Background: I’m 38 years old and have been playing guitar since I was ~19 or so. SRV died when I was a freshman in HS and his music was far outside my preferred genres at that age so I wasn’t able to appreciate him back then. As I got older and my musical tastes broadened, particularly in my mid 20’s, I really started to get into his style and, as I grew as a guitar player I became more and more awestruck at his skills, both technically and composition. After listening to alot of SRV this week and watching a bunch of live videos on Youtube I’ve had these random thoughts:
I just noticed that he rarely used his pinky finger outside of fingering chords. I know Clapton doesn’t use his much either but SRV plays a very fast, rolling onslaught of lead that is different than SRV. Any idea why he didn’t use his pinky at all? Is there a reason that bluesmen tend to not use them?
SRV playing a single guitar SOUNDS like there are 3 guitars going at one time. It’s amazing. His ability to fill space with meaningful sounds, and not just sonic filler, blows me away.
Scuttle Buttin looks hard to play. Hehe…
IMHO, SRV had a unique ability to coax 20-30 seconds of MEANINGFUL sound out of single bends. He truly seemed limited only by his imagination. One of those guys whose hands just DID what his brain heard, kind of like EVH in a way. His command over the guitar was stellar. He clearly “felt” everything that he played.
He played FAST. Like heavy metal fast.
He played played pretty heavy gauge strings from what I’ve read. His finger tips must have felt like granite after bending 2 octaves on them suckers.
Where is his signature SRV strat? Was it lost in the helicopter crash? I could look it up but I’m at work and am looking more for conversation anyway…
I was very young when he first hit the scene. Anyone have any stories of seeing him live in his early years? Was he one of those guys where people who heard him before he was big said “Wow, this guy is something special. Really special”. Was he ever considered “Overrated”? What was the opinion on his look at the time? Kind of like a WWF wrestler who played blues. Lol. Also, he appeared to put on some real weight when he got clean. What was his reputation as a musician when he died? Was he rising, falling or had he plateaued?
Anyone ever meet him? What was he like?
Anyway, thought I’d try to spark a discussion. Really interested in hearing other players perspectives on him.
Oh, ETA, his Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) is, bar none, one of the most badass covers of any song ever. That is THE definitive version of that song. Can anyone explain what the Slight Return was referring to?
I passed up a chance to see SRV one summer back in college; a friend of mine wanted to get tickets, but I didn’t want to go for some reason, so I told him “not this time…let’s catch him when he comes back next year”. And of course, there was no ‘next year’…sorry Deron.
I’m not an expert, but I can answer one of the OP’s qeustions:
Oh, ETA, his Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) is, bar none, one of the most badass covers of any song ever. That is THE definitive version of that song. Can anyone explain what the Slight Return was referring to?
“Voodoo Chile” was the last track on Side 1 of Jimi Hendrix’ Electric Ladyland, and clocked in at 15:00. “Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)” was the last song on Side 4, and lasted *only *5:12…so it was a ‘slight return’ both in the sense of being a reprise, and in being 10 minutes shorter than the 'original.
I started listening to SRV in 1986. I was only 15 so I had no real sense of his popularity nationally, but at my small high school in Wisconsin there were only three of us who knew who he was.
I think he was still on the rise in national awareness when he died. He was sufficiently famous that there were some “sound alikes” that appeared afterward that had a lot of success (Johnny Lang, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, et al.)
I should have been at the show in Alpine Valley. Three friends had 4 tickets and offered me their extra. I chose to work overtime instead.
You’re almost right on point #10. SRV’s cover of Voodoo Chile is the second best cover song ever. His cover of “Little Wing” is #1. I heard a rumor that he recorded a version for every one of his albums, I’d buy an album of nothing but a compilation of those.
And yes, Jimmy has First Wife/No. 1, although please recall that the neck was replaced after a light or stand or something fell on it, just a bit prior to his death.
I’m a little older than you, and have been learning guitar since I was 13. After I first heard “Couldn’t Stand the Weather” on a local video show, I went out and bought Texas Flood and Couldn’t Stand the Weather on my next trip to a record store. At the time, I thought he was the greatest living guitarist, but I was 14, and my reference point was a lot of Page, Beck’s first record, Van Halen’s first two records, and Hendrix.
Since I’ve started playing slide, I’ve got a few guitars string as heavily as SRV played. When I’m playing on those guitars, and when I’m playing bass, I bend with my ring finger, backed up by the index and middle fingers. The pinky is only used for quick notes. If I have time/space to get to it, I use my ring finger instead.
He was very good at maintaining the rhythm of a part and adding a lead. However, he had a truly great backing band and electronic effects. Some of his predecessors (my fave examples would be Blind Willie Johnson and Mississippi John Hurt) can fingerpick their way into making him sound a little lazy.
