Телешоу 1-го канала "Голос" (2014). Сезон 3. Выпуск 10: Поединки. 4-я неделя. Песня из репертуара Стиви Уандера (альбом 1973 г. "Innervisions").
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_for_the_City
"Living for the City" is a 1973 hit single by Stevie Wonder from his Innervisions album. It reached #8 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart and #1 on the R&B chart. Rolling Stone ranked the song #105 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Wonder played all the instruments on the song and was assisted by Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff for recording engineering and synthesizer programming. It was one of the first soul music songs to deal explicitly with systemic racism and to use everyday sounds of the street like traffic, voices and sirens which were combined with the music recorded in the studio. The song tells the story of a young African American man, a southern migrant, arriving in New York City. He is tricked into carrying drugs and is arrested, convicted and sentenced to ten years in prison.
"Living for the City" Single by Stevie Wonder from the album Innervisions B-side: "Visions" Released: November 1973 Format: 7" 45 RPM Genre: Soul Length: 7:21 (full-length version), 3:41 (single edit) Producer(s): Stevie Wonder
Samples
"Lil Freak" by Usher featuring Nicki Minaj. Tom Breihan of Pitchfork Media described the heavily manipulated sample as, "a monstrous swirl of orchestral exoticism".
Chart performance - Chart Peak position U.S. Billboard Hot 100 - 8 U.S. Billboard Hot Soul Singles - 1 U.K. Singles Chart - 15 German Singles Chart - 20
A boy is born in hard time Mississippi Surrounded by four walls that ain't so pretty His parents give him love and affection To keep him strong moving in the right direction Living just enough, just enough for the city...ee ha!
His father works some days for fourteen hours And you can bet he barely makes a dollar His mother goes to scrub the floor for many And you'd best believe she hardly gets a penny Living just enough, just enough for the city...yeah
His sister's black but she is sho 'nuff pretty Her skirt is short but Lord her legs are sturdy To walk to school she's got to get up early Her clothes are old but never are they dirty Living just enough, just enough for the city...um hum
Her brother's smart he's got more sense than many His patience's long but soon he won't have any To find a job is like a haystack needle Cause where he lives they don't use colored people Living just enough, just enough for the city... Living just enough... For the city...ooh,ooh (repeat several times)
His hair is long, his feet are hard and gritty He spends his love walking the streets of New York City He's almost dead from breathing on air pollution He tried to vote but to him there's no solution Living just enough, just enough for the city...yeah, yeah, yeah!
I hope you hear inside my voice of sorrow And that it motivates you to make a better tomorrow This place is cruel no where could be much colder If we don't change the world will soon be over Living just enough, just enough for the city!!!!
La, la, la, la, la, la, Da Ba Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Ba Da Da Da Da Da Da Da (Repeat to end)