Beck Bogert & Appice: “Superstition”

[jerry]

As a side note, this is one of the songs that has turned up in set lists almost as long as I've been gigging, when I was young it always was more of the Beck version, as I've aged it reverted more to Stevie's.
I now prefer Stevie's version and it seems more condusive to the dancers!

 

[JimK]

The only time I covered "Superstition" it was guitar-bass-drums. I did the clav part.

 

[Dr. Cheese]

The only time I covered "Superstition" it was guitar-bass-drums. I did the clav part.

For years, my ears were drawn more to the clavinet instead of that thumping Moog.

 

[jerry]

For years, my ears was drawn more to the clavinet instead of that thumping Moog.

Stevie's clarinet use is some of the funkiest recorded music ever!

 

[Bob_Ross]

Really, does it get much better than this?

That's rhetorical, right?

 

[Dr. Cheese]

I know I will never get the full affect of this because I have not dropped acid! It seems Tim Bogert might have influenced Chris Squire with the kimono thing too.

 

[Turock]

I loved that BBA album (still do). Badasses, all three of 'em.

 

[JimK]

That's rhetorical, right?

Yes.

 

[Gianni "Orlandez" Orlati]

Beck is directly called by Stevie during Beck's solo in the tune "Lookin' for another pure love", that's where I understood Beck was involved in the recording of this musical masterpiece with which he probably started his personal evolution from a rock only guitarist to a musician with a wider (and nice to me) perspective

 

[JimK]

I know I will never get the full affect of this because I have not dropped acid! It seems Tim Bogert might have influenced Chris Squire with the kimono thing too.

Geddy Lee, too...maybe (in his "Glee" daze).

The Fudge were not shy with letting their hair down, huh?

Every time I get into that mood, I crank up their cover of "Shotgun" ...and the wife threatens to leave me every time.

 

[Turock]

The Fudge were not shy with letting their hair down, huh?

Yeah, them boys liked to ham it up.

 

[Dr. Cheese]

Beck is directly called by Stevie during Beck's solo in the tune "Lookin' for another pure love", that's where I understood Beck was involved in the recording of this musical masterpiece with which he probably started his personal evolution from a rock only guitarist to a musician with a wider (and nice to me) perspective

I bet you are right!

 

[Dr. Cheese]

These guys were seriously psychedelic.

 

[HaphAsSard]

These guys were seriously psychedelic.

Aye. Slowing down pop and soul hits of the time and spicing them up with some acid classical touches, four-part harmonies and dynamics ranging from featherlight to piledriving were their thing.
When I first heard their version of "Some Velvet Morning" it blew my mind:

At the time I had no idea the composition was brought to us by the same folks behind "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'";* neither did I recognise the motifs lifted off Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring". How such a mixture manages to have the side effect of preluding the doom metal genre still escapes me. And it works wonders even with the guitar taking a step back in favour of the distorted bass. I hear the seeds of both "Black Sabbath" (the song**) and "No Quarter" in there. Of "The Court of the Crimson King" too. Led Zeppelin toured with Vanilla Fudge, as infamously referenced in Zappa's "[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]". Deep Purple and Uriah Heep were superfans; the former's progression from genre-dropping, Beatle-ralentiing psychoprog to Hammond metal was basically a reenactment of the Fudge's. Jeff Beck was too, well before joining Bogert and Appice. I'd bet Yes too took a close listen.

* [To be fair, Lee&Nancy's original is weird too.]
** [Also to be fair, that one also takes an obvious cue from Gustav Holst's "Mars, the Bringer of War".]

 

[JimK]

Nice post.
I read Howard Kaylan's (great) book; he does talk about the Mudshark (a Red Snapper?) & Vanilla Fudge.
Urban Legend usually 'credits' Zappa or Zeppelin, right?

I have 0 Cactus albums.
...worth checking out?

 

[HaphAsSard]

I have 0 Cactus albums.
...worth checking out?

Thanks to Bogert and Appice, Cactus sounds like the heaviest band of the early Seventies to my ears. Human jackhammers. Had Jim McCarty favoured a Tony Iommi tone, they would have been a juggernaut of a band. Their rendition of Willie Dixon/Howlin' Wolf's "Evil"* is a classic; here's a live version:




* [actually based on that blues standard's rock blues reworking found on The Howlin' Wolf Album (1969), published by Marshall Chess's sub-label Cadet Concept Records and recorded with the same circle of protofusion musicians - Pete Cosey, later in Miles Davis's mid-70s band, among them - that played in Muddy Waters's 1968 Electric Mud (a similar affair) and were members of Rotary Connection with the late, great Minnie Riperton. Invalid Link Removed

As is Wolf's opinion of his own record (already disclosed to the public on the Invalid Link Removed - Marshall thought it was a good idea at the time) i.e., reportedly, (quote) dog shjt (unquote).]

 

[JimK]

I have Electric Mud & its sister album-

...was reading about Cosey in a Guitar Player mag. Loved his stories about the Wolf album. Hadda buy it.

 

[Dr. Cheese]

Aye. Slowing down pop and soul hits of the time and spicing them up with some acid classical touches, four-part harmonies and dynamics ranging from featherlight to piledriving were their thing.
When I first heard their version of "Some Velvet Morning" it blew my mind:

At the time I had no idea the composition was brought to us by the same folks behind "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'";* neither did I recognise the motifs lifted off Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring". How such a mixture manages to have the side effect of preluding the doom metal genre still escapes me. And it works wonders even with the guitar taking a step back in favour of the distorted bass. I hear the seeds of both "Black Sabbath" (the song**) and "No Quarter" in there. Of "The Court of the Crimson King" too. Led Zeppelin toured with Vanilla Fudge, as infamously referenced in Zappa's "[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]". Deep Purple and Uriah Heep were superfans; the former's progression from genre-dropping, Beatle-ralentiing psychoprog to Hammond metal was basically a reenactment of the Fudge's. Jeff Beck was too, well before joining Bogert and Appice. I'd bet Yes too took a close listen.

* [To be fair, Lee&Nancy's original is weird too.]
** [Also to be fair, that one also takes an obvious cue from Gustav Holst's "Mars, the Bringer of War".]

You don't need to be high to get high listening to that song!

 

[JimK]

Agreed. Music itself should be 'the high'...

(I know I joke around sometimes. It's all talk).

 

[Flashback Bass]

We were big Cactus fans back in the 70's and had all their albums. This cover was their attempt to play a song faster then I'm Going Home by Ten Years After at Woodstock.



The third original line-up album didn't get much respect, but was one of our favorites!