Stevie Ray Vaughan Remembered

Yes, I'm starting an article about Stevie Ray Vaughan with a video by David Bowie.

The story is that Bowie was at the 1982 Montreaux Jazz Festival and was so impressed by Vaughan that he wanted him to be the lead guitar on the upcoming Let's Dance album. Vaughan even began to tour as part of Bowie's band but decided to quit it as soon as Bowie wanted SRV to learn a dance step down a flight of stairs.

That just wasn't his gig.

Back home Stevie and his band, Double Trouble, went. They were greeted with free studio time donated by Jackson Browne and used that time to record Texas Flood, their first major release.

It was Bowie's album that made people stand up and take notice of the talented young man, SRV, from Texas. Although this song wasn't the hottest song from Bowie's best selling album of all time, this is the one I like most. It is not hard at all to hear Stevie's Guitar work all the through this song.

It was a Sunday night, in the Autumn of 1983. The show was supposed to start at 9:00 p.m., but was late getting going.

The venue is no more than a cinder block bar tucked away in a Greyhound bus station. The legendary Dayton club was packed, as I think the other 199 folks had the same curiosity I did.

Who was this Vaughan fella really? Was he the no name player in one of David Bowie's theatrical approach to music, or was he the lay it down Texas Blues Strat burner behind the song that was starting to get some airplay?

Either way, no one seemed to mind the two and a half hour delay to begin the show.

The house lights went down at 11:30 and the joint was ablaze for two solid hours. The three piece band was rippin' it up like I had never witnessed. All the songs from Texas Flood, a few Hendrix tunes, and a handful of other classic Blues songs I recognized.

SRV lived up to the buzz and then some as it became quickly apparent that he loved what he did, and he loved showing it to the world.

But the frail physique, hauntingly pale face, and the black hat pulled forward to shade his eyes also told another story. I swore then that he was on horse (heroine). As it turns out, I wasn't exactly wrong.

This was the first song that made Stevie his own man. He didn't belong to anyone else. In fact, he had his own band, Double Trouble, comprised of Tommy Shannon on bass and "Whipper" Layton on drums.

In 1984 , SRV released Couldn't Stand The Weather, and none too soon I might add, because I was needing a fix.

His second album was more than I hoped for as the range of tunes went from the gritty, "You don't want to go down to this place", warning Blues tune Tin Pin Alley to his cover of Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Chile (Slight Return).

Anyone who heard that album could feel the fun that Stevie had making it., but his brand of Texas Blues Rock wasn't setting anything on fire as the album topped out at 31 on the top 200 U.S. charts and only one single, the title track was released. Besides, the popular music at the time couldn't have been farther from his genre. Even perennial Texas Blues rockers ZZ Top had changed up their musical style during this era, presumably to stay "In".

In 1984, there were new things in my life too, my daughter was barely a year old and I had started a new job, but I wasn't giving up on the old brand of Texas Blues that was being painted by the talented new artist, Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Even though 1985's Soul To Soul produced two singles and made 33 on the top 200 U.S. charts, this is widely held as SRV and Double Trouble's worst studio effort. Even Stevie agreed that the album was less than what he really wanted, and he gave reasons as well.

This was a period in his life that he nearly at the worst with his cocaine and alcohol addictions. While in the studio, the abuse was so rampant that creativity had come to a near stand still. The band even hauled in ping-pong tables to while away the time.

As bad as everyone wanted to make this album out to be, I thought it was another great recording. Of the ten songs that had made the final pressing of Soul To Soul, my favorite is, and by a long shot, Ain't Gone 'n' Give Up on Love. All I can really say about this song is that if it doesn't define the Blues, then no other Blues tune ever performed does.

There were four long and painful years between the release of Soul To Soul and In Step.

In August of 1986, SRV's father had passed away and Stevie missed the funeral. It is believed that the his addictions took him for a ride on a deep and dark downward spiral because of this. No doubt his came into play as in late September, Stevie became ill while touring in Europe. The last 13 dates of the tour had to be canceled as he was admitted into a London hospital.

