At the time of his death, I coudve given two shits about Stevie Ray Vaughn. I knew nothing of his music. Being in the 10th grade in 1990, I hadnt yet refined my musical taste so to speak...it was only later in life that I became self-aware of his god-like prowess with the blues guitar. I watched a live performance of his in tokyo in 1985 tonight...texas flood. Almost brought tears to my eyes. Plenty have said he was cut down in his prime, but I disagree, someone with such obvious talents as he, would have only grown more as musician. He was 36
Ive popped a bottle open for this occasion, and tonight my first drink is for you Stevie...Rest in Peace(tink)
If you want to see vintage Stevie, get any of the early DVD's of Live at Antone's. That's one of the places, if not the place, where he started. The one I've got has a ton of great blues guys in there but the clip of Stevie Ray as a teenager up on stage just killing it???? Man that's just fantastic stuff.
I remember that day, hearing the news. Every year I go to a golf outing, and we stay at Alpine Valley. I always spend a couple minutes looking out the window at the hill where he died.
I was driving home the next morning after the concert at Alpine Valley, the fog was so thick we had to sleep in the parking lot, and heard the news on the radio. I had to pull to the side of the interstate. I couldn't believe what I heard. I had seen SRV so many times. I saw him early as a young guitar slinger in Texas and several other places around the country as his career progressed. I had to just sit along side that hiway and cry for awhile. I named my son Steven Ray.
I saw him on a Double Bill with Joe Cocker at The Mann Music Center in Philly. I don't think I've ever seen a better show then that night and yea I've seen most of the Bands I've wanted over the years.
I saw him in Eugene before he cleaned up, and he did not play well at all... Bonnie Raitt and Robert Cray both kicked butt, and he was the headline and people left. Sad thing is he cleaned up before killing himself with drink and drug, and died soon after anyway.
I wish I would have seen him play like in some recordings I have heard. The stuff on Wolfgangs Vault is absolutely amazing.
Yup..... painful thoughts. I remember hearing the news when it happened. Was driving to school at the time. I was a wannabe guitar player and my attempts at playing all sounded like very poorly done imitations of Stevie. A few years later, I even got to record in one of the studios he recorded in (Ardent). Felt like pretty hallowed grounds to me. He is still missed.......
Yeah--I just play an acoustic guitar--mostly a fingerpicking style--but there are elements in my playing that remind me of little snippets of Stevie's playing--I never saw him live, but I sure did listen a lot--I still do--he's always had a lot of credit as a great guitar player--but my god--that was a man who could sing too!
Stevie was touched, to say the least. Few people have had the kind of influence on music that he did. There will always be people to take their instrument in a new an invigorating direction, they just are few and far between. Stevie was definitely one of them. Chops and soul aplenty, both. I only wish I had been able to see him live.
