Q&A; : Still the WONDER YEARS

She’s gone black-boy crazy

I’ve gone white-girl hazy

We’re each other’s baby

We’re in love

Yes, it’s Stevie Wonder singing Spike Lee.

No, the filmmaker isn’t writing songs, but “Jungle Fever,” Lee’s provocative new film about an interracial love affair and the tensions surrounding it, inspired Wonder to record his first album in four years.

Wonder’s soundtrack marks the first time the filmmaker and the musician have worked together--a teaming the pair has discussed since the mid-’80s, when Lee attended a Wonder concert and sent the 17-time Grammy winner a video of Lee’s first film, the comedy “She’s Gotta Have It.”

Blind virtually all his life, Wonder is a big movie fan, citing “Fatal Attraction,” “Lethal Weapon II” and “Driving Miss Daisy” as recent favorites. He listens to the films the way a sighted person would a radio drama. Friends describe the action during non-speaking sequences.

Wonder, 41 this month, was working on another album, an ambitious undertaking tentatively titled “Conversation Piece,” when Lee contacted him last year about “Jungle Fever.” He was so intrigued by the concept that he took a break to write the 11 songs that make up the soundtrack.

The film is dedicated to Yusuf K. Hawkins, the young black man who was killed during a 1989 attack in the predominantly white Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn. Its theme extends beyond the affair between a black architect and his white secretary to reflect the tensions within their families.

Lee’s subject matter gives an edge to the title song and other parts of the new album that has been largely missing from Wonder’s work since his trio of socially conscious, Grammy-winning albums in the 1970s (“Innervisions,” “Fulfillingness’ First Finale,” “Songs in the Key of Life”).

Pleased with the album and the film, Wonder--who will receive the second annual Nelson Mandela Courage Award for humanitarian efforts at TransAfrica Forum’s “Bridge to Freedom” dinner on June 14 in Los Angeles--went to the Cannes Film Festival two weeks ago with Lee to help promote their efforts.

Before leaving for France, Wonder--sporting a slight beard and wearing his hair in a ponytail--spoke in his Burbank offices about the new album as well as the state of pop music, including rap, and race relations in the ‘90s. See Page 67 for a review of the album, which will be released on Tuesday by Motown Records. Question: What interested you most about the film’s plot?

Answer: It was controversial, but it also had a point . . . a lot of food for thought. You had these people in seemingly extreme situations, yet you get to know them as human beings . . . how they think, their families and backgrounds. I liked “Do the Right Thing” a lot, but I think this is Spike’s best film to date. In fact, when I saw (a version of it without any music), I thought it worked so well that I told him, “You don’t need any music for the film. Just leave it the way it is.”

Q: Did you write the music after seeing the script or the movie?

A: I have a reading machine so I could read the script, but I wanted to see the film and get a sense of the different voices and feel the motion of the picture . . . the timing. I kind of already had an idea for the theme song, but seeing the movie helped me with the other songs.

Q: Was the controversy over your Oscar in 1985 for the song “I Just Called to Say I Love You” embarrassing--the people who said the song should have been ruled ineligible because you admitted part of the melody had been written years earlier?

A: For one thing, I didn’t know the rules (requiring songs to be written specifically for a film to be eligible for the Academy Award). But also, I think the difference between me and a lot of other writers who have done scoring and stuff was that I was honest enough to say, “Hey, this thought came from something a while back, but I was inspired to write words to the song and finish it up after I saw the film.”

Q: Some of your most prized work has dealt with prejudice and social conditions--things you talk about again in parts of “Jungle Fever.” Do you feel conditions have improved over the last 30 years?

A: Sometimes you feel like the dream where you think you are running, but you are standing in one place. It’s kind of like things have changed, but you look around and there is still so much to be done. It’s sad to think we are still in this state of affairs where we cannot appreciate each other because of racial difference as far as color . . . where things like the (Hawkins killing in Bensonhurst) still happen.

As people get older and others are born, you expect to see changes, but I think it is going to take a combination of two things: more and more interracial marriages, which is going to take time, and a leader in America that is strong enough and big enough to say, “On this particular day, I declare that all people, no matter what color they are in this country, are Americans, whether you are white, black, red, yellow or brown.”

Q: But haven’t lots of leaders said that?

A: Not leaders in the sense I am talking about, not in the sense of seeing something wrong and saying, “Hey, this is (ridiculous).” We need someone who will go beyond words and make sure people have equality or equal education in every community, someone who follows up on the speeches.”

Q: What about John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King or Jesse Jackson?

A: I think people have come close to it, but you have this thing of the Republicans versus the Democrats, people with their own agenda when the real agenda should be what is best for the people. We’ve got to to make sure there are enough jobs in this country so that there is not joblessness, which means there is not a reason for a person to steal or to rob. Let’s educate people enough so that they have (opportunity) and they understand that those things are not right and a part of life.

Q: Are you any more optimistic now than in the ‘70s when you wrote songs such as “You Ain’t Done Nothin’ ” and “Higher Ground”?

A: I’m about in the same place. I’m still optimistic, but I feel that something drastic is going to happen before people understand the need to change. . . . It’s very unfortunate.