It’s as hard as it looks.
Ok, probably not, but it’s hard to play anything that fast and clean. He was a monster.
I think our mileage varies here. SRV could excite me with his guitar playing, but not a great deal else. I think what makes him stand out from his contemporaries was his songwriting. “Life By the Drop” might be the best blues song written after 1980, but I’m willing to be educated. On the other hand, “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground” makes me tremble and tear up just thinking about it. I didn’t listen to the link I’m pasting, because I have other things to do with my day besides mourn everything I’ve done to others or had done to me by them.
Well, just about any banjo player can match his speed without working hard, and Earl Scruggs makes them look like amateurs
Ugh, yeah. Heavy strings will put a callous on your fingers quick. I understand Harp players have it worse than anyone.
I dunno, really. I am a gear nerd, but not the kind of gear nerd that knows anything about star’s instruments. I bet WordMan might have some light to shed on the situation, if he drops by. (on preview: see!, and troub, too)
I never saw him myself. I don’t remember anyone who did remarking on his clothes. I personally think that he wove the line between ridiculous and sane rather well. If I can’t have my own version of his sense of guitar, I’d like to have my own version of his sense of style.
I never did, but I take the dearth of nasty stories to tell about him to make me believe that even when he was deep in the ditch, he was still a pretty decent person.
The Hendrix record has the first version, “Voodoo Chile” earlier on the record, it’s a slight return to that. I like Hendrix’s version better, but there’s no telling which of us is wrong. (and yeah, ninja’d on that)
I dunno what to tell you about him. I’ve said that we’ve got an embarrassment of riches when it comes to guitarists in TX. He wasn’t the fastest, he wasn’t the greatest ever, and there were living guitarists better than he, but he was special in a lot of intangible ways.
While waiting to see Roy Buchanan take the stage in '82, I watched a video of an overdressed guy performing a rendition of Voodoo Child that didn’t exactly wow me, as I’d seen about a million Hendrix impersonations by then. But later a friend played Texas Flood for me, and it became apparent that this guy was investing some old licks with a new intensity, and I bought in.
But if you listen to his live recordings, it’s easy to see the trajectory of his musicianship nosedive as his addictions got worse, and it looked as though he’d end up another sad story. Once he got sober, he was definitely getting it back, much to his relief.
Nowadays I’m still awed at the guy’s tone, soulfulness and virtuosity, and the studio version of Little Wing is still, to me, as emotionally as a guitar can be played - maybe it’s been equaled, but never exceeded.
Despite having grown up in the Dallas area, I was completely ignorant of SRV. I didn’t get into guitar and music until my Freshman year of HS (1985-1986), and really didn’t listen to anything other than Classic Rock (the late KZEW, KZPS, and Q102). I went with a friend to see The Who perform at the “Biggest Party in Texas” in Septermber 1989 with essentially NO knowledge of the opening acts: the Fabulous Thunderbirds (who I knew only from their “Don’t Mess With Texas” commercial, not realizing until their set that the song is really “Tough Enuf”), and then SRV with Double Trouble.
I didn’t know what to expect. And then he fucking blew my mind.
The Who came out next, and they were good–but SRV stole the show. Especially since they came out with the then-living three surviving members plus an extra guitarist, percussionist, horns, singers, etc… and all of those people couldn’t even match what SRV had done with just himself, his bassist, and his drummer. My mind is still blown.
My brother claims to have met him at AA events around Dallas and claimed that he was the coolest guy ever. Although I believe SRV was probably the coolest guy ever, my brother was almost certainly full of shit.
In '88, I went with a couple of Army buddies from Ft. Hood down to Austin for a big summer-fest type thing, with lots of bar-crawls and outdoor venues.
One of the acts was The Fabulous Thunderbirds, who I was slightly familiar with, and kind of liked, so we got in to see them play.
SRV was an unannounced walk-on guest, courtesy of his brother, Jimmie.
From my POV (admittedly very limited, as I rarely go to live concerts): Best. Concert. Ever.
I was around 19 when a couple friends said a guy named SRV was playing at a small club called St. Andrew’s Hall in downtown Detroit. Other than knowing he just quit Bowie’s band I knew nothing about him, but I knew if my friends liked him I would too.
It was stand-up, no assigned seating, and we were able to get right up to the front of the stage. One of the first songs he played was “Sweet Little Thing” which had just started to get play on the radio, and I thought, “ohh, HE’s the guy who plays that-- I love that song!” It was one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to.
Stevie had several guitars on stage he took turns playing, and at one point he was playing a vintage Telecaster when some idiot put his thumb over his beer bottle, shook it, and sprayed it all over SRV and that beautiful guitar. A bouncer jumped off the stage and took off after him.
