The album was a daring announcement of the new-found artistic freedom of an artist who’d simply turned 21.
Stevie Marvel ‘The place I am Coming From’ paintings – Courtesy: UMG
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The good run of albums that Stevie Marvel created within the Nineteen Seventies is commonly perceived to start with 1972’s Speaking Guide. Many followers of the Motown genius know that just a few months earlier, he launched the vitally necessary Music Of My Thoughts. However the album that actually started his march in the direction of artistic independence was The place I’m Coming From, which launched us to the grownup Stevie Marvel.
Freedom beckons
The album was, extremely, already Stevie’s thirteenth studio launch for the label, 9 years and plenty of hits on from his 1962 debut. Because the Nineteen Seventies dawned, his work had more and more proven that there was extra depth to him than within the position of mere hitmaker. Marvel was acutely conscious, as was his labelmate Marvin Gaye, that larger freedom from the strictures of their contracts was changing into not only a want, however a necessity.
Stevie additionally knew that when he turned 21, Motown wouldn’t be capable to maintain him to the phrases of the contract he had signed as a minor. Berry Gordy won’t have preferred the concept at first, however the artist was completely decided to do issues his means, within the data that Motown could be obliged to simply accept no matter he gave them.
So it was that on April 12, 1971, just a few weeks earlier than that all-important birthday, Stevie launched The place I’m Coming From. It was a daring announcement of his new-found freedom, stuffed with the impassioned social commentary that might change into certainly one of his emblems however which might have been unattainable beneath the earlier restraints.
It’s onerous to think about Gordy, ever-conscious to not offend the conservative center floor whose assist had helped construct his firm, would have sanctioned such moments of earthy realism because the opening “Look Round,” or “Suppose Of Me As Your Soldier,” or “I Wanna Speak To You.” However they exemplified the brand new sound of a multi-instrumentalist who had discovered his voice.
Writing on the time together with his then-wife, the extremely proficient later Motown star Syreeta Wright, Stevie additionally confirmed that he might nonetheless create profitable melodies with ease. The catchy “If You Actually Love Me” was launched as a single from the document and reached No.4 on the R&B chart and No.8 pop, additionally hitting No.20 within the UK. An LP stuffed with imaginative preparations and instrumentation additionally contained the attractive ballad “By no means Dreamed You’d Go away In Summer time” and the charming “One thing Out Of The Blue.”
Take heed to the most effective of Stevie Marvel on Apple Music and Spotify.
The response to the album was inevitably cautious, each throughout the firm and within the wider world. The place I’m Coming From reached No.10 on the R&B itemizing however solely No.62 on the pop album chart, and didn’t make a lot worldwide headway. However looking back, it began the momentum that allowed Stevie Marvel to beat the world.
Purchase or stream The place I’m Coming From.