i know it’s crazy to say, but i knew what falling in love would feel like before i ever experienced it for myself, because a stevie wonder song taught me.
i want to be able to say i’ve been a lifelong stevie devotee, and i wish i had a story to tell about growing to love stevie wonder at my parents’ feet, while stevie wonder blasted from a record player. or that i could remember hearing stevie’s music floating down the streets of my neighborhood growing up. i don’t though. we grew up listening to oldies on the radio and there’s a way that stevie’s just always been around in my life, but i think it was my sister who really put me on to stevie when she was in high school.
still, when i first heard stevie wonder’s version of “light my fire,” i was already 18 or 19, and an intensely serious political activist who made trouble on campus and judged everyone else who didn’t understand the gravity and urgency of the world’s social inequities the way i did. outwardly i turned my nose up at love, and dismissed people who pursued me, but i’ve always been a stupid romantic.
when that song came on i remember i got so flustered, almost giddy. the horns, the strings, the driving beat, stevie’s harmonica. the song seemed to grow inside me. none of it made sense but it all felt so wonderful. i luxuriated in it, i couldn’t stop playing the song. i jumped around my apartment with it in the background, i played it for everyone who’d listen (maybe unwillingly, because i blasted it nonstop for weeks). i mean, really, weeks.
and you know what’s only just recently occurred to me? falling in love actually feels just like that.
thanks stevie! and happy delicious birthday to you.
