I wrote this article for no one about a year ago. I really liked it so I figured I'd let it see the light of day on my new blog. Enjoy.
Has anyone heard the song "Saturn" by Stevie Wonder? If you haven't I recommend giving it a listen, it is quite mellifluous. This is by no means surprising, the man has a fantastic catalog, everyone knows that. I heard this song for the first time about a week ago and I was genuinely confused as to why this delightful little number had never been introduced to my ears before. I asked a few other people if they had ever swayed along to "Saturn" and I got no's across the board.
I would say around the third listen I finally came to the conclusion as to why this song has never been very popular. Stevie is embarrassed by it. He's not embarrassed by the musical arrangements or the sweeping melodies, oh no. Steven is embarrassed because someone gave him some seriously incorrect information about the planet Saturn and the poor guy probably didn't find out he was duped until after Songs In the Key of Life was released. Here are the lyrics to the chorus.
"Going back to Saturn where the rings all glow
Rainbow, moonbeams and orange snow
On Saturn
People live to be two hundred and five
Going back to saturn where the people smile
Don't need cars cause we've learn to fly
On Saturn
Just to live to us is our natural high"
Here is my educated guess as to where he received this bogus information...
As a young blind youth, Stevie had to rely on others from time to time. Stevie knew this was nothing to be ashamed of, there is only so much a blind boy can do on his own. While in elementary school he needed to do a report on Saturn but there was a major road block... he couldn't find any books about Saturn that were in braille! Argh! Sure, now there are probably like fifty seven books about Saturn in braille but back then these books were only talked about in fables and ancient folklore. So there's poor old Steve unable to obtain any knowledge about Saturn. So what is a blind African American boy to do? Stevie knows! He can go and ask the teacher to pair him up with another boy, they can do the project together, no sweat, great idea, bing bang boom. Right? Wrong! The teacher, as well intentioned as she may have been, pairs up Steve with the token asshole kid in class, the one that loves fucking with people because his home life sucks. Every elementary class has one. So Stevie and the asshole get together at Steven's abode, eat some ants on a log and then get started on the project. Guess what the asshole kid does? He purposely gives Stevie bullshit information about Saturn.
"Yea Stevie! It says here that Saturn has orange snow! Yea and people live til they are super fucking old! I know! We SHOULD move there!"
So it's the day the report is due and guess who doesn't show up to class? That little smelly jerk of a partner. Stevie has to present the report to the whole class by himself. He doesn't sweat it though, he's a natural performer, to him this is not a dilemma. Steve gets up there and confidentially spews out all this mumbo jumbo about our solar system's ringed planet. The moment Stevie starts in on the part about the people not needing cars because they have special flying powers the teacher knows exactly what went down. She hushes the other students as they giggle into their sleeves and she lets him do his thing. The report ends and the teacher lets Stevie think he did a great job. She gives him a big old round of applause, makes the other kids chime in, pats him on the back, the whole nine yards. She knew it technically wasn't the right thing to do but she felt empathy for the poor blind kid. She didn't want to break his spirit. What if she told him and then he became a insecure mess? No "Superstition". No "Signed, Sealed, Delivered". She couldn't have that on her conscience.
This teacher may have given Stevie the false idea that Saturn was this H.R Puff n Stuff style dream world but she also ensured his place in music history. It's all about the greater good, people, all about the greater good
I would say around the third listen I finally came to the conclusion as to why this song has never been very popular. Stevie is embarrassed by it. He's not embarrassed by the musical arrangements or the sweeping melodies, oh no. Steven is embarrassed because someone gave him some seriously incorrect information about the planet Saturn and the poor guy probably didn't find out he was duped until after Songs In the Key of Life was released. Here are the lyrics to the chorus.
"Going back to Saturn where the rings all glow
Rainbow, moonbeams and orange snow
On Saturn
People live to be two hundred and five
Going back to saturn where the people smile
Don't need cars cause we've learn to fly
On Saturn
Just to live to us is our natural high"
Here is my educated guess as to where he received this bogus information...
As a young blind youth, Stevie had to rely on others from time to time. Stevie knew this was nothing to be ashamed of, there is only so much a blind boy can do on his own. While in elementary school he needed to do a report on Saturn but there was a major road block... he couldn't find any books about Saturn that were in braille! Argh! Sure, now there are probably like fifty seven books about Saturn in braille but back then these books were only talked about in fables and ancient folklore. So there's poor old Steve unable to obtain any knowledge about Saturn. So what is a blind African American boy to do? Stevie knows! He can go and ask the teacher to pair him up with another boy, they can do the project together, no sweat, great idea, bing bang boom. Right? Wrong! The teacher, as well intentioned as she may have been, pairs up Steve with the token asshole kid in class, the one that loves fucking with people because his home life sucks. Every elementary class has one. So Stevie and the asshole get together at Steven's abode, eat some ants on a log and then get started on the project. Guess what the asshole kid does? He purposely gives Stevie bullshit information about Saturn.
"Yea Stevie! It says here that Saturn has orange snow! Yea and people live til they are super fucking old! I know! We SHOULD move there!"
So it's the day the report is due and guess who doesn't show up to class? That little smelly jerk of a partner. Stevie has to present the report to the whole class by himself. He doesn't sweat it though, he's a natural performer, to him this is not a dilemma. Steve gets up there and confidentially spews out all this mumbo jumbo about our solar system's ringed planet. The moment Stevie starts in on the part about the people not needing cars because they have special flying powers the teacher knows exactly what went down. She hushes the other students as they giggle into their sleeves and she lets him do his thing. The report ends and the teacher lets Stevie think he did a great job. She gives him a big old round of applause, makes the other kids chime in, pats him on the back, the whole nine yards. She knew it technically wasn't the right thing to do but she felt empathy for the poor blind kid. She didn't want to break his spirit. What if she told him and then he became a insecure mess? No "Superstition". No "Signed, Sealed, Delivered". She couldn't have that on her conscience.
This teacher may have given Stevie the false idea that Saturn was this H.R Puff n Stuff style dream world but she also ensured his place in music history. It's all about the greater good, people, all about the greater good