2007 Song of the Day #2 – Supervixen (Garbage)

If there’s an album I have hopes of covering fully by the end of the year (by someone other than Madonna) it’s definitely Garbage’s debut, so the the first song on it seemed like a good place to start.

“Supervixen” is by far my favorite song by my favorite band, which might give the impression that it’s my favorite song of all time, but not quite.

It’s one of those songs I play a hundred times a year but never quite nail when recording. Tonight’s isn’t perfect, but I think any song this loosely translated from the original will always have an air of the unexpected surrounding it.

(It’s also one of those songs whose title has only a implied relationship with its lyrics, something I do with my own songs more often than I intend.)

It took me a long (long) time to figure out a way to emulate the crazy multi-layered intro on one acoustic guitar. Tonight i was having trouble counting myself into it, so i skip the first pass at it altogether. This gives the song a much more ponderous start rather than the usual guns-blazing approach, which was fine by me, since I don’t know if my vocals were up to “blazing” tonight.

Incidentally, my extra vocals on the bridge and at the end of the last chorus were originally ad-libbed during Blogathon 2002, and ever since then I’ve done it that way every time.

If you want chords, performance notes, and lyrics for “Supervixen,” read below…

This arrangement is faithful to the original, but condenses things down to work well for one guitar. The part that sounds the most different is the intro/interlude/outro, as on the record this relies on a lot of strong note bends from lead guitars for its sound.

Note that the album version is weirdly tuned below standard but not-quite a half step down. Here I play it in standard (although for most baritones (including me) a half step down would be better).

Verse: Am, C, G, C, Am, C, F G

Chorus (as barres): B5, A5, E, G

Bridge (instrumental): A, G, D, F three times, then A, G, D, C

Intro/Interlude/Outro: F#5, C#5, E5, B5 – here’s how I play it:

(1) hammer from x9-11-10xx to x9-11-11xx three times
(2) switch to 9-11-11xxx or x466xx for two downstrokes
(3) hammer from 0798xx to 0799xx three times *
(4) switch to 799xxx (or 7x99xx) for two downstrokes
At the end of each second time through stay on 0799xx rather than moving on to (4)

* To match the hiccup of silence in the original you can come in on one of the hammer-ons (an upstroke).

If you know the song well you might notice that I consistently take down the highest note in every chorus – it should be a F# on words like “whole” and “star,” but I start on an E and slur down. I could sing the F# but, at least for me, the bigger interval jump sounds awkward on an acoustic version of the song.

“Supervixen” is credited to all four members of Garbage. It’s probably that – like many songs on their first disc – much of the music and some of the lyrics were written before Shirley Manson came on board.

Come down to my house, stick a stone in your mouth
You can always pull out if you like it too much

Make a whole new religion
A falling star that you cannot live without
And I’ll feed your obsession
There’ll be nothing but this thing that you’ll never doubt

A hit is hard to resist, and I never miss
I can take you out with just a flick of my wrist

Make a whole new religion
A falling star that you cannot live without
And I’ll feed your obsession
There is nothing but this thing that you’ll never doubt
This thing you’ll never doubt

And I’ll feed your obsession
The falling star that you cannot live without
I will be your religion
This thing you’ll never doubt
You’re not the only one
You’re not the only one

(Bow down to me, bow down to me)