Stevie Wonders Superstition

Travisthedog

My band have decided (in my absense!) to cover this for our "wedding set"

I like it a lot but given that it's predominantly keyboard - I'd be interested to hear your collective thoughts on how you'd approach this, effects technique chords or single notes etc

Bear in mind we are a bass, drums, single guitar set up

vasselmeyer

Watch Phil X doing it in a three piece. Funky as fuck:

EricTheWeary

This comes up bizzarely often. The song was written to be played on guitar. By Jeff Beck. So, check out the Jeff Beck version for starters.

Travisthedog

I didn't know that

I'm so gay for Phil x

vasselmeyer

Travisthedog said:

I didn't know that

I'm so gay for Phil x

Me too. Man crush.

Travisthedog

This rules

Handsome_Chris

Do every cover band do this?  We had the other guitarist doing the funky keys bit, while I handled the horns.

Danny1969

On guitar I move the key to E, rather than play in Eb like the original. Part of the key to getting some funk into it is to purposelessly misfret  some notes  to prevent them sounding out properly, makes a difference I think 

Like Chris said other guitar then does horn part, sounds fine

not_the_dj

We've covered this as well in a single guitar line-up. Goes down pretty well. Like the poster above we do it in E, great fun playing riff quite loosely.

exocet

I always liked this approach.

monquixote

My band do it occasionally (though we have horns)

I play it pretty much the way Phil X does with the exception that I put a bit of wah on the "13 month old baby" brass riff and I don't do the brass riff after the chorus because the horns take that. 

Lots of left and right hand muting and rakes with a very light drive is the best policy.

Roland

We do this without keys.  I play the riffs, using a cry baby, and the sax player does the brass bits.  I wish I'd heard the Phil X version before we did our arrangement because I like his way of dealing with the brass parts.

We actually play it in Eb, but only because I use a pedal to detune by a semitone.  Without the pedal I would have insisted on E to take advantage of the open strings.  Our bass player uses a 5 string, so that doesn't bother him

benmurray85

FWIW from the above i think the SRV version is "best" but thats because the organ fills out the brass bits. if you are just a three piece i would definitely go with the phil x version.

my three piece used to do it pretty much exactly the same as that, in fact I'm super proud that i played the brass bits exactly the same with unison bends so that means I'm easily as good as phil x ;-)

just keep it loose. its a standard but its definitely one that you could also put your own little slant on

Panama_Jack666

My band do it as a 3 piece. Loosely based of the Phil X version. I'm like a more chubby, more cuddly less enthusiastic Phil X.

Anyway, it's possible with a good bassist. My bassist took the bass line of a live Stevie Wonder version and it sounded great (in my opinion).

thomasw88

we do it.  do it in E cos Eb's for horns or gayers...

I whack a bit of delay on the geetar and a little bit of crunch.   If I can get the delay tempo right, it fills it out quite a bit and sounds quite good to my ears anyway!!

.. guitar and bass double up on the bridge/pre chorus bittys.   goes down ok, we then segue into a version of  groove is in the heart in a vain attempt to keep the usually hammered and knackered lone dancer on the dance floor..

benmurray85

thomasw88 said:

goes down ok, we then segue into a version of  groove is in the heart in a vain attempt to keep the usually hammered and knackered lone dancer on the dance floor..

i fucking love a good segue, nice work!

thisisguitar

As it's such a great song I thought I'd post this:

If you get the multitrack stems to that song, have a listen to the parts… there isn't any guitar in the original, but Stevie's layering of keys to build that riff is absolutely amazing to listen to without the other parts :-)

There's a link in the description on this youtube video

thisisguitar

Also, Phil X with Guthrie Govan for another approach…

Heartfeltdawn

Get a Space Echo and a horn section

ChrisMusic

And the moral is - don't let Phil X mess with your board !

vasselmeyer

ChrisMusic said:

And the moral is - don't let Phil X mess with your board !

It was actually Phil's board as Guthrie was guesting at The Drills' gig. Just shows how individual the different gear and playing styles can sound.