"I Wonder" - Sixto Rodriguez

[cuthbert]

Excellent cover, Ted. As noted by others, I particularly dig the bass and organ on this - and after listening to the original, I think you captured the vibe very well.

I knew of Rodriguez previously from the buzz created for 'Searching for Sugar Man' back in 2012. I enjoyed the film and thought the story was novel but frankly, his music just didn't connect with me at the time.

After hearing your version of this song, I may reconsider my initial take on Rodriguez.

[Mike_S]

This is brilliant Ted. I didn't know the artist, but after seeing your post and looking him up on google his story is a fascinating one. Great that eventually he became aware that he at least made it big somewhere and went on to have some success in later years.

I get you regarding the difficulties of playing through the pain barrier, I get like this quite a bit too and it is annoying. But man you did an amazing job with this. I agree with all the other comments... bass is killer, but those vocals are great too. Fine post.

Mike

[Ted]

About the bass part: The hardest part for me was feeling it two different ways.

Have you ever experienced this: Where you could play the notes, but you couldn't feel the part in rhythm?

If you notice, at the intro of the song the arpeggio begins on the upbeat of 1 and lands on 4. During the verses, the arpeggio begins on the upbeat of 2 and lands on 1. Then in the middle of the song (when the organ comes in) it switches back to intro feel, and then switches to the verse feel again when the final verse starts.

Before I touched the bass, for a few days I practiced counting four beats on my fingers and training my brain to feel it both ways, and being able to switch between the two just in my head. It's a very cool arrangement. I Wonder who came up with it. Possibly Dennis Coffey.

[thetworegs]

Sugar man what a songwriter a beautiful track and and a great documentary you've done it justice Ted... I loved the idea of a laborer on a building site being more famous than Elvis in South Africa and not knowing it saying to his mates oh by the way I've got to take next week off as  I'm doing a gig in front 20000 people in Johannesburg..oh yeah really

[Geir]

Sad to say I didn't know of him either.

I must say you have done a marvellous job on this cover. The bass is wonderful and so is the whole arrangement. Your finger don't sound rusty at all.

And the vocals. Oh my. Fabulous Ted.  Great delivery!

I'm a fan

[Mike_S]

About the bass part: The hardest part for me was feeling it two different ways.

Have you ever experienced this: Where you could play the notes, but you couldn't feel the part in rhythm?

If you notice, at the intro of the song the arpeggio begins on the upbeat of 1 and lands on 4. During the verses, the arpeggio begins on the upbeat of 2 and lands on 1. Then in the middle of the song (when the organ comes in) it switches back to intro feel, and then switches to the verse feel again when the final verse starts.

Before I touched the bass, for a few days I practiced counting four beats on my fingers and training my brain to feel it both ways, and being able to switch between the two just in my head. It's a very cool arrangement. I Wonder who came up with it. Possibly Dennis Coffey.

Yeah I think playing something like that is probably something where you just kind of have to not think too much or you might trip yourself up. You just kinda have to get into a zone and go for it... maybe something like jumping off a high diving board. Just have to let go and enjoy it. Easier said than done though.

[Pete C]

Yet another one here who hadn't heard of Rodriguez. Not heard the original but certainly enjoyed your version. Great bass line and a great job all round !

Pete

[Ted]

Your finger don't sound rusty at all.

The guitar playing was the most painful. Whenever I return from a break from music, I find that the musician part of my brain atrophies and needs to be strengthened. It just occurred to me this is really consistent with research about brain elasticity. Within the brain, there is always competition for brain power. If part of your brain takes a break from doing its usual thing, other mental processes will move in and try to use that available processing capacity. The classic example of this is the visual cortex. In sightless people, the visual cortex is repurposed for other tasks. There's even a theory that the purpose of dreams is to keep the visual cortex busy so that other brain functions to try to take over the visual cortex while we sleep. (Hey, it's Science Week on Songcrafters.) Anyway, in this light it makes sense that it's not just my hands and fingertips that go soft when I'm slacking on music. The parts of my brain that I need for musical expression have been taken over other brain functions. Brain squatters.

Easier said than done though.

This really makes me appreciate some of the great session musicians – Tony Levin comes immediately to mind. That guy can feel any song – even crazy 19/16 time signatures.

Anyway: Thanks for the good comments y'all. Go watch the movie Searching for Sugar Man if you can. It's good.

[StephenM]

Your finger don't sound rusty at all.

The guitar playing was the most painful. Whenever I return from a break from music, I find that the musician part of my brain atrophies and needs to be strengthened. It just occurred to me this is really consistent with research about brain elasticity. Within the brain, there is always competition for brain power. If part of your brain takes a break from doing its usual thing, other mental processes will move in and try to use that available processing capacity. The classic example of this is the visual cortex. In sightless people, the visual cortex is repurposed for other tasks. There's even a theory that the purpose of dreams is to keep the visual cortex busy so that other brain functions to try to take over the visual cortex while we sleep. (Hey, it's Science Week on Songcrafters.) Anyway, in this light it makes sense that it's not just my hands and fingertips that go soft when I'm slacking on music. The parts of my brain that I need for musical expression have been taken over other brain functions. Brain squatters.

Easier said than done though.

This really makes me appreciate some of the great session musicians – Tony Levin comes immediately to mind. That guy can feel any song – even crazy 19/16 time signatures.

Anyway: Thanks for the good comments y'all. Go watch the movie Searching for Sugar Man if you can. It's good.

I love hearing about and reading about the brain...
I believe the observations are correct.  Bio computer... doing something regularly keeps everything in sharper "focus".... for sure playing and singing regularly are necessary to be sharp. 

[Pipes]

Not familiar with this song... but being a Bass player way back when, it captured me Immediately.

Clever how the Bass fits in there..very Inventive.

Great tune, through and through..that organ..wow!

 thanks for posting.

Super listen..
Nick