Free, Baby

Lately, I find myself longing for more collaborative effort.  
No, I'm not lonely.  
I don't mean it in some sort of creepy euphemistic way.  
I've been listening to this recording of a Stevie Wonder concert from 1973 or 1974.  Likely the latter; a show in London, though I have a ton of conflicting information.  Anyway, Steve and the band are largely restrained during their run through a handful of at-the-time new songs - for a group as solid as Wonderlove, it's strange that they can find no better way to end most of the songs than to have Stevie do a schmaltzy little piano coda.  Nonetheless, these are all songs that are now classics (the bulk are from Innervisions), and it's a beautiful thing to hear documentation of Stevie as band leader.  During some of the longer takes, he alternately guides the bass player, chastises the drummer for failing to catch and mimic his beatbox break, and edges the whole group into an operatic version of "You Are the Sunshine of My Life."
However, the moments I really dig are those which probably fall somewhere between the rehearsed and spirit of the collective groove, so to speak.  When the audience (and the backup singers) finally get the reprise chant right during "Living For the City."  The double-time bridge in "Superwoman" - to die for.  And the bulk of "To Know You Is To Love You" is sublime.  A little more straightforward and poppy in its original incarnation (Syreeta album track, 1972), Steve and the band stretch out here - he starts off by walking Reggie McBride through a straight up Willie Weeks bass line, and lets Michael Sembello (before he was a Maniac he was a Wonderlover) do his thing.  But when the backup vocalists kick in - loveliness.  When they start riffing halfway through, it's as if Stevie had secretly foreseen the whole mid to late 70's Parliament/Brides of Funkenstein connection (in fact listen to George and co.'s 1976 "Getting To Know You" for a very similar vibe).
So, it's all got me in the mood for good collaborative effort.  I'm not trying to sing backup for somebody or anything (in fact I've been spending the last couple of days politely trying to turn down another invitation to be the lead singer of somebody's punk band), but I'm down with DJing in pairs, building beats via email, and people helping me with Photoshop.  Et (tu, Peter) Cetera.
Anyway, an excuse to pass this on:

To Know You Is To Love You