the height of his grief on that terrible day of April 21st, 2016, the all-encompassing musician still somehow managed to sum up just what his iconoclastic friend meant.
“Someone said that he was able to mix the blessing of life and God, and yet the marriage of sex and passion. So that was very, very true,” Wonder said mournfully, while still never losing grasp of the sheer joy that Prince ultimately brought to the world. He added, as the true summation of it all, “He had fun with it”.
Prince being hailed as a musical genius is nothing new in this regard, but hearing it come from someone who could easily be classed in similar terms, if the shoe were on the other foot, truly puts it in perspective just how much he was the artists’ favourite artist, as well as being a man whose music was made for the people.
“It is rare for me that I can feel with every single breath how he just passionately loved music,” Wonder said, and as a man who viscerally feels sound with every fibre of his being, it underlined once and for all just how powerful he always found Prince’s work. Yes, he was a friend, but the ethereality of that golden orbit would still never leave.
In a lot of ways, that was the greatest honour anyone could serve to the legacy of the artist, aside from listening to his music. Recognising his true commitment to everything he did was never overemphasising the effects of his power: in fact, there was something deeply human to be found in that, stressing just how important that was to remember.
Ultimately, Prince was mortal, as Wonder will be too one day. Their respective contributions to the world of music are singularly unmatched, and as much as that makes them godly in a sonic sense, the grief of loss is as real and tangible a thing you could ever possibly feel. That made Prince a friend to Wonder, but also, in the end, his absolute hero.
