Antero wrote:Stevie Wonder is great, but he's got some serious shit to explain.

funny and well put.

If you ignore the last 25 years, Little Stevie wins. That’s a lot to ignore.

Hm. Stevie. By a whisker.

Johnny Cash, a thousand times.

I never really got Stevie Wonder for a long time. Then one day, I heard 'Superstition' for the 8,000,000th time, and suddenly became dumbstruck at this...sound, this thing that had always just been there, on the radio and in shit clubs.

I dug out my dad's single of it and played it, hearing it with brand new ears and the mind of a wide-eyed child. And I could only think one thought:

HOW. THE. FUCK. DID HE DO THAT.

This sonic beast had been sitting there my whole life and I'd never realised just how headfuckingly unique and awesome it was. I'd never appreciated that a bloke had actually, you know, created it.

There was a time when the intro/groove to Superstition didn't exist. Stevie Wonder brought it into existence. He made it up.

In a sublime moment of cosmic coincidence, a few weeks after my mind being fucked at the awesomeness of the groove on Superstition, Steve made this post:

steve wrote:The clavinet/guitar rhythm playing the main pattern on "Superstition" is the finest single element in any recorded piece of music. The two sounds synthesizing a single rhythmic element is charming and executed perfectly. Nothing else comes close.

The drumbeat for "When the Levee Breaks" isn't within a mile, and it's pretty godamn good.

This articulated my thoughts almost perfectly. Although previous to this post I would have stopped short of calling it the very finest moment in any recorded music, I was forced to try and find its superior, or even its equal; I couldn't. It's become a little game I play with myself every now and then: try and find something which out-grooves the groove from Superstition.

There is no such groove. When The Levee Breaks is a good example, and I can throw some more personal favourites in: a few Can bits, the beginning of Sgt Pepper's Reprise, Wilko Johnson's riff on Roxette, sundry chunks of funk, the drums from Gainsbourg's Requiem Pour Un Con and some others I can't bring to mind at the moment. Other bits, such as the outro to 'Stand' and the riff to 'Skunk (Sonicly Speaking)' [sic] were contenders in my mind but not on the turntable.

Seriously.

The clavi/drum/guitar stuff in Superstition destroys everything. You can play it 5 or 50 or 500 times in a row, and its majesty, mystery and unalloyed joy will be undiminished. It is endlessly, inexhaustibly wonderful.

Stevie Wonder has created music that makes me feel physically ill, but he made Superstition, this piece of musical heaven that I took for granted my whole life, and for that I would devote my life to purifying and bottling my tears if it meant he wouldn't go thirsty.

Salut, Stevie Wonder, you blind bastard! You pulled the ultimate motherfucker from out of the ether!

Man, Stevie Wonder. Easily.

Innervisions, Songs In The Key Of Life, Secret Life Of Plants- I find these record genuinely odd records. I couldn't explain it, but they baffle me, time and again. They come from a genuinely strange place.

I was never baffled by Johnny Cash.

Stevie's drumming make this an easy, easy choice. I'll go with the child prodigy who played every instrument. Instead of an overrated"rebel".

Johnny Cash is a greatest hits greatest hit. Any shlub can walk into a truck stop or car wash and for eight bucks own all the Johnny Cash one needs.

Some of Stevie's records are just fucking essential listening. I wish I felt that way about Cash. I mean the prison albums are pretty good, but I can't sit down and listen to Folsom in its entirety the same way I can listen to an album like Innervisions.

run joe run wrote:I never really got Stevie Wonder for a long time. Then one day, I heard 'Superstition' for the 8,000,000th time, and suddenly became dumbstruck at this...sound, this thing that had always just been there, on the radio and in shit clubs.

I dug out my dad's single of it and played it, hearing it with brand new ears and the mind of a wide-eyed child. And I could only think one thought:

HOW. THE. FUCK. DID HE DO THAT.

This sonic beast had been sitting there my whole life and I'd never realised just how headfuckingly unique and awesome it was. I'd never appreciated that a bloke had actually, you know, created it.

There was a time when the intro/groove to Superstition didn't exist. Stevie Wonder brought it into existence. He made it up.

In a sublime moment of cosmic coincidence, a few weeks after my mind being fucked at the awesomeness of the groove on Superstition, Steve made this post:

steve wrote:The clavinet/guitar rhythm playing the main pattern on "Superstition" is the finest single element in any recorded piece of music. The two sounds synthesizing a single rhythmic element is charming and executed perfectly. Nothing else comes close.

The drumbeat for "When the Levee Breaks" isn't within a mile, and it's pretty godamn good.

This articulated my thoughts almost perfectly. Although previous to this post I would have stopped short of calling it the very finest moment in any recorded music, I was forced to try and find its superior, or even its equal; I couldn't. It's become a little game I play with myself every now and then: try and find something which out-grooves the groove from Superstition.

There is no such groove. When The Levee Breaks is a good example, and I can throw some more personal favourites in: a few Can bits, the beginning of Sgt Pepper's Reprise, Wilko Johnson's riff on Roxette, sundry chunks of funk, the drums from Gainsbourg's Requiem Pour Un Con and some others I can't bring to mind at the moment. Other bits, such as the outro to 'Stand' and the riff to 'Skunk (Sonicly Speaking)' [sic] were contenders in my mind but not on the turntable.

Seriously.

The clavi/drum/guitar stuff in Superstition destroys everything. You can play it 5 or 50 or 500 times in a row, and its majesty, mystery and unalloyed joy will be undiminished. It is endlessly, inexhaustibly wonderful.

Stevie Wonder has created music that makes me feel physically ill, but he made Superstition, this piece of musical heaven that I took for granted my whole life, and for that I would devote my life to purifying and bottling my tears if it meant he wouldn't go thirsty.

Salut, Stevie Wonder, you blind bastard! You pulled the ultimate motherfucker from out of the ether!

this is such a great post, and reaffirms why stevie wins this battle.

"Superstition" was originally written for Jeff Beck. True fact.

I think Beck had trouble playing it, or something.

stephensolo wrote:If you ignore the last 25 years, Little Stevie wins. That’s a lot to ignore.

Hm. Stevie. By a whisker.

yeah...johnny doesn't have a lot ot explain...

four albums of covers?

c'mon.

Brett Eugene Ralph wrote:Cash--not even close.

I respect Stevie Wonder, but I've always thought he was overrated. I'd put Sly and Curtis (and Prince) ahead of him--not to mention James Brown, Ray Charles, P-Funk, etc.

You crazy.

Blind, at age 12 (!) if you just count the harmonica, he was already a better musician than any of the dudes you mention. He was also eventually a super badass arranger, drummer and guitarist. Given that he also wrote almost all his material (which Cash can only say for about an album's worth), you got to be 100 percent out of your mind to say such things as you have just said here.

Hank Williams Jr is overrated. Professional football is overrated. Porn is overrated. If anything, Stevie PWonder is underrated. People forget how incredible Stevie Wonder is because they can only name about 15 awesome songs of his. They forget he was doing it all from memory, no peekies and he played every sound you hear on most of it.

Fuck me, if there's a badder dude in all of music I couldn't name him.