Higher Ground: Audio Fidelity Reissues Vintage Stevie Wonder, James Taylor on 24K Gold CD

For its April 3 release slate, the Audio Fidelity label is returning to the catalogues of two tried-and-true artists and label favorites.

Having tackled James Taylor’s second, fourth and fifth albums, Audio Fidelity fills the gap in Taylor’s Warner Bros. catalogue with the release of the singer/songwriter’s third LP, 1971’s Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon. Similarly, the label has given the remastered 24K Gold CD treatment to four of the five albums from Wonder’s “golden era” at Motown (1972-1976) and now Is turning its attention to the fifth of those records, 1973’s Innervisions.

After the breakthrough success of Taylor’s Sweet Baby James and its single “Fire and Rain,” the artist scored another major success with the April 1971 release of Mud Slide Slim. Containing his only Billboard No. 1 hit, “You’ve Got a Friend,” the album itself made it all the way up the chart to No. 2…and was held off from the top spot, ironically, by Carole King’s Tapestry. That album not only featured Carole King’s own version of her song “You’ve Got a Friend,” but prominently featured the participation of, you guessed it, James Taylor! But there’s much more to Mud Slide Slim than just “You’ve Got a Friend.” The album, produced by Peter Asher, also introduced another Top 40 hit, “Long Ago and Far Away,” and the much-covered ballad “You Can Close Your Eyes.” Taylor’s longtime friend and guitarist Danny Kortchmar supplied one of the album’s tracks, “Machine Gun Kelly.” Kortchmar joined Russ Kunkel, Leland Sklar, Joni Mitchell, Kate Taylor and Carole King among the album’s key personnel. When the Grammy Awards rolled around, both King and Taylor were rewarded with trophies for “You’ve Got a Friend.” For Audio Fidelity’s edition, Steve Hoffman has handled the remastering chores.

Hit the jump to explore Innervisions. You’ll also find pre-order links and track listings for both titles.

Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions followed 1972’s Talking Book and preceded 1974’s Fulfillingness’ First Finale, both already released on 24K Gold CD by Audio Fidelity. Over nine tracks from the creatively charged artist, Innervisions tackles weighty topics in such soulful songs as “Living for the City” and “Too High” alongside golden ballads like “All in Love is Fair.” Also typical for this prolific period of Wonder’s long career, he played nearly every instrument, including prominent ARP synthesizer, on a full two-thirds of the album. Upon its release in August 1973, Innervisions climbed surely up the Billboard album chart, all thr way to No. 4 in September. Its three singles were all successful: “Higher Ground” (No. 4), “Living for the City” (No. 8) and “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing” (No. 16). “All In Love is Fair” later became a single in the hands of Barbra Streisand. Innervisions picked up three Grammy Awards including Album of the Year and Best R&B Song for “Living for the City.” Kevin Gray has remastered the album for Audio Fidelity.

Both Innervisions and Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon will be available on April 3.

James Taylor, Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon (Warner Bros. LP BS-2561, 1971 – reissued Audio Fidelity AFZ 128, 2012)

Love Has Brought Me Around
You’ve Got a Friend
Places in My Past
Riding on a Railroad
Soldiers
Mud Slide Slim
Hey Mister, That’s Me Up on the Jukebox
You Can Close Your Eyes
Machine Gun Kelly
Long Ago and Far Away
Let Me Ride
Highway Song
Isn’t It Nice to Be Home Again

Stevie Wonder, Innervisions (Tamla LP T-326L, 1973 – reissued Audio Fidelity AFZ 086, 2012)

Too High
Visions
Living for the City
Golden Lady
Higher Ground
Jesus Children of America
All in Love is Fair
Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing
He’s Misstra Know-It-All

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Stevie Wonder

Joe Marchese

JOE MARCHESE (Editor) joined The Second Disc shortly after its launch in early 2010, and has since penned daily news and reviews about classic music of all genres. In 2015, Joe formed the Second Disc Records label. Celebrating the great songwriters, producers and artists who created the sound of American popular song and beyond, Second Disc Records, in conjunction with labels including Real Gone Music and Cherry Red Records, has released newly-curated collections produced and annotated by Joe from iconic artists such as Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross and The Supremes, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, The Spinners, Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, Meat Loaf, Laura Nyro, Melissa Manchester, Liza Minnelli, Darlene Love, Al Stewart, Michael Nesmith, and many others.

Joe has written liner notes, produced, or contributed to over 200 reissues from a diverse array of artists, among them America, JD Souther, Nat "King" Cole, Paul Williams, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, BJ Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, The Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Perry Como, Rod McKuen, Doris Day, Jackie DeShannon, Petula Clark, Robert Goulet, and Andy Williams.

Over the past two decades, Joe has also worked in a variety of capacities on and off Broadway as well as at some of the premier theatres in the U.S., including Lincoln Center Theater, George Street Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, and the York Theatre Company. He has felt privileged to work on productions alongside artists such as the late Jack Klugman, Eli Wallach, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. In 2009, Joe began contributing theatre and music reviews to the print publication The Sondheim Review, and in 2012, he joined the staff of The Digital Bits as a regular contributor writing about film and television on DVD and Blu-ray.

Joe currently resides in the suburbs of New York City.

0 thoughts on “Higher Ground: Audio Fidelity Reissues Vintage Stevie Wonder, James Taylor on 24K Gold CD”

RoyalScam
March 21, 2012 at 6:13 pm

The MFSL Gold version of Innervisions is excellent…and allegedly mastered from Stevie’s personal master tape, NOT the copies he gave Motown, which are the basis for every other remaster including the previous Audio Fidelity releases. This should be an interesting shoot-out.

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