Very superstitious indeed
February 27, 2022 10:09 PM Subscribe
Stevie Wonder performed Superstition live on sesame street in 1973. It's two minutes longer than the album version and, although the video has a sort of VHS-y quality to it, it still owns.
We discussed this back in 2006 when it was originally posted by New Frontier. The original posted links are dead (at the bottom of the comments, someone says that they were originally uploaded to YouTube by Son Volt's Jay Ferrar, which is wild if true). Also the img tag still worked! wild.
The notes on the episode are detailed on the of-course-it-exists muppet fandom wiki
Anyway, I think about this video a lot and thought we could all use a little funk to start the week.
We discussed this back in 2006 when it was originally posted by New Frontier. The original posted links are dead (at the bottom of the comments, someone says that they were originally uploaded to YouTube by Son Volt's Jay Ferrar, which is wild if true). Also the img tag still worked! wild.
The notes on the episode are detailed on the of-course-it-exists muppet fandom wiki
Anyway, I think about this video a lot and thought we could all use a little funk to start the week.
Delightful! Thanks for the (re-)post! A Stevie-related link I'd considered posting as an FPP: Stevie Wonder and his Dream Machines - an article about his pioneering use of synthesizers.
posted by misteraitch at 12:11 AM on February 28, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by misteraitch at 12:11 AM on February 28, 2022 [4 favorites]
Love this performance – I listen to it so much I ripped it to an MP3! And yeah, the restart at the end, just perfect.
posted by adrianhon at 1:25 AM on February 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by adrianhon at 1:25 AM on February 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
"“Superstition” happened in Electric Lady. It was originally written for Cecil’s friend Jeff Beck who was visiting New York, though Stevie ultimately reneged on his offer. The core keyboard sound of “Superstition” was Wonder’s electric keyboard being fed through TONTO. The famous bass line was all TONTO. The song demonstrated for the first time the potential of the synthesizer being something mainstream, a keyboard-controlled instrument that could add an entirely new sonic palette to popular music. "
posted by awfurby at 1:31 AM on February 28, 2022
posted by awfurby at 1:31 AM on February 28, 2022
THANKS for this. Made my day. Perfection. As one of the YT comments states, "6000 years of innovation brings us man's greatest achievement... weapons grade funk"
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 3:15 AM on February 28, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 3:15 AM on February 28, 2022 [3 favorites]
I remember this kind of thing happening a LOT in early-years Sesame Street. Another good one is Paul Simon doing a small acoustic cover of Me and Julio Down By The Schoolyard, with one girl getting So Very Involved in her own improvised lyrics that he abandons singing the second verse and lets her take it.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:58 AM on February 28, 2022 [9 favorites]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:58 AM on February 28, 2022 [9 favorites]
The most magnetic bass line ever. And, yeah, that performance is epic.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 4:17 AM on February 28, 2022
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 4:17 AM on February 28, 2022
So good. For a moment I am that kid again.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 4:33 AM on February 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 4:33 AM on February 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
This is why Gen Xers brains are wired up the way they are. And I thank G-d for it every day.
posted by mikelieman at 4:59 AM on February 28, 2022 [18 favorites]
posted by mikelieman at 4:59 AM on February 28, 2022 [18 favorites]
Well, that livened up my otherwise boring lunch break. Amazing stuff - he is just ablaze with talent.
posted by ElasticParrot at 5:19 AM on February 28, 2022
posted by ElasticParrot at 5:19 AM on February 28, 2022
although the video has a sort of VHS-y quality to it, it still owns.
I mean...it was recorded to tape. So yeah. And Stevie...so YEAH! 😀
posted by tiny frying pan at 5:47 AM on February 28, 2022
I mean...it was recorded to tape. So yeah. And Stevie...so YEAH! 😀
posted by tiny frying pan at 5:47 AM on February 28, 2022
Gen-X Sesame kid here, this clip brings back SOOOO many memories, thank you. I was a Kindergartener and (as far as I could recall) had never seen a music performance like this on TV before. Rocked my world.
It probably also cemented the Clavinet as "that awesome instrument I heard in all these cool songs in the 1970s". Superstition being right up there with JPJ's solo in Trampled Under Foot.
I tried checking HBOMax to see if they had a better copy of this and, sadly, it's not there. Boo.
But I found it here.
