JEFFREY MORGAN’S MEDIA BLACKOUT #582.215!

Little Stevie Wonder – The 12 Year Old Genius (Tamla) :: Talent is an asset...

FIZZLING PLATTER OF THE WEEK: Isaac Hayes – Black Moses (Stax) :: The good news is that they diligently duplicated the original multi-flap album cover that unfolds into a cross showing Hayes in all his unchained glory. The bad news is that they also carelessly copied the double album’s original vinyl configuration, which backed Side 1 with Side 4 and Side 2 with Side 3 so that both platters could be stacked on top of each other and played on a turntable in drop-automatic sequence. That’s right, this negligent new reissue takes Sides 1, 4, 2, 3 and sloppily slaps them on the compact disc in that incorrect order—which means you’re not hearing Black Moses in its original sequence as Hayes intended you to hear it back in 1971.

Little Stevie Wonder – Tribute To Uncle Ray (Tamla) :: ...and Little Stevie has it.

SIZZLING PLATTER OF THE WEEK: Ray Charles – Genius: The Ultimate Collection (Concord) :: Anyone who read the very first record review that I wrote in the inaugural edition of this column—you could look it up and I suggest that you do—might think that I don’t like Ray Charles. What I don’t like is record companies that ascribe marketing musical MENSA awards on dead musicians who aren’t around anymore to humbly debunk them. And if Charles did come up with that ego-aggrandizing Genius Loves Company title himself, then he obviously needed to give his head a few more shakes before he hit the road to Heaven. I mean, if Ray Charles is a genius, then what does that make Stevie Wonder? As the great German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer once said: “Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see.” Which makes this one hell of a talented compilation.

Stevie Wonder – Music Of My Mind, Talking Book, Innervisions, Fulfillingness’ First Finale, Songs In The Key Of Life (Tamla/Motown) :: Genius.

Be seeing you!