Stevie Wonder Finds Fulfillingness

Village Voice Album Review, Explained. 1974

This was the first assignment I did for Robert Christgau when he became editor of Riffs, the music section for the Village Voice. (I had started writing for the Voice when I was still in college in Boulder in 1971 and 1972) when arts editor Annie Fisher picked a few reviews (Reverend Ike on TV, a T-Rex album review) out of the slush pile of unsolicited manuscripts, for which I will always be grateful.

And by 1974, the music section under

Robert Christgau

was a very big deal. The arts section of the Voice, along with its sustaining advertising and listings for every club or concert, movie, art, or off-Broadway theater production, made it must-reading for my generation.

As I wrote in my celebration of Christgau's 80th birthday nearly two years ago, I nearly choked on this review of "Fulfillingness First Finale." It was a major record, an important assignment: I was too tense, more focused on zingy one-liners than actually appreciating the album, which in retrospect (having played it through again today),…