From the London hospital, Stevie was flown directly to a rehab center in Atlanta, Georgia, where he spent the next few months recovering. While in Atlanta, SRV was told that one more week without help, and he would have been dead.



Sometime in 1988, I got the chance to see SRV in concert for the second time.

Vaughan would only allow 3000 tickets to be sold at Dayton's Hara Arena, a venue that holds 10,000. He took every chance he got to play in front of smaller crowds, because it was more intimate and he wanted to touch everyone he could.

He came out on stage wearing a light brown tee shirt that initially had what looked like dark brown stains. As the concert wore on, I got the sense that I wasn't the only one mystified by the shirt as I heard whipers all around me, "What the heck is that shirt all about?"

Stevie let is in on the gag as a cute blond appeared at the rail. He grabbed two of the stains and formed a whistle with, what had become suddenly obvious, Jimi Hendix's lips. The dark stains formed an image of the legend's face. Stevie whistled at the girl and turned to wink at the crowd just before he went into a set of Jimi Hendrix songs that included Voodoo Chile and Third Stone From The Sun.

Only a handful of the most gifted artists could ever do what Stevie could. He played homage to one of his greatest influences while simultaneously giving testament to his own talent. The result was an experience that is just as vivid today as it was 22 years ago.



In Step is my favorite of his albums. The music is clear and the songs all fit together like a puzzle. A puzzle that made SRV complete.

He was writing a lot about substance abuse and the dark side of addiction, as can be seen in the songs Tightrope, Crossfire, and Wall of Denial. But, if the instrumental Riviera Paradise doesn't move each and every one of you in some fashion, then you can't be moved. To watch Stevie play it...well...divine.

In early 1990, Stevie went into the studio for the first time with the man who taught him how to play the guitar. The result was one of the finest albums ever made.

Family Style, the first album made by the brothers Vaughan, Jimmie and Stevie Ray, contains all the elements and emotions that each had in their talented souls. Jimmie's smooth, soulful Texas sound with Stevie's roadhouse approach blended together to form a beautiful testament to not only their love of music, but for each other as well.

The song Tick Tock was written by Jimmie, but sang by Stevie, and for good reason. I think Stevie had finally found his place and was very comfortable there. His amazing vocals for this beautiful song speaks of his dreams of harmony and peace.

The video here for the song comes from a tribute to SRV. A tribute put together by Jimmie, who made this his first appearance publicly after Stevie's death some five years before. Look at the stage, there's a Neville Brother or two, Miss Bonnie Raitt, Buddy Guy, B.B. King, the good Dr. John, Robert Cray, and even Eric Clapton.

This song and that group, not a better tribute to who Stevie Ray Vaughan was.

On August 26th, 1990, Irony played a cruel hand on the music world. After living through a near fatal addiction and living a handful of years in a blissfully sober condition, Stevie Ray Vaughan was killed in a freak helicopter accident.

But, his short life was not in vain as he had touched quite a few souls in his time. Touched them all with kindness and joy.

Early summer of 1990. The owner of the shop I worked at and myself were taking a road trip to the exciting metropolis of Burlington Iowa. The route between here and there is littered with severe boredom, and to top it off my boss wanted to go on and on about how we were going to travel through the land of Carl Sandburg. He even began to recite one poem after another, to the point I wanted to gouge my eyes out with a dull Ticonderoga N0. 2.

Luckily, we stopped for gas at a truck stop and I found the Family Style recording. I already owned it, but I wanted to hear something other than Carl Sandburg. Before we hit Burlington, my boss had bought all of the SRV CDs.

A few days after the trip, he told me he had to buy them all again because his 9 year old daughter had more or less confiscated the originals for her own use.

There are dozens of Blues artists today who give up the name of Stevie Ray Vaughan as the heaviest influence on them musically. Johnny Lang, Joe Bonamassa, Kenny Wayne Shepard, just to name a few. These musicians listened to their parents' music when they were younger and the parents had damn good taste in music, if you ask me.