They Won't Go When I Go

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"They Won't Go When I Go"
Song by Stevie Wonder
from the album Fulfillingness' First Finale
ReleasedJuly 22, 1974
Recorded1974
GenreSoul
Length5:59
LabelMotown
Songwriter(s)

"They Won't Go When I Go" is a song co-written and performed by Stevie Wonder from his 1974 album Fulfillingness' First Finale.

This song is the only one on the album that Wonder did not write by himself. His co-writer was Yvonne Wright, who co-wrote songs with Wonder for other albums.[1]

Wonder performed this song, along with "Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer", at Michael Jackson's memorial service on July 7, 2009.

Composition

The song has been considered a "retro composition", where comparisons of the piano part to the style of Chopin and the Baroque passacaglia or chaconne technique—a repeating bassline in a minor key and in triple metre—can be drawn. The song is also noted to have a "funeral march" like tone.[2] There is clear allusion to the 1850 German chorale tune "O mein Jesu," the setting of Thomas Kelly's 1805 Protestant hymn "Stricken, smitten, and afflicted." Critics noted that the song takes a more dramatic tone than most of Wonder's other compositions. The fact that the song specifically says "They won't go when I go" was said to imply the friends Wonder is talking about may get to heaven eventually, just not before he does.[3] Interpreted more broadly as a hymn, the song is the cry not just of Wonder, but the faithful in general, awaiting a second coming where they are taken and others are not.[4] Many consider this song to be a dark consequence of Wonder's 1973 car accident.

Covers

References

  1. ^ James E. Perone (2006), The Sound of Stevie Wonder, Praeger/Greenwood Publishing Group, p. 61, ISBN 978-0-275-98723-7.
  2. ^ Perone (2006). The Sound of Stevie Wonder: His Words and Music. pp. 62–. ISBN 9780275987237.
  3. ^ Steve Lodder (2005). Stevie Wonder: A Musical Guide to the Classic Albums. Backbeat. pp. 136–. ISBN 978-0-87930-821-6.
  4. ^ Holy Bible. (NKJV) Matt 24:38-42.
  5. ^ "George Michael's They Won't Go When I Go". WhoSampled. Retrieved March 6, 2016.
  6. ^ "Video: Kanye West Covers Stevie Wonder". Pitchfork. Retrieved October 19, 2020.
  7. ^ "14th Annual Independent Music Awards: Tribute Album". independentmusicawards.com. Music Resource Group LLC. Archived from the original on March 28, 2015. Retrieved May 3, 2015.
  8. ^ "Chance The Rapper: Tiny Desk Concert". NPR.org. Retrieved July 18, 2017.


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