Bonus material! Stevie is all over this episode including opening the show with a killer talkbox number, then teaching Grover how to scat, and then demonstrating Loud-versus-Soft.
posted by JoeZydeco at 6:29 AM on February 28, 2022 [12 favorites]
It probably also cemented the Clavinet as "that awesome instrument I heard in all these cool songs in the 1970s". Superstition being right up there with JPJ's solo in Trampled Under Foot.
I tried checking HBOMax to see if they had a better copy of this and, sadly, it's not there. Boo.
But I found it here.
Bonus material! Stevie is all over this episode including opening the show with a killer talkbox number, then teaching Grover how to scat, and then demonstrating Loud-versus-Soft.
posted by JoeZydeco at 6:29 AM on February 28, 2022 [12 favorites]
Rewatching it, the extraordinary thing isn't just that it's a virtuoso performance, but that it's a virtuoso performance for kids--Wonder is bringing it just as hard as he would for any adult audience. It was such an intense experience for a kid that for a while I wondered if I'd dreamed it.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:04 AM on February 28, 2022 [11 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:04 AM on February 28, 2022 [11 favorites]
That video has long been my go-to example of Why The Internet Is Important.
posted by Dr. Wu at 7:39 AM on February 28, 2022 [14 favorites]
posted by Dr. Wu at 7:39 AM on February 28, 2022 [14 favorites]
I always get a kick out of seeing this and I'm fairly sure I remember seeing this on Sesame Street in 1973.
posted by sfred at 8:00 AM on February 28, 2022
posted by sfred at 8:00 AM on February 28, 2022
That was delightful. Only thing that could have improved it was even more shots of tiny children rocking out.
posted by jb at 8:02 AM on February 28, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by jb at 8:02 AM on February 28, 2022 [3 favorites]
I've seen a live performance by Stevie once, and I am convinced the event organizers simply booked him under the condition that he wouldn't perform, but "do whatever he enjoys most".
But judge for yourself, bits of it are on Youtube
He is AWESOME.
posted by DreamerFi at 9:07 AM on February 28, 2022 [3 favorites]
But judge for yourself, bits of it are on Youtube
He is AWESOME.
posted by DreamerFi at 9:07 AM on February 28, 2022 [3 favorites]
one of the things i love about this song is how baroque the brass riff in the verses - it's just absolutely chock full of trills and jumps that were hard for me to hit as a teenager in a jazz band. and then coming out of the chorus, you get to deliver the complete opposite, a hook that just lets you blast these straight-up descending quarter notes.
posted by entropone at 9:49 AM on February 28, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by entropone at 9:49 AM on February 28, 2022 [6 favorites]
Wonder is bringing it just as hard as he would for any adult audience
Right? And who would put a funky song like Pinball Number Count on a kids show? Sesame Street would. Reminds me of Fred Rogers who refused to "dumb down" any of the music "for kids".
posted by ctmf at 12:02 PM on February 28, 2022 [6 favorites]
Right? And who would put a funky song like Pinball Number Count on a kids show? Sesame Street would. Reminds me of Fred Rogers who refused to "dumb down" any of the music "for kids".
posted by ctmf at 12:02 PM on February 28, 2022 [6 favorites]
Here's Stevie and Wonderlove playing 'Superstition' in 1974 on the German tv show Musikladen/Beat Club and at the American Music Awards--the Sesame Street version slaps harder than either.
(And, because one of my favorite Stevie Wonders is the one who just fucking loathes Richard Nixon, here's 'He's Misstra Know It All' and 'You Haven't Done Nothing.')
posted by box at 12:33 PM on February 28, 2022 [4 favorites]
(And, because one of my favorite Stevie Wonders is the one who just fucking loathes Richard Nixon, here's 'He's Misstra Know It All' and 'You Haven't Done Nothing.')
posted by box at 12:33 PM on February 28, 2022 [4 favorites]
Sesame Street introduced me to so much music I hold dear today. Funk (w/the Pointer Sisters), minimalism (w/Philip Glass), jazz-rock (w/Grace Slick), Johnny Cash - a genre unto himself - (w/Oscar the Grouch), and on and on.
posted by joseph_elmhurst at 12:59 PM on February 28, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by joseph_elmhurst at 12:59 PM on February 28, 2022 [3 favorites]
That one kid in the background rocking the maracas out, tho. How great it must be, to have "I backed up Stevie Wonder and his band on Sesame Street one time" as a story to tell.
Wherever you are now, kid, respect.
posted by mhoye at 1:02 PM on February 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
Wherever you are now, kid, respect.
posted by mhoye at 1:02 PM on February 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
This is why Gen Xers brains are wired up the way they are. And I thank G-d for it every day.
