Stevie Wonder- Village Ghetto Land

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/steviewonder/villageghettoland.html- click the link to listen to the song and view the lyrics.

The always inspiring and extremely talented musician Stevie Wonder, delivered a groundbreaking song entitled Village Ghetto Land, which was released September 28, 1976. The song describes the lives of the poor within a village ghetto land aka American ghetto's and addresses the problems that people are facing everyday while politicians are choosing to be blind to the fact that people are dying and hurting in the streets. The strong imagery that the song provides along with Stevie Wonder's obvious indication that the government is running the world while leaving it's own citizens poor and hungry, tells a little bit about  why Stevie almost left America and the music business to teach disabled children in Ghana - in search of doing something truly productive. He reconciled with his desire to leave the music business in the early 70's and decided to take advantage of the opportunity he had been given and created the album Songs in the Key of Life. The album hit number one on the billboard charts the first day it dropped and the song Village Ghetto Land attracted much attention to those who felt that the government was unsuccessfully running America, and also to those who were running it.

here are some lyrics that I pulled from the song, which I believe best illustrate the point of the song and inspire change.

Children play with rusted cars, sores cover their hands, politicians laugh and drink- drunk to all demands

Families buying dog food now, starvation roams the streets, babies die before they're born, infected by the grief..

Would you like to go with me, down my dead end street, would you like to come with me to Village Ghetto Land

I chose these excepts to elaborate on because they exemplified great use of focus writing and creating a visual picture of the scene which he is singing about. The song also asks of the listener, "Come with me" as if Stevie wonder is your personal tour guide through the ghetto's of America that many have never seen. The specific line, "family buying dog food now," specifically spoke to me because this is something that many would say no one does in America but i think that they are mistaken and people are seeking any form of food to stay alive even if it is dog food, but we are blind to the fact because we don't want to believe it.