Coincidentally, David Bowie was also playing in Detroit that night (Cobo Hall, I think), and there was a rumor Bowie might make an appearance onstage with SRV, but that never happened.
After the show was done we went out back to where the tour bus was parked to try to meet him, but we didn’t get the chance-- I don’t remember if that was because he didn’t come out till later or if he had already gotten on the bus and it was guarded by roadies.
I met SRV on line for Customs in the Toronto Airport around '86-'87. I noticed a carry-on on the floor with a “BB King” (I think) insignia on it, so looking around at the group behind me, asked…“Are you guys in a band?”. They pointed to the guy behind them…the first thing I saw were the snake-skin boots. I remember thinking, this guy’s short, and dresses pretty outlandish. Then it hit me who it was. “Stevie!”, I said…“what brings you to Canada?”. He told me they were there to do a TV appearance…we made small talk for only a minute or two before we reached the agent. Super nice, down-to-earth guy.
Like Suburban, I passed up a chance to see him the summer of ‘90…"we’'ll catch him next time"…
Commercial, but probably the least interesting of Bowie’s sidemen; the mingly-mongly blues solos sounded good on 80s radio - and made Let’s Dance do monster business - but too manicured, and heralded Bowie’s slide into mediocre populism. He needed somone spiky and angular like Adrian Belew backing him; I always thought Bowie should have pinched John McGeoch.
I was always more of a fan of Jimmy Vaughan. Seemed like there was more subtlety and versatility in his playing. A bit lower-key, but more satisfying (to me) in the long run.
I saw Stevie Ray Vaughn play live 7 times in various venues. Probably the worst was at Rutgers University. He pretty much jammed the entire night. It was great but very self-indulgent. But it proved how amazing a rhythm section Double Trouble was. No matter where he wandered off they were there to anchor him to the song. It retrospect that was probably at the depth of his addiction.
All the other times he was amazing. We took a road trip from Maryland to Massachusetts to see him while I was in college. Me and my buddy dropped our friends off out front because we were late and went to look for a parking spot. We parked around back and as we were walking up Stevie and the band came out of the bus. We ran up to him and we both got autographs. He literally was dragged into the venue by his band because he wanted to give time to everyone. He could have easily blown all of us off but he didn’t.
Latter after his death I was stationed at Fort Hood and I would hang out in Austin a lot. I met more than a few people who ran into him around town and at different shows. I never heard a bad word about him.
I was a perpetually broke student when Steve Ray Vaughn was in his prime, so I did not get to see him live. However, that fact is one of the biggest reasons I try to see more live local shows now that I’m not so broke.
At Tolbert’s, in Grapevine, there’s a poster near the bandstand that announces an appearance by Stevie Ray Vaughn at the Tolbert’s in downtown Dallas. You could see him for a $2 cover charge. I don’t remember the date, maybe 1980?
I saw SRV 3 times. I saw him at Alpine Valley on Saturday night, he died after the Alpine Valley show Sunday night. I am in awe of his guitar abilities.
That said, Kenny Wayne Sheppard was slagged as an SRV wannabe. All these years later I am much more likely to put in a KWS (or several other blues-rock guitar hotshots) CD than SRV. Part of it is the over exposure of SRV in the years right after his death and part of it is that I just prefer the tone and style of some of the other guitarists that carried on in his shadow.
He was great, no question. But for me he was not the be-all and end-all of blues rock guitar that many seem to think.
My favorite SRV track is “Floodin’ Down In Texas.” Lot’s of great memories for me that are associated with that one.
I met stevie ray in 1982-ish. He played at UC Davis and then interviewed after the show at the college radio station KDVS. He was tired. He and the band traveled with their wives and just wanted to go back to the hotel and sleep after the show. (Many of the bands that played and interviewed wanted to PARTY but not Stevie Ray). Regardless, he came downstairs after the show, did about a30 minute interview, obviously wasn’t into the interview but did it anyway without any handlers telling him he had to do it, wasn’t a jerk to anyone or the interviewer, but also obviously not in the mood for an interview.
It’s heresy, but I didn’t like Stevie Ray, and I left the above show maybe 30 minutes into his performance. Too much guitar masturbation IMHO. Just not my style and didn’t work for me, and I never saw the big draw that others do. In fact, I much prefer his bother Jimmie Vaughan’s work and never got to see the Fabulous Thunderbirds live.
I saw him in Atlanta at the “Benson and Hedges Blues Festival”, I think it was called. We just walked up and bought tickets at the door- about twenty rows back, dead center. Opening acts were some black lady blues singer whose name I forget, then Doctor John, then Joe Cocker, then Stevie. B.B. King followed Stevie.
There was an encore after B.B. King’s act, featuring B.B., Stevie Ray Vaughn, and Joe Cocker.
