The Stevie Ray Vaughan Memorial Tribute

Twenty two years ago, I was sitting at Dancer's the infamous night club and tittie bar and chatting up with Melissa who at that time was considered a good friend and I had hopes of taking her out for supper but to make a long story short it didn't work out for me but she had a long sad look on her face and she came up to me and said "Have you heard the news?  Stevie Ray Vaughan died in a helicopter crash in Alpine Valley".  And it turn out to be a very sad day for me, in fact this hit home much harder than Elvis Presley in 1977.

To me, Stevie Ray was the last of the true guitar heroes.  He was the shining light in the muck that was called hair spray metal or subpar pop.  Nobody could do Hendrix as well and sometimes better than SRV.  His version of Voodoo Chile was a constant play on my stereo.  And when he fell into a life and death struggle with drugs till he got over that and was enjoying a new and exciting second chance till that fateful Aug 1990 helicopter crash that took him away from us.

I have my own tribute to SRV, I still have the back cover of his longbox CD The Sky Is Crying with him on it on my cluttered stereo, looking out into the world and it has been a mainstay on my shelf since getting it from Relics in 1991.  Live Alive was one of the earliest albums I got on CD, (my good friend Dennis Lancaster made it his first ever cd buy) and even he was high he can still play guitar like no other.  But in the early years he was one of Austin Texas' best kept secrets till he managed to play Montreaux in 1982 and played a wild set but got booed off the stage by the stuck up pricks in the audience.  However David Bowie was there and offered him to play guitar on what would be the Let's Dance album and Jackson Browne offered studio time for SRV to do his own album which would be Texas Flood.

Certainly Stevie Ray had owed a lot to Albert King and Jimi Hendrix but he also highly influenced by Lonnie Mack who he managed to co produced Mack's Strike Like Lightning and may have put in a good word at Epic for Road Houses And Dance Halls.  Vaughan may have also played on James Brown Living In America although the Gravity album that Volcano reissued mentions nothing of this.  Vaughan was influenced by his brother Jimmie to which they would record the one and only Family Style in 1990 to which my favorite song was Long Way From Home to which the guitar riff is the price of admission to hear.

While Texas Flood got things straight and to the point, Couldn't Stand The Weather is more varied and even adds element of jazz and slow blues to the mix, Soul To Soul a bit more nodding to rhythm and the blues and adding Reese Wyanis to keyboards.  Live Alive, what can you say, despite some muddy sound SRV gave us the FM classic Willie The Wimp.  Everything leads to In Step, which in 1989 introduced the world to the new SRV sound which was a much more polished sound (thanks to Jim Gaines) and hits by the score with The House Is Rockin, Cross Fire and Tight Rope but also paying homage to Howlin Wolf (Let Me Love You Baby) and barrelhouse rock and blues (Scratch n Sniff).  Then hooking with Jimmie with Family Style, a album which was good in some places and questionable in others (I never gotten into much into the voice over that almost bogs down Brothers) but still was a sign of things to come.  And then Alpine came and then....

There's no shortage of repackages out there, The Greatest Hits packages are good and have the hits or highlights. The Sky Is Crying gives us some outtakes and paying more homage to Lonnie, Jimi and Jimmie and Albert but gives the bittersweet Life By The Drop as SRV's final statement which stings.  There's also some post SRV live albums, the Montreaux Concert is the best of them and includes two shows, the infamous and famous 1982 show and the triumphed 1985 return to which SRV is treated to a hero's welcome.  Live at Carnegie Hall is a 1984 performance which features brother Jimmie and Dr John on keyboards.  In The Beginning is a 1980 showcase and shows SRV and Double Trouble in its humble beginnings.  Blues At Sunrise is straight ahead slow blues.

Like Hendrix, SRV didn't record many studio albums, he only recorded four proper ones.  And he's never made a bad album, nothing short of a B plus. For my generation, SRV was the last true real guitar hero for me.  Even though he may have taken a cue from Lonnie Mack or Jimi Hendrix, he found a way to make it his own style.  He could switch from playing lead guitar to rhythm without missing a beat.  And still be humble enough to talk to you after a show in the process.  There'll never be another Stevie Ray Vaughan.

At least that's what I Think.

Albums:

In The Beginning (1980 reissued by Epic in 1992) B+
Live At Montreaux 1982 & 1985  (Epic) A-
Texas Flood (Epic 1983) A
Couldn't Stand The Weather (Epic 1984) A-
Soul To Soul (Epic 1985) B+
Live Alive (Epic 1986) A-
In Step (Epic 1989) A-
The Vaughan Brothers-Family Style (CBS Associated 1990) B+
The Sky Is Crying (Epic 1991) A- 
Live At Carnegie Hall (Epic 1984, reissued 1995) A-