"As" (Stevie Wonder)

Every album that Stevie Wonder made between 1972-1980 was a masterpiece.  But the 1976 double album Songs in the Key of Life was a standout.  It was four sides, chock-full of everything that made Wonder a superstar: smooth R&B, raw funk, Latin-tinged pop, soulful ballads, fusion jazz, and even classical music.  Songs that weren't officially released as singles from the album, like the infectiously catchy "Isn't She Lovely," even got a fair amount of airplay in the late 70s.  (I remember that track and others were in heavy rotation even into the early 80s on local radio in Western NC, where I grew up.)
For whatever reason, the single "As" never got much airplay in our neck of the woods.  Who knows why.  Part of me thinks it was the length.  After all, it is 7 minutes long.  (Only problem with that theory is our local DJs never had any qualms about fading something out after 4 minutes.  Even if it was in the middle of the best damn part of a song.)
My current theory is that the radio program directors didn't want listeners making angry calls to the station, wondering why the Southern Fried DJ on the air just announced a song named "Ass."
I digress.
Since it didn't get a lot of exposure, I didn't really pay attention to the song until many, many years later.  I was waiting tables one summer in college, and I'd have to drive about 20 minutes from my mom's house to the restaurant every day.  I typically worked the brunch/lunch shift, which meant I'd catch the tail end of morning drive-time shows on my commute.  The crappy car radio in my Mazda barely picked up any local stations, but for some reason it could pick up the top R&B station from Charlotte!  So I got in the habit of listening to the Tom Joyner Morning Show on my commute.  Back then and now still, Joyner had a penchant for old skool R&B, and this one day, Joyner and the crew were discussing "As."  I believe it was the show's news commentator Sybil Wilkes who called it Wonder's "best song," which almost made me run off the road.  
Better than "Superstition!?"  Better than "Signed, Sealed, Delivered!?"
Anyway, Joyner played it.  All 7 minutes of it.  And it was good.  
It was--"I was two minutes late clocking in because I had to let the man's song finish"--good.
It is a very deep, spiritual song about love.  Pure love.  Musically, the verses are sunny and upbeat, with Wonder expressing that, no matter what, "I'll be loving you always."  (I'm not doing the lyrics justice at all.  Read them here.)  There are times I listen to the lyrics and think it's a parent talking to a child.  Sometimes I hear someone confirming his most heartfelt feelings to his soulmate.  Other times I hear God addressing humanity...  
And while the verses are deep, the refrain somehow gets even deeper.  As a friend used to say, "It's church."  The rhythms get more complex, the backup singers drop in, and Wonder lets loose--particularly when you get to the apex of the song.  He dips into this deep growl over the musical vamp that shakes you to the core.  Vocally, it is my favorite moment of his on tape, which is saying a lot. 
Although I still consider another of Wonder's songs my favorite for sentimental reasons, Ms. Wilkes may have been absolutely right: it is Wonder's most exceptional song.