No, not the clarinet, silly. And not the clavichord! I mean the clavinet, that funky keyboard of the sixties popularized by Stevie Wonder. It’s an instrument that creeps into most bands’ repertoires at some point, yet it’s obscure enough that Discourse is trying to spellcheck me on it.
I’m not going to link to Superstition because you’re already hearing it in your head at this very moment. Instead, a few other favorites:
First, Pink Floyd’s “Shine on You Crazy Diamond (Pts 6-9)”; the clavinet kicks in during the back half and carries a funky beat:
Finally, this one is distinctly obscure and aimed at @EinsteinsHund, but the German band Die Sterne features a lot of clavinet, including one of my favorites, Trrrmmr, a song about (checks notes)…um, having sex in the rubble:
The Red Hot Chili Peppers are sometimes credited with using a clavinet on their cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground”, but I always thought that was Flea hammering all those notes out on his bass. Gotta look into that.
Yeah, die Sterne are an example of a really funky German band, if that can figure out at all. Jan Delay is another funky German, and I’m wondering if he ever used a clavinet, but don’t know his work close enough to remember a clavinet song. And I have another clavinet song (not from a German band) in the back of my brain, but for the life of me can’t exactly remember it. Give me time. I love the clavinet.
Btw., my spellchecker in Chrome also marks the word “clavinet”.
Mickey’s Monkey a cover of a Smokey Robinson/Miracles song, borrowing the guitar hook from Led Zeppelin’s Custard Pie, by Mother’s Finest, which again I’ll emphasize is the incontrovertible queen of all funk/clavinet bands.
Really I don’t think mashups get any better than that.
Ok, I admit that I’m no expert at all, I just thought that the clavinets I saw had a smaller keyboard/fewer keys and just sounded differently, more akin to a bass guitar.
I hear the clavinet, but you could be right about the instrument seen in the video. Maybe the soundtrack is of a recording or different performance. YouTubers have been known to mash things up.
I’m pretty sure it’s in there though, because many of their songs feature one (also linked). If they’re not playing it, it’s definitely onstage somewhere.
How about other Stevie Wonder songs? Are they allowed?
I think it’s funny that Hohner decided that the world needed an electric clavichord. When was the last time a clavichord was a popular instrument? In Mozart’s time? And then they accidently created one of the funkiest instruments around.
I know what they sound like, but couldn’t identify one by sight if it bit me on the ass. So I’ll have to take your word on that.
I think you might be partially right. There’s something odd going on in that video. You can actually hear a piano, synth, and a clavinet, they’re a big-instrumentation band. But whatever that keyboard is, his hand motions seem synced to the piano part. I’m starting to think that wasn’t a live performance, it sounds almost note for note like the studio album.
This was actually not their most clavinet-heavy song anyway, it’s just my favorite one. The other 2 I linked are more clavinet-forward.
