STEVIE WONDER, THE 1985 INTERVIEW
"In Square Circle": Revisiting A Rare Conversation With The Motown Legend
40 years ago, I had a choice to make.
I had been writing for one UK publication (“Blues & Soul”) in the US from 1975 on as initially the on-the-ground correspondent for the magazine, known as the premier British outlet for coverage of Black music.
Through a series of business-related ‘changes of the guard’ which began in 1982 ,my position as the primary contributor to the fortnightly publication (and at the time, my main source of income) was no longer secure.
From June-October 1982, my name was listed for US representation but without a phone number and in issue #367, my name was no longer listed. Two years later, in October 1984, my name appeared as a contributor with no contact information included. For a year, I provided the magazine with occasional key interviews with the likes of Chaka Khan and Sade.
I got a call in October 1985 about a new UK magazine that was being launched in direct competition to “Blues & Soul.” Called “The Street Scene” and founded by well-known music entrepreneur, Morgan Khan, it was intended as a alternative to B&S.
Would I be willing to ‘jump ship’?
The kind of money that was being offered, honestly, was the primary lure. Being a working music journalist was not back then - and may still not be - the way to ‘get rich’ and the offer was too good to turn down..
There was a little catch….
Before I said bye-bye to “Blues & Soul,” I had conducted an exclusive in-person interview with Stevie Wonder timed with the release of his “In Square Circle” LP. It had been arranged by ace Motown publicist Bob Jones as a guaranteed cover story for the magazine.
With the first issue of “The Street Scene” due out on November 2, 1985 what better way to kick it off with a Stevie Wonder in-depth feature.
Would I jump ship and have the story run in “The Street Scene” as a big coup? Or, would my conscience get the best of me and have “Blues & Soul” run it?
The answer?
(P) 1985, © 1985, 2025, David Nathan/Blue Butterfly Entertainment Ltd. (UK) All Rights Reserved
Yes, the answer to what I would do as you can see above was to give the story to “The Street Scene” and since it was down-to-the-wire, George Benson bagged the cover.
I had let the “Blues & Soul” peeps know I was planning to leave in October 1985 and my last ‘official’ articles were interviews with Jennifer Holliday and Sister Sledge in issue #442. By the next issue, my name (understandably) had disappeared from the list of contributors.
A very angry Bob Jones called from L.A. about my placement of the Stevie piece in this yet-unproven new UK magazine. To ensure that matters between “Blues & Soul” and Motown were smoothed over, there was a cover story on Stevie in issue #444 of the publication which did appear a few days before “The Street Scene” initial issue.
To this day, I have no idea who wrote the article entitled “Love From Stevie”: it did have my initials, ‘DN’ as the author of it but bore little resemblance to the above-reprinted Stevie interview in “The Street Scene.”
Needless to say, my name was never to be uttered by the “Blues & Soul” editorial staff.
I was ok. I continued with my activities in Los Angeles (where I had begun living in the summer of 1984) and I contributed ‘A’ list interviews with the likes of Aretha, Teddy Pendergrass, Anita Baker, Janet Jackson, Maurice White and Dionne Warwick among others until “The Street Scene” closed its doors in the spring of 1986.
My name did not appear again in “Blues & Soul” until I did a one-off extensive story on super-hitmakers Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis in June 1986. I contributed a few more articles in 1987 and by June of that year, a story on the wonderfully-talented Tawatha Agee ushered my return to the B&S fold, as part of the magazine’s American representation, phone number included!
And rest is His-tory!
A reminder: this third post for ‘The Soul Music Archive’ is free to all subscribers and readers. A select number of the forthcoming posts for the archive will be available with a preview for subscribers with full posts for those who upgrade to paid subscriptions as well as our current paid subscribers. In the pipeline: Chaka Khan (Dec 1984), Anita Baker (1987) and some surprises….
With thanks to all for your support and encouagement with preserving the legacy of soul music through the written word!
Well done. I don’t remember The Street Scene magazine, even though I know Morgan well.