This. It took me longer than it should have to realize that Franklin Roosevelt wasn't just a knockoff of Roosevelt Franklin.
Jim Henson's ability to charm superstars onto his programs is unparalleled. Oh, here's Stevie Wonder where Grover just calls him Stevie. Oh, here's James Earl Jones and Richard Pryor and Judy Collins and Lena Horne reciting the alphabet. Same for the Electric Company (also by the Children's Television Workshop): Oh, here are Mel Brooks and Joan Rivers and Zero Mostel and Tom Lehrer and Chuck Jones doing just a few brief bits. To this day, Morgan Freeman is "just the guy from the Electric Company" for me.
posted by Melismata at 1:04 PM on February 28, 2022 [6 favorites]
This. It took me longer than it should have to realize that Franklin Roosevelt wasn't just a knockoff of Roosevelt Franklin.
Jim Henson's ability to charm superstars onto his programs is unparalleled. Oh, here's Stevie Wonder where Grover just calls him Stevie. Oh, here's James Earl Jones and Richard Pryor and Judy Collins and Lena Horne reciting the alphabet. Same for the Electric Company (also by the Children's Television Workshop): Oh, here are Mel Brooks and Joan Rivers and Zero Mostel and Tom Lehrer and Chuck Jones doing just a few brief bits. To this day, Morgan Freeman is "just the guy from the Electric Company" for me.
posted by Melismata at 1:04 PM on February 28, 2022 [6 favorites]
And Rita Moreno is a freaking national treasure.
posted by JoeZydeco at 1:07 PM on February 28, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by JoeZydeco at 1:07 PM on February 28, 2022 [4 favorites]
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: This is the single most joyous clip on YouTube, and one of the greatest musical performances ever caught on camera.
posted by vibrotronica at 1:26 PM on February 28, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by vibrotronica at 1:26 PM on February 28, 2022 [7 favorites]
Also, when you watch it again, as you should, watch Stevie's face. He's all business at first, then about 30 seconds in you can hear one of the kids scream. Stevie knows he's got 'em, and he's off to the races.
posted by vibrotronica at 1:40 PM on February 28, 2022
posted by vibrotronica at 1:40 PM on February 28, 2022
If you like the space where Sesame Street and pop music intersect, you may enjoy the gloriously titled 2003 compilation Songs from the Street.
posted by box at 2:36 PM on February 28, 2022
posted by box at 2:36 PM on February 28, 2022
Hands down my favorite version of my favourite song. It also strengthens my already firmly held belief that the Sesame Street version of any given song will be the the best version of that particular song!
posted by flyingfox at 4:39 PM on February 28, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by flyingfox at 4:39 PM on February 28, 2022 [3 favorites]
From the same appearance, here he is doing the sesame st theme song, which somehow also owns when filtered through Stevie. The kid on the balcony in the red shirt is still absolutely FEELING IT in this video too.
Also, from just a couple years earlier, one of the best videos on the internet: Stevie Wonder live in Brazil '71 Come for the funk, stay for the breakdown into just pure joy, and then aburpt but perfect "baby..." transition into the next song.
posted by cirrostratus at 3:04 AM on March 1, 2022
Also, from just a couple years earlier, one of the best videos on the internet: Stevie Wonder live in Brazil '71 Come for the funk, stay for the breakdown into just pure joy, and then aburpt but perfect "baby..." transition into the next song.
posted by cirrostratus at 3:04 AM on March 1, 2022
So here's some deeper trivia on Stevie's appearance on Sesame Street, since I can't stop thinking about the episode and because I want AgentRocket to think I'm cool:
1) The song he sings in the beginning is not the Sesame Street theme song but is called "1-2-3 Sesame Street". It was written by Stevie for his appearance on the show. It was left off of a lot of compilations and reruns because of rights issues.
2) The show first aired in April 1973. When Stevie is sitting down to sing with Grover, he sings the main melody from "Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing", which was most likely recorded by this time but not released until Innervisions came out later in 1973. The song wasn't released as a single until 1974. You were getting a sneak preview!
3) This is a little harder to verify but one of Stevie's guitarists at this time was Michael Sembello, who later had a #1 hit on his own with "Maniac" off the Flashdance film soundtrack (and countless commercials since then). He looks like the mustached guitarist on Stevie's left with the white guitar, but the video is a little hard to make out and he's not on camera for very long.
posted by JoeZydeco at 5:11 AM on March 1, 2022 [3 favorites]
1) The song he sings in the beginning is not the Sesame Street theme song but is called "1-2-3 Sesame Street". It was written by Stevie for his appearance on the show. It was left off of a lot of compilations and reruns because of rights issues.
