Excerpt of Stevie Wonder performing “Living for the City” in 1974 via Musikladen. In the video Michael Simbello is playing the songs’ famous synth riff. His name might be familiar - Sembello was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for his 1983 song, "Maniac", which would be featured in the Flashdance film soundtrack! Stevie Wonder played all the instruments on the studio recording of “Living for the City” and was assisted by Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff for recording, engineering and synthesizer programming. The story in “Living for the City” is about a young black man born in Mississippi - who experiences discrimination in looking for work and eventually seeks to escape to New York City in hopes of finding a new life. Through a series of background noises and spoken dialogue, the man reaches New York by bus, but is then promptly framed for a crime, arrested, convicted and sentenced to ten years in prison. The song would go on to win two Grammy Awards and Rolling Stone would rank it 104 on their 2004 list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time"! You’ll also notice an ARP synth sitting next to Stevie in this video! Pretty legendary indeed. References: Musikladen, Rolling Stone, Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings, All Music.