"Music of My Mind" – Stevie Wonder
You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians
Peter Martin
4.9 • 770 Ratings
🗓️ 2 March 2026
⏱️ 99 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Jazz pianists Adam Maness and Peter Martin dive into Music of My Mind, track-by-track, listening to isolated stems and breaking down the music theory behind the songs.
Plus - we talk about TONTO, the one-ton synthesizer Stevie used to create this record. And we dig into the innovative ways Stevie and collaborators Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff mixed the album.
Music of My Mind was the first of a five-album run that formed Stevie Wonder's Classic Period, including Talking Book (1972), Innervisions (1973), Fulfillingness' First Finale (1974) and Songs in the Key of Life (1976).
-------------------------------
Start your free Open Studio trial for ALLLLL your jazz lesson needs:
https://openstudiojazz.com/yhi
-------------------------------
Related You'll Hear It episodes:
Talking Book: https://youtu.be/ymcy3ot116w
Innervisions: https://youtu.be/mUYwIijL7s0
Songs in the Key of Life: https://youtu.be/uk5x4-uTzj8
-------------------------------
About You'll Hear It:
In this popular music series, You'll Hear It, Adam and Peter break down the greatest albums of all time. Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Joni Mitchell, D'Angelo: Jazz is the foundation of the most GENIUS music in recent history. These seasoned jazz pianists bring their deep musical knowledge to every joyful episode to help you hear the hidden qualities that make music AMAZING. You'll never hear music the same way again.
-------------------------------
Like the jam at the end of the show? Head to https://youtube.com/@OpenStudioMusic for more.
00:00 - Stevie Wonder's Music of My Mind
03:40 - Breaking Free: The Motown Contract Story
05:35 - Finding TONTO: Malcolm Cecil & Robert Margouleff
08:45 - What Was TONTO? The Technology Explained
09:20 - How Stevie Wonder Met Cecil & Margouleff
12:00 - "If You Really Love Me" - Stevie's Motown Sound
16:40 - What Albums Belong in the Run?
19:10 - "Love Having You Around"
22:20 - Isolated Breakdown: Vocals, Talk Box, Rhythm Section
27:35 - Stevie Made Albums Different
32:10 - "Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You)"
36:25 - The Greatest Transition EVER
41:45 - Innovation Behind the Mix
44:10 - Ad Break: Learn to play like Stevie Wonder
45:18 - "I Love Every Little Thing About You"
52:55 - "Sweet Little Girl"
56:14 - "Happier Than the Morning Sun"
1:00:53 - Find more performances from Adam and Peter at Open Studio Music
1:01:58 - "Girl Blue"
1:09:28 - "Seems So Long"
1:11:49 - "Keep on Running"
1:15:52 - "Evil" - The biggest moment on the album
1:21:10 - This One is for the Math Nerds About Music
1:23:05 - Categories
1:29:05 - Better Than Innervisions? / Up Next
1:32:05 - More from You'll Hear It: You'll Read It
1:32:40 - Open Studio plays "Superwoman"
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | May 13th, 1971, Stevie Wonder turns 21 years old and his Motown contract expires on the spot. |
| 0:10.0 | For the first time in his life, he's free. |
| 0:12.0 | No more producers telling him what to play, no more Motown foreign list. |
| 0:16.0 | Two weeks later, he shows up unannounced at a studio in New York, knocks on the door and asks to meet a thousand-pound synthesizer named Tonto. |
| 0:24.6 | He proceeds to play everything himself. |
| 0:26.6 | Drums, keys, bass, harmonica, vocals, all Stevie. |
| 0:30.6 | The back of this album literally reads, |
| 0:32.6 | this album is virtually the work of one man. |
| 0:34.6 | This is music of my mind, and Stevie Wonder is finally free to fly. |
| 0:39.5 | I'm Adam Anus, and I'm Adam Davis, and I'm Adamanis. |
| 0:57.1 | And I'm Peter Martin. |
| 0:58.6 | And you're listening to the You'll Hear It Podcast. |
| 1:00.4 | Music, Explored. |
| 1:01.9 | Explored. |
| 1:02.9 | Brought to the day by Open Studio. |
| 1:04.3 | Go to Open Studio. |
| 1:04.8 | Go to Open Studio Jazz.com for, oh, your jazz lesson needs. |
| 1:07.5 | Peter, we're exploring like crazy a day. |
| 1:09.2 | We're going to explore the hell out of this record. |
| 1:11.9 | Hells yeah. |
| 1:13.6 | Yeah, Stevie Wonder's |
| 1:15.6 | 1972 music of my mind. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Peter Martin, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Peter Martin and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.