2) The show first aired in April 1973. When Stevie is sitting down to sing with Grover, he sings the main melody from "Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing", which was most likely recorded by this time but not released until Innervisions came out later in 1973. The song wasn't released as a single until 1974. You were getting a sneak preview!
3) This is a little harder to verify but one of Stevie's guitarists at this time was Michael Sembello, who later had a #1 hit on his own with "Maniac" off the Flashdance film soundtrack (and countless commercials since then). He looks like the mustached guitarist on Stevie's left with the white guitar, but the video is a little hard to make out and he's not on camera for very long.
posted by JoeZydeco at 5:11 AM on March 1, 2022 [3 favorites]
Fortunate to have seen Stevie Wonder at Radio City Music Hall in NYC in the 80's. There was thunder on the stage and in the audience.
posted by DJZouke at 5:13 AM on March 1, 2022
posted by DJZouke at 5:13 AM on March 1, 2022
Something that strikes me about the performance -- apart from the fact that it is stunning in its own right -- is that it's alluded to here that CTW gave them the space to do the thing. It wasn't jammed into a show slot but was a centerpiece of the day's episode. I question if CTW / SW would even be able to or allowed do something like this today.
It isn't the medallions, shirts, or funk that makes this feel like the 70s to me: it's the respect for the performers.
posted by majick at 5:38 AM on March 1, 2022 [2 favorites]
It isn't the medallions, shirts, or funk that makes this feel like the 70s to me: it's the respect for the performers.
posted by majick at 5:38 AM on March 1, 2022 [2 favorites]
I saw someone post the other day that, 15 years from now, some club DJ is going to drop 'Baby Shark,' and the room's going to go nuts.
That reminded me that this is a thing that exists.
posted by box at 8:12 AM on March 1, 2022
That reminded me that this is a thing that exists.
posted by box at 8:12 AM on March 1, 2022
The guy in the pale blue cap with the pom-pom on top is Ray Parker, Jr., by the way.
I guess Stevie called him.
:D
posted by droplet at 3:18 PM on March 1, 2022
I guess Stevie called him.
:D
posted by droplet at 3:18 PM on March 1, 2022
Is it me, or are there a few members of The Blues Brothers Band on stage (Blue Lou Marini/Matt "Guitar" Murphy)? (Hard to tell)
posted by Dub at 3:21 PM on March 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Dub at 3:21 PM on March 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
Is it me, or are there a few members of The Blues Brothers Band on stage (Blue Lou Marini/Matt "Guitar" Murphy)? (Hard to tell)
I spent a few minutes trying to look up the band.
http://www.rslblog.com/2008/09/stevie-wonder-on-sesame-street-1972.html says"
posted by mikelieman at 4:16 PM on March 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
I spent a few minutes trying to look up the band.
http://www.rslblog.com/2008/09/stevie-wonder-on-sesame-street-1972.html says"
The Band: Keys and Vocals – Stevie Wonder; Guitars - Ray Parker and Ralph Hammer; Bassist - Scottie Edwards; Drums - Ollie Brown; Sax - Lou Marini; Horn - Steve Madaio.Steve Madaio was in Wonder's touring band. The bass player did a lot of classic disco basslines.
posted by mikelieman at 4:16 PM on March 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
I remember posting this on my Facebook timeline way back when, and being absolutely delighted by the balcony kid too. Can’t wait to have kids of my own and play them my huge soul music collection and see them ROCK OUT.
posted by sucre at 9:37 AM on March 2, 2022
posted by sucre at 9:37 AM on March 2, 2022
...Until they hit 14 or so, then they wouldn't be caught dead listening to their parents' music!
...Until they hit 30 or so, and rediscover it.
:)
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:38 PM on March 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
...Until they hit 30 or so, and rediscover it.
:)
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:38 PM on March 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
I found another version in marginally better quality if you want an excuse to watch it again!
posted by Rhaomi at 9:30 PM on March 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Rhaomi at 9:30 PM on March 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
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Also, there's something about the thing where the song ends, then one of the musicians digs right back into the groove to get the song going again at full tilt, that I absolutely love. I can't really explain why, but it's just so satisfying somehow.
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:30 PM on February 27, 2022 [13 favorites]