This song will be 50 years old on August 3rd, as it originally came out in 1973. It took Stevie Wonder 3 hours to write this song, which peaked at #4 on the US Billboard Charts in 1973. Higher Ground had an even bigger impact than just that, this song ended up getting covered by the likes of UB40 and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, who found inspiration in Stevie Wonder’s lyrics. (Source: Song Facts)
Stevie Wonder describes what he’s observing or I guess in Wonder’s case hearing.
While the internet debates what religion the song is about, the main point of the lyrics is about dealing with getting a 2nd chance and making the most of it.
In a bizarre set of circumstances, 3 days after this song was released, Stevie Wonder was almost killed in a car accident. The car he was riding in was behind a truck carrying a load of logs, which stopped suddenly, sending a log through the windshield and hitting Wonder in the head. The accident put Wonder in a coma for four days. His road manager and good friend, Ira Tucker Jr., knew that Stevie liked to listen to music at high volume, so he tried singing this song directly into his ear. At first, he got no response, but the next day, he tried again and Wonder's fingers started moving in time with the song - the first sign that he was going to recover. (Source: Song Facts) He woke up from a coma and definitely felt like he just got the 2nd chance at life he had written a song about.
@YouTheReader this just feels like a dad song. Higher Ground was picked today because Stevie Wonder is well-respected in the dad community (I think) and a big part of this Stumblin’ Along is about We-Ko-Pa…
Bit of Arizona History
The earliest signs of human life in modern date Arizona date back to the Hohokam Tribe. Archeologists trace them back to 1 A.D. which seems a bit convenient, but hey who knows. The Hohokam people built up a city in modern-day Phoenix, Arizona and their main source of food was farming corn, beans, squash, agave, and cotton for textiles. They also set up complex irrigation systems with canals to make this work in the middle of the desert.
These irrigation systems supported the largest population in the Southwest of North America by the 1300s. I’m honestly so bewildered at how people could live in the middle of a desert without all the modern capabilities we have today. I can’t even lose half a dozen golf balls on my front 9 of golf before needing to apply another load of sunblock and the Hohokam were out here building a civilization. The Hohokam were one of a few ancient tribes such as the Mogollon, Patayan, and Sinagua who lived in modern-day Arizona. The United States didn’t actually come into play with Arizona until 1848 when the U.S. won the Mexican-American war and annexed Texas. The United States paid $15,000,000 in 1848 for the land which would be worth $577,456,329.11 today. Bargain, but then again it wasn’t like Mexico had much of a choice and in fairness, most of the land at the time was desert anyway. (Source: AZ Central)
The name Arizona is disputed, but it is likely the combination that the Spanish named the land Arisona, Arissona while the ancient tribes had it named that sounded like Aleh-zon or Ali-Shonak, which meant “small spring” or “place of the small spring.” By the 1850s, Americans started using the Arizona land for mining. Phoenix was officially born when a committee of citizens along Swilling's Ditch, formed after adventurer Jack Swilling organized a plan to use the ancient Hohokam canals to irrigate the Salt River Valley, meets to select and name a townsite. Phoenix officially was recognized by the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors on May 4, 1868, and it was incorporated in 1881. (Source: AZ Central)
While Phoenix was being rebirthed from the desert ashes like a phoenix, there was still a conflict going on between Tribes and settlers that took place throughout the Southwest. Real-life Cowboys and Indians sort of war. Geronimo (pictured 3rd right in the front row), was the leader of the Apache warrior tribe that was fighting Americans. This went on from 1850 to 1886 before Geronimo surrendered to General Nelson Miles at Skeleton Canyon.
Geronimo was not only a warrior, he also was a medicine man who was able to act as both surgeon and herbalist to cure his patients or wounded warriors. Geronimo was actually present at Theodore Roosevelt’s inauguration, where Roosevelt refused Geronimo’s plea to permit the Chiricahuas to return to their native lands in the West. While Teddy Roosevelt may have rejected Geronimo’s plea, history looks back at Geronimo as a fearless leader. The phrase “Geronimo!” used by the United States Army airborne as they leaped from planes during WWII stems from the bravery the real-life Geronimo exuded. Thanks to Geronimo’s best efforts, Arizona would not become an American state until February 12, 1912 - three years after Geronimo had passed away.
