Stevie Wonder in 1974, performing “Superstition” on Musikladen (a West German television program)
Stevie Wonder in 1974, performing “Superstition” on Musikladen (a West German television program)
byu/MulciberTenebras inOldSchoolCool
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My favorite of his
Amazing
Superstition has one of the best openings of all songs.
Prefer the horns to tambourine girls
Remember when Andre 3K straight up just dressed like young Stevie for a while there?
Amazing musician who played the drums on the studio version of this, and many of his songs.
That song is so rad. That guitar part is a lot more intricate than I would’ve imagined. Dude was dancing all over the fretboard.
Amazing, miss the trumpet section, genius
The audio is out of synch but still great. The story I heard is that he and Jeff Beck were messing around in a studio and Jeff was screwing around, doing some funky drum thing and Stevie liked it, created “Superstition” kind of on the spot, was going to let Beck record it, but the record company was like, NO, you have to record it yourself. So Stevie gave Jeff “Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers”, one of Jeff’s most brilliant efforts. I wish those two had done a lot more together.
Everyone should have a copy of “Songs in the Key of Life.”
And Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On”.
That’s Stevie playing drums on the album btw. Dude could play
Watching old performances like these really give a greater appreciation for musicians. Growing up listening to my dad’s music was great but I missed never getting to see that magic that comes with a live performance. To watch some of the OGs perform the songs I grew up listening to is awesome. When I discovered Burt Sugarman’s midnight special I watched every one I could find on YouTube. Linda Ronstadt, James Brown, Ike and Tina those are some of the best memories of have with my dad.
there is another video of Stevie playing superstition live on TV but with full horn sections, same band, same years, anybody has a link to that?
His band is tight as fuck. His singing is also 100% on point: pure tone and right on the beat.
fuckin rights this is old school cool !!
That’s also Michael Sembello of “Maniac” fame on the guitar!
Ollie Brown, holdin’ it down.
The drummer has some seriously cool vibes
Muzikladen performances should seriously be protected by historians. Some of the best versions of artists playing their songs were on there. Like, this was a great song and it wasn’t even the best song on his Musikladen set.
The guy, smoking a pipe, in a club, in Germany, in the ’70s. That’s the true OldSchoolCool right there.
Woah. I always thought that killer opening riff was the bass guitar. It’s the guitarist!
I was lucky enough to see Stevie in Detroit a few years back, understatement to say it was an excellent show and experience.
The fact that his live show at his age was so spot on and wonderful, just an amazing talent.
Stevie Wonder from 1974-1978 was un-fucking-believable. The apex of music.
Fun fact: The guitarist is Michael Sembello, aka the guy who made “Maniac”, and was a frequent Stevie Wonder backup musician and collaborator.
This ranks so high on the cool scale. So good
So awesome! I wish people still made music like this. This video would also work as a commercial for Orange amps
!
This is a great performance. And the original recording is amazing. The mind boggling fact is that Stevie played every instrument on the original recording except the horns. Even the horns he wrote and taught to the two musicians who played the parts.
He went into the studio with the song in his head – he recorded the drums first. Think of that when you listen to the recording – he knew exactly where he was in this song that had yet to be realized – it only existed in his mind. The breaks, the rolls and returns – it’s jaw dropping. No beat track in his ear – just his own beautiful sense of time and rhythm.
Next he recorded the main clav riff over the drums.
Then the second clav riff.
Then to moog bass.
Then a vocal demo.
Then the horns played.
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The recording sounds like a band playing – it’s tight, it’s funky, it’s fresh with lots of little improvisations on the clav, vocals and moog. Stevie Wonder is a musical genius. He’s a very rare and gifted human being.
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The band performance came after all that!
I remember watching him perform this song on Sesame Street.