Living for the City

Here is Stevie Wonder's 1973 song "Living for the City".  I've recently realized that this is one of my favorite songs.  It is so moving, and captures both hope and suffering, perseverance and despondence.



I feel that the song captures a huge part of the 20th century experience in the US, and specifically the trials and tribulations of blacks in the Great Migration.  The song's protagonist leaves oppressive conditions and poverty in the South, only to be thrust into the penal system and homelessness in the North.  It seems that those "other suns" Richard Wright sought in the North weren't always so warm.