Q: There was talk about your running for mayor of Detroit a few years ago. Were you serious?

A: I mentioned it in an interview and there was some positive reaction. But the more I checked everything out, the more I realized it wouldn’t work for me at this point because I believe in serving the people and I’m not going to settle for all the compromises. I wouldn’t want to be at the (mercy) of a particular politician or political party who’d say, “Well, don’t do that because it’s not really in good favor right now.” Maybe some day I still will get into it, but now I think my platform’s music.

Q: Do you think music really changes society?

A: I think people change society, but sometimes music influences society, the same with comedy.

Q: You were part of the “We Are the World” charity record album in 1985. Do you think that whole project and all the attention it got helped people become a bit more caring or do you think it was just a momentary burst of optimism?

A: I think it made people more caring, but it’s kind of like church. You have to keep reminding people of their responsibilities because people forget. As much as Sting and other people have talked to us about how critical it is to be conscious of what is happening in the rain forest, people do the same thing. There’s all the talk about recycling and people throw stuff away just like they always did.

Hopefully people get the message before it is too late . . . that this is the only earth we have. But look at how people mess their bodies up. If they can’t appreciate that, it shows how hard it is for them to take care of the earth.

Q: What’s your feeling about some of the rap music today--the emphasis on black heritage and black cooperation?

A: I think that anything is positive if it is going to educate our children about their culture . . . African-Americans about their culture and the connection with Africa. I also think that it is important to say to people, “Listen, this shooting and carrying guns and violence and gangs is not good. It’s not happening.”

Q: What about Ice Cube and N.W.A.? Do you see their stark tales of gang life and ghetto conditions as social realism or as music that glorifies violence?

A: They are raw rappers who are saying what they feel. This kind of stuff goes on. You have a lot of angry men and women out there. You can’t cover it up because if you do, you’ll have a riot. I’m not saying that records are going to prevent a riot, but they are going to make people aware of the fact that this is a reality.

Q: A lot of people still don’t accept rap as a legitimate part of pop music. Did you have any trouble accepting it when it first came out?

A: I loved it when people were all saying that rap was going to go away . . . that it wasn’t music. I started getting into it all the way back to the Sugar Hill Gang (in 1982). I think (Grandmaster Flash’s) “The Message” was great. One of the exciting things about rap is that it is something that everyone could do. I liked everything about it . . . the sampling, the scratching . . . .

Q: Do you like what is happening with sampling (taking sound bites from an old record and putting them into a new record) or is it some sort of artistic stealing?

A: Sampling doesn’t offend me at all. I use part of one of my old records on “Each Other’s Throats” on the new album. It is definitely part of the creative process today. Look at Kool Moe Dee’s first album. He did a great job of using samples and stuff. But like anything else, you have good synthesizer users and some bad ones, you have some people who know how to use samples and some who overdo it. It’s a new art form and it’s still developing.

One thing that has taken so long with “Conversation Piece” (the project Wonder interrupted to record “Jungle Fever”) is that there are lots of different approaches . . . with sound, sampling . . . a lot of experimental touches.

Q: Why is it taking so long between albums these days? You released five albums, including “Songs in the Key of Life,” which was a double album, in a five-year period in the ‘70s. But “Jungle Fever” is just the third album in the last six years. Is it harder to come up with music that satisfies you?

A: I don’t know . . . the time just slipped away. Partially, I think I was working on the King holiday bill for a long time and I was on the road. I have also been spending a lot of time learning the new technology that is available for music and I wanted to wait until things settle down a bit at Motown (which recently filed suit to end its distribution deal with MCA Records).

You have people around me say, “Come on Stevie, everybody’s trying to do you (with their records). Why don’t you do you? Put a record out.” Because they know I’m always working on new stuff. But I just say, “Hold on.” I knew there was something I wanted to do with “Conversation Piece” that was going to take time because of the new technology. I wanted to use it, yet not sound so mechanical. I’m just about done. That album could be out by the end of the year--or early next year.

Q: Was it good for you to have a deadline on the soundtrack album?

A: I think it was good. This is the fastest I’ve ever done an album. The energy was there and you roll with it, rather than think about it so much that you let the energy get away.

Q: What about all the platinum albums and awards? Do you ever go through spells where you find it difficult to compete with yourself?

A: Do you mean do I worry if this album is going to sell as much as that one or win as many Grammys? No. That’s the kind of stuff that can drive you crazy. I have experienced enough peaks and valleys to be able to just wait and see what happens. Obviously, I’m excited to know what is going to happen with each new record, but I’m not going to freak myself out about it.

Q: When was the first valley? Back in your teens?

A: It happened right after “Fingertips” (in 1963). We had a song called “Workout Stevie, Workout” and it didn’t happen. People around me got nervous and there was a recommendation after about a year and a half that they drop me at Motown. I didn’t hear about it until later, but Sylvia Moy, who was one of the writers on “Uptight” (which proved to be Wonder’s first big hit after “Fingertips”) said, “Oh, no, don’t let him go. I think we have something happening.” And I guess someone listened to her.