Daily Tune On - Stevie Ray Vaughan a Real “Pride And Joy”
I was lucky. I got to see Stevie Ray Vaughan perform before he died. I was a big fan and had gotten tickets to a Bay area double bill concert where Stevie Ray and Bonnie Raitt performed both solo and together. Little did anyone know that such a young talented performer would not be around for much longer. The day I found out he had died, I cried. The world had lost one of its most passionate and talented guitarists, and I had lost a guitar hero of my own.
Stevie Ray Vaughan was born in Dallas, Texas. His older brother Jimmie (Fabulous Thunderbirds guitarist/vocalist), taught him how to play guitar and was one of his biggest musical influences. Stevie Ray started performing in clubs as a teenager and dropped out of high school permanently to pursue music full time when he moved to Austin, Texas. He never learned how to read music and played entirely by ear.
Having beaten his dependency on alcohol and drugs. Vaughan was straight the last four years of his life. The night of his helicopter crash he had been playing a concert in Troy, Wisconsin along side Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, and his brother Jimmie. After the show he was offered a ride back to Chicago in a helicopter with some of Eric Clapton’s crew. He opted for the helicopter over the two hour drive. The copter crashed soon after take off not far from the concert site, and Clapton and Vaughan’s brother Jimmie were called the next morning to identify the bodies. The music world was soon mourning a great musical loss, as was I.
But during his all too brief life Vaughan put out some of the most inspiring guitar work of the century. Ranked the 7th greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone, and number 3 by Classic Rock Magazine, Vaughan was highly respected by all his peers. In the 80’s Keith Richards and Mick Jagger saw Vaughan perform and asked him to play a gig in NYC. This began his greater exposure culminating in his bands first big break in 1982 performing at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Soon after he met Jackson Browne who gave he and his band “Double Trouble” free studio time to record at his studio in LA. Also around this time David Bowie asked Vaughan to play on his album, “Let’s Dance,” which became a huge hit. In 1989 the band recorded their 4th album entitled, “In Step,” and it won the Grammy that year for “Best Contemporary Blues Album.” It was while touring to promote “In Step,” that on August 25th 1990, Stevie Ray Vaughan died at the age of 35.
The track I chose to feature is a live performance of Vaughan and his band at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1985. I hope you enjoy listening to one of my all time favorites and guitar heroes. Thank you Stevie Ray for all you gave us!
To view this video simply click on the link below or cut and paste it into your browser.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU0MF8pwktg