Jeff Beck Superstition: One Version You Know. One You Don’t.

by Skynyrd.com | Mar 5, 2018 | Classic Rock, Outside

Updated 8/20/2023

Skynyrd.com uses affiliate links (ie, Amazon, and others). When you click on these links and make a purchase, this website receives a small commission. I appreciate your support.

Jeff Beck Superstition

Custom Short Link – sknrd.us/jbsovyk

This is the kind of thing I really enjoy Youtube for. You’re tooling along on your latest Youtube jag and you find a cool video in the sidebar that takes you into something you never expected, and didn’t even know happened. I’ve always been a Jeff Beck fan, and I dug the Beck, Bogert, Appice album when it came out. But I had never seen any video of the band. It was a short lived project, releasing their debut album in 1973, that ultimately ended before their second studio album was completed. So I was happy to come across this video…

Beck, Bogert, and Appice
on Amazon

Beck, Bogert, and Appice – Superstition

Stevie Wonder – Superstition

The video quality isn’t real great, but it is still fun to watch. There’s a pretty interesting story behind this song, which I think most classic rock fans know some of.

I had always thought that Stevie Wonder wrote the song for Jeff Beck. But apparently, Beck agreed to do guitar tracks on what would become Wonder’s “Talking Book” album. (Released in 1972, and this was Stevie Wonder’s fifteenth studio album.) Wonder decided to give the song Superstition to Beck in return for playing the sessions. Wonder agreed to not release his version until Beck’s came out. But that got held up and Wonder’s version ended up being released first.

Stevie Wonder Superstition

Talking Book Album 1972

A MUSICAL NOTE: Personally, I think it is fairly undisputable that the Stevie Wonder Superstition version is the best. From a groove and soul perspective it is clearly superior, and I think fits the song better. I searched out a period correct live version from Stevie Wonder, because I wanted to hear what he did with it closer to the time frame of when it was written. Time and cultural shifts change the way artists perform a song in a variety of ways.

One thing I noticed on a live version from January 1974, was that the drumer kicked the song off at close to the album tempo. (On the album, the song is much slower than he performed it live.) When Wonder brings the Clav in after the 8 bar drum intro, he immediately jumps the tempo up several BPM.

Wonder played drums on the studio version of this song, and most others during this period. And you can tell, as with most artists who did this, that it is not a “drummer” playing the track. It still sounds good, it’s usually just executed a little weird. I can’t imagine what it must have been like being the drummer in Stevie Wonder’s band.

But here is a really good live version from the same year where they stick to the intro tempo, but it gradually creeps up quite a bit throughout the song. Either way, it is great to experience what it sounded like back then because, especially through this period, Stevie Wonder was indeed, “the eighth wonder of the world.”

Then I saw a video in the sidebar that looked pretty interesting. Youtube does a good job recommending related videos.

This is Blues Rocker Joe Bonamassa playing Superstition with Tim Bogert and Camine Appice. I couldn’t find any detailed information on the show this video, but the Youtube information idicates it was from a 2007 show in Anaheim, CA It’s pretty interesting watching the two versions side-by-side.