Living for the City

The song begins with a smart little boy who is born into a loving black family in Mississippi, where he grows up experiencing poverty and discrimination as he sees his very dedicated parents work hard for many long hours at very low pay as they struggle mightily to properly care for their children.

In a musical bridge (which actually contains no music and is instead a de facto video presentation generated by sound effects and spoken dialogue), he travels by bus to New York City (alluding to the Second Great Migration) in hopes of finding a new life. Upon arrival, the naïve young man is immediately accosted by a black drug dealer who offers him $5 to run across the street with a package. The drug dealer then disappears, and the police who were pursuing the fleeing drug dealer arrive to see the young man crossing the street with the package. The white police officers stop, frisk, and arrest the young man without telling him what crime he is suspected of committing. A white judge then informs the young man that the jury has found him guilty and sentences him to ten years in prison. A bigoted white prison guard then insultingly orders him to get into his jail cell and slams the cell door shut right behind him.{{rp|page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofgr0000sull_x5i5/page/236/mode/1up 236]}}{{rp|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=YENkAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT62 62]}}

After this non-musical musical bridge, Wonder’s lyrics first emphasize the cruelty and inhumanity of this man’s life experience as he struggles to survive as an ex-convict left to wander the streets of New York City, homeless. Wonder then concludes the song with a direct and heartfelt lyrical plea to his listeners to make the world a better place.

The basic track (electric piano and Wonder's first vocal takes) was recorded on December 5, 1972. Moog bass was overdubbed the following day. Drums, harps, and Wonder's finalized vocals were recorded on December 8, 1972. The track was left untouched until April 20, 1973, when Stevie recorded backing vocals while either slowing down or speeding up the tape, in order to make his backing vocals sound either higher or lower respectively in comparison to his natural voice.{{Cite web |date=2021-07-15 |title=Expanding Soul |url=https://magazine.waxpoetics.com/article/the-technological-breakthroughs-of-stevie-wonder-and-tonto/ |access-date=2024-12-08 |website=wax-poetics |language=en}} Wonder played the majority of the instruments on the song and was assisted by Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff for recording engineering and synthesizer programming.{{cite web | url = https://www.allmusic.com/song/living-for-the-city-mt0031975551 | title = Stevie Wonder {{!}} Living for the City | last = Hogan | first = Ed | author-link = | date = n.d. | website = AllMusic | access-date = 2021-09-01 | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151017134258/http://www.allmusic.com:80/song/living-for-the-city-mt0031975551 | archive-date = 2015-10-17 | quote = Along with his frequent creative partners, the engineering/synth programming duo of Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff, Wonder crafted a tantalizing track that is enthralling, vividly drawn, and deeply poignant. Cecil's film business experience played a big part in the "wide screen" feel of "Living for the City," which tells a story in a way that few songs do. Margouleff's father was the mayor of Great Neck, NY, while some of the song's "scenes" were shot (actually recorded by a portable Nagra tape recorder). Though Wonder plays all of the instruments, "Living for the City" wasn't a one man show. The singer recruited his brother Calvin, road manager Ira Tucker Jr., a New York police officer, and attorney Jonathan Vigoda. Cecil and Margouleff acted in a role as semi-directors who were trained in "the method." | df = dmy-all }} Tenley Williams, writing in Stevie Wonder (2002), feels it was "one of the first soul hits to include both a political message and ... sampling ... of the sounds of the streets – voices, buses, traffic, and sirens – mixed with the music recorded in the studio."{{rp|page=[https://archive.org/details/steviewonder00will/page/44 44]}}

Billboard described "Living for the City" as a "spectacular production of a country boy whose parents sacrifice themselves for him," and also praised the vocals and horn playing.{{cite magazine | author = | date = 1973-11-03 | title = STEVIE WONDER{{mdash}}Living For The City | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=LgkEAAAAMBAJ&pg=RA1-PA59 | department = Top Single Picks (Pop) | magazine = Billboard | language = en-us | volume = 85 | issue = 44 | page = 59 | issn = 0006-2510 | access-date = 2021-09-01 | via = Google Books | quote = Stevie's "Innervisions" LP produces this spectacular production of a country boy whose parents sacrifice themselves for him. Stevie's voice soards and glides with a gutsy reality. Lots of catchy horn, background voices and cymbals in the picture also. | df = dmy-all }}