We-Ko-Pa stands for 4 Peaks Mountain. Created by Executive Order on September 15, 1903, the 40-square-mile reservation represents a small parcel of the vast desert lowlands and mountainous Mogollon Rim country that once made up the ancestral hunting and gathering lands of the nomadic Yavapai people. The Yavapai people’s reservation struggled financially for the vast majority of the 20th century. The US federal government in the 1980s signed the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which allowed traditional Indian gaming as well as bingo, pull tabs, lotto, punchboards, tip jars, and certain card games on tribal land. It also gave way to casinos. Unannounced raids by FBI agents on five Indian casinos were ordered. At first light on May 12, 1992, agents invaded the Fort McDowell Casino seizing the community’s 349 gaming machines and loading them into moving trucks. Community members witnessing the raid took immediate action. They called other community members, tribal leaders, and the news media. Using every available car, truck, and piece of heavy machinery, a blockade of the casino access road was organized. Violence ensued, including a three-week standoff between the tribe and the government. The Arizona Governor was ultimately persuaded to sign a gaming compact with the tribe, thus paving the way for Indian gaming in Arizona. May 12 is now a tribal holiday. (Source: We Ko Pa Golf) The successful casinos of the Yavapai people eventually allowed them to purchase and rename the We-Ko-Pa Golf Club after the 4 Peaks Mountain name. It is one of the top golf courses in the country, in fact, it was rated Arizona’s best course in ‘23.
The Yavapai people are not the only tribe to have successfully taken over golf in the Arizona area. The Ak-Chin Indian Community has as well. In 1912, President William Taft established the Maricopa Reservation. Within months of the founding of the reservation, the administration gave in to American farmers and split the acres granted to the Ak-Chin people in half. As a result, the Ak-Chin community struggled financially for much of the 20th century. In the mid-1960s, they reorganized and made constitutional agreements with the federal government. Ak-Chin Farms became successful which gave way to the tribe owning and operating Harrah’s Ak-Chin Casino, established in 1994. A study showed that the Casino was the most important entity to the Pinal County economy, accounting for nearly 1,100 jobs and generating more than $205.3 million in economic activity in ‘10. (Source: Site Selection)
The Ak-Chin Indian Community was then able to purchase the Southern Dunes Golf Club, which is another elite golf course that Fred Couples influenced into having a ton of bunkers. Native Americans have received a very harsh and raw deal throughout U.S. history. These two successful tribe stories obviously don’t make up for centuries of struggle and there are many reservations in the U.S. that are not so lucky. Nevertheless, it is kind of poetic that Native Americans took over some of the best golf courses in the U.S. Honestly, this go around in Arizona I was interested in learning a bit about how people lived in the deserts prior to modern times, and while I was on the golf courses, I was interested in learning a bit about the names associated with the 18 holes.
Now that said, this is a sports media publication and this is the Sunday of the U.S. Open, so I gotta finish this Stumblin’ Along with something much less serious. Here is a bit on the final 3 golf pairings that will be playing this afternoon…
‘23 US Open Leaderboard After Round 3
Rickie Fowler
Rickie Fowler dropped a 69-foot putt to crickets. The Angeleno (Los Angelesers) crowd has been underwhelming. On his chances tomorrow, Fowler said, “I’m not scared to fail. I’ve dealt with that. We’re just going to go have fun, continue to try to execute, leave it all out there, and see where we stand on 18.”
Wyndham Clark
Wyndham Clark was pissed off that his Round 3 teed off at 3:40 PT (Pacific Time). He blamed the night golf on why he and Rickie each had a bogey on 17 & 18 last night. “17 and 18, my putt on 17, I literally couldn’t see it, and we just played off of feel and how Rickie’s putt came in, and then my putt on 18, same thing. John (his caddy) was like, well, it’s kind of around here. Make sure you hit it soft because we need to - we don’t want to blow this by. We need a tap-in coming in. So it’s kind of tough and it’s crazy to think we’re doing that on the last two holes of a major when we could have teed off two hours earlier. Hopefully tomorrow we don’t have that issue.” I can honestly say this is the first time in my life that I have ever agreed with a Wyndham, they shouldn’t be playing in the dark. Clark and Fowler will tee off at 2:30 PT, so they may want to consider putting a few glow-in-the-dark golf balls in their bags.
Rory McIlroy
Rory McIlroy thus far has shot under par in all 3 rounds, posting a 65-67-69. McIlroy won the US Open in June ‘11. If he can pull it off today, it would be the longest gap between US Open victories in golf history. "It's been such a long time since I've done it. I'm going out there to try to execute a game plan, and I feel like over the last three days I've executed that game plan really, really well. I just need to do that for one more day."
Scottie Scheffler
Scottie doesn’t know how to celebrate Eagling on 17 from 197 yards away, so instead of giving his caddy a hug or dap, he went with the classic forearm lead shoulder to the chest. Very dad-like.
Harris English
Harris English the American shot one over par yesterday, including a brutal final 8-hole stretch where he finished with 4 bogeys. He looks exactly like Andy Dufresne from Shawshank Redemption, can he escape his poor stretch of golf?
Dustin Johnson
After building a snowman in Round 2 with a quadruple on the 2nd hole Friday, Dustin Johnson has found his way back into contention. He showed up to Round 3 with Wayne Gretzky also known as Dustin Johnson’s father-in-law. I wonder if he has to get The Great One a gift for Father’s Day, how does that dynamic work?