The song won two Grammy Awards: one at the 1974 Grammy Awards for Best Rhythm & Blues Song, and the second for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance at the 1975 Grammy Awards for Ray Charles' recording on his album Renaissance.{{cite web | url = https://www.grammy.com/grammys/artists/stevie-wonder/8257 | title = Grammy Awards: Artist – Stevie Wonder | date = n.d. | website = The Recording Academy | access-date = 2021-09-01 | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171117114559/https://www.grammy.com/grammys/artists/stevie-wonder | archive-date = 2017-11-17 | quote = BEST RHYTHM & BLUES SONG: Living For The City | df = dmy-all }}

It reached number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 1 on the R&B chart.{{cite book | last1 = Whitburn | first1 = Joel | author-link1 = Joel Whitburn | date = 2006-01-20 | title = Top R{{Ampersand}}B/Hip-Hop Singles 1942–2004 | language = en | publication-place = Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin | publisher = Record Research | isbn = 978-0898201604 | lccn = 2005297809 | oclc = 643640391 | ol = OL8268962M | df = dmy-all }}{{rp|page=635}} Rolling Stone ranked the song number 104 on their 2004 list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".{{cite magazine| url =http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/500songs/page/2| title = The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time 2004: 101–200| magazine = Rolling Stone| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080620035744/http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/500songs/page/2| access-date = October 6, 2021| archive-date = 2008-06-20}}

• Stevie Wonder – lead vocal, background vocals, Fender Rhodes, drums, Moog bass, T.O.N.T.O. synthesizer, handclaps
• Malcolm Cecil – synthesizer programming
• Robert Margouleff – synthesizer programming
• Calvin Hardaway (Wonder's brother); Ira Tucker Jr.; a New York police officer; attorney Jonathan Vigoda – other voices

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Dance music artist Sylvester covered the song on his 11th studio album, Mutual Attraction (1986), his major label debut album. Sylvester's "Living for the City" was released as the album's lead single and peaked at #2 on Billboard's Dance Club Play Chart.{{cn|date=June 2023}}

Gillan covered the song, releasing it as a single which reached No. 50 in the UK, and on its 1982 album Magic.{{cn|date=July 2025}}

{{Reflist|30em|refs=

{{cite q | Q108369709 | last1 = Sullivan | first1 = Steve | chapter = Playlist 2 {{!}} Down Home Rag, 1897{{mdash}}2005 | chapter-url = https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofgr0000sull_x5i5/page/236/mode/1up | url = https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofgr0000sull_x5i5/mode/1up | url-access = registration | language = en | volume = 1 | publisher = Scarecrow Press, Inc | publication-place = Lanham, Maryland | access-date = 2021-09-01 | via = Internet Archive | quote = The song explores modern urban realities through a narrative of a small-town migrant who arrives in New York City with bright hopes, is duped into drug running, and ends up sentenced to ten years in prison (much of the narrative is done through a dramatic playlet incorporated into the song.) | quote-page = 236 | df = dmy-all}}

{{cite q | Q108383603 | last1 = Owsinski | first1 = Bobby | author-link1 = Bobby Owsinski | title = Bobby Owsinski's Deconstructed Hits – Classic Rock, Vol 1: Uncover the Stories & Techniques Behind 20 Iconic Songs | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YENkAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT62 | via = Google Books }}

{{cite q | Q108381913 | last1 = Williams | first1 = Tenley | others = Introduction by James Scott Brady | chapter = Inner Vision | url = https://archive.org/details/steviewonder00will | url-access = registration | series = Overcoming Adversity }}

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Category:1973 singles

Category:American funk songs

Category:Stevie Wonder songs

Category:Songs about New York City

Category:Motown singles

Category:Protest songs

Category:Songs about poverty

Category:Songs written by Stevie Wonder

Category:Tamla Records singles

Category:1973 songs

Category:Songs about racism and xenophobia

Category:Song recordings produced by Stevie Wonder