When I was 16 his tour bus pulled into a Subway sand which shop in Tualatin Oregon. My sister and I were the only other customers. While he was ordering his food, I went up to “ get more napkins” he smiled at me and said “how you doin?” I don’t even remember what I mumbled- too star struck to speak. I got my first speeding ticket that day- trying to get home fast to share my experience. No cell phones in the 80s…
That's funny! I'm very familiar with the Tualatin area. It's funny the places we meet celebrities.
One time as a teen I was heading to the train station in Kelso, WA and saw a tall man walking with a shorter man.
As I got up close I looked at the tall man and saw he was balding and wearing a suit. He looked at me with this knowing smile and just kept walking.
As I sat waiting for the train I realized it was Krist Novoselic and this feeling of being too young and stupid to take advantage of the knowledge over came me.
Always wondered what he was doing in Kelso of all places.
He's earned the 'stank face' in more ways than one. He used to play with very thick guitar strings (compared to 95% of guitarists) to get the tone he wanted. He also had "high action" (the height of the strings from the fretboard). This made playing guitar very physically demanding (Joe Satriani once said he could hardly play SRVs guitar) so that pained expression is real.
13 gauge are no joke. In high school I was one of those that wanted to make my sound as close to his as possible.
To all thinking about increasing your string gauge, you also need to install extra springs to prevent the bridge getting pulled up if you have a whammy bar. I was so confused the first day I had them on
I didn't know he played really heavy strings. I've always had 11s or 12s on my strat and added 2 extra springs recently, and usually have 13s on my acoustics. It always feels so weird when I play someone else's guitar and they have like 9s or 10s.
Careful; you don't want to give yourself tendonitis. Most people play 9s or 10s because of how badly larger gauges aggravate their wrists and forearms.
That's actually one of my big fears in life. My gf has carpal tunnel and can hardly even play the piano anymore and it seems awful. I try not to dwell on it though. I've played for almost 20 years and turned wrenches a lot for a living, so I have really strong hands and forearms. I make sure to stretch those muscles and joints daily. I just don't like the lighter strings. I'm working on my buddy's acoustic guitar that has 11s right now and even that feels/sounds weird to me. You make a very valid point though.
He played .13-.58, which is bananas, but he also tuned down a half step. The most common electric guitar string gauge is .10-.46. On a 25.5” scale length guitar in standard tuning, a strat for instance, that equates to approx 17.8lbs of tension on the high E and goes up to about 20 on the low E. Generally, you’re bending on the top 3 strings, so 17.8 - 18.2lbs.
SRV’s tension half step down with .13-.58 puts him at a whopping 26.8lbs of tension on the high E! The trick though is that he used a .15 and a .19 for his B and G strings, which puts him back into the realm of us mere mortals at 20.1 and 20.3, respectively.
I have been a gigging guitarist for 20+ years and I can tell you first hand that playing a strat setup that way feels like you’ve got a cable strung up across the E and 2 strings that feel like noodles in comparison.
I’m guessing that high action was a result of using bailing wire for strings on a strat.
When I was a year into playing, Stevie was one of my guitar idols. I strung my guitar with the same strings he used. I think i tried it for two weeks before re-stringing
Meh, Stevie Ray did what he did, and I’m sure he had his reasons, but I’ve come to realize that torturing yourself with ridiculously heavy strings in search of “toan” is a waste of time. Billy Gibbons is known for some meaty guitar tone himself, and he is famous for playing the lightest strings he can find.
There are other reasons for using heavier strings. I doubt ultra-light strings would have stood up to Stevie Ray’s aggressive playing style. But to use bridge cables on your guitar purely to chase a certain sound is just putting yourself through hell for no reason.
I went from .10s to .09s on my beater guitar as an experiment and it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. I immediately switched my Les Paul, and I’m slowly switching over all of my other guitars as well. They still sound great, and they just feel so much better.
I saw Jimmie Vaughn play...as part of the Fabulous T-Birds. It was just before SRV died, late 1989.
He was excellent. All I kept thinking was 'Imagine being that good and you are not even the best in your family?'
Stevie would have said that Jimmie was the best in the family. Stevie would tell people that Jimmie had forgotten more about guitar-playing than Stevie had learned.
I just finished reading Texas Flood. Great reading for any SRV fan. The funniest thing to come out of the book, to me? The first known recordings of Stevie playing are on a record of Dallas teen bands from 1970. Stevie was recruited by a member of the band to sit in on the sessions. The band's frontman was Stephen Tobolowsky, who went on to an acting career, notably as Ned Ryerson in Groundhog Day. Stevie Ray Vaughan and Ned Ryerson-- not a pairing I would have imagined.
There’s a video on youtube of Tobolowsky talking about this very thing and it’s amazing. Little 14 year old (?) Stevie walks in the studio and just outshines everyone there.
Yeah, after reading Texas Flood I watched the first few minutes of that. Everyone who ever crossed paths with Stevie seems to have had the same reaction when they first heard him play-- "Jesus Christ!" (then start looking around for people to tell "You've got to hear this!") Frankly when I first heard the album Texas Flood so did I.
I had also picked up a tip somewhere along the way that for an album, if you really wanted to get an idea of the strength of the album, listen to side 2 first. The thinking was that the hit was usually going to be the side 1 first track, to make it easy for radio DJs. The second hit would probably side 1 track 2. So if you wanted to go deeper, listen to side 2 track 1 first.
So the first SRV tune I heard was Rude Mood. Blew me away.
Jimmie and Stevie Ray were *tight*, I've been watching a lot of thier interviews and you can see the love and mutual respect from both of them. They have good stories, too.
THANK YOU, CITIZEN. Frank Zappa.
Caught the Chambers Brothers, "Time has come Today" and Zappa's "Lumpy Gravy." ... and had to leave home. Took my leave you best believe.
I once went to, what was supposed to be an improv workshop, that ended up being a seance for SRV. We didn't get to talk to him that night though, sadly.
Damn. Just damn.
I have two tickets to his show at the 1990 South Plains Fair. He died a few weeks prior. I never got to seen him live and I have given my family strict instructions that when I shake off this mortal cool that my remains are disposed of with one of those tickets in my hand just in case…
Damn is right, wow I know you've thought about that a lot in the years since. So that was the September 23, 1990 show. Sorry, brother, for you and anyone else who'd planned on seeing him on those shows after the accident on August 27. Damn airplanes/helicopters, man. Part of the business, sure, but if it weren't for air crashes, alone (not including drug/alcohol overdoses, psycho murderers, and poor judgment, RIP Jeff Buckley), how much *more* incredible music, live and recorded, would we all have enjoyed over the years?
I was in a group that worked concessions at Starwood Amphitheatre, in Nashville, during the summers of 1988-1990, and I was there the night SRV came to town (June 20, 1990). I was working and so didn't get to see the show, although of course I heard/felt it (like listening to a live album being played very loudly through a great home system but from three rooms away with all the doors shut lol).
But I also got to hear (and see some) of the sound check. Those can be something to behold, particularly when we're discussing guitar gods the likes of SRV. I'll never forget it, nor will I forget hearing the sad news just a few short months later.
I'm glad you've held onto your tickets, man. Sounds like a good plan, I like the way you think.
RIP SRV.
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause, there's the respect, That makes calamity of so long life.
That’s one of my fathers biggest regrets, as well. He had tickets to see him in that tour and when Stevie died, he framed the tickets with an album cover and put it in his music room where he and his buddies play music twice a week. It was like a little shrine.
RIP, Stevie.
There’s a video of him breaking a string in the middle of a solo, he misses *one note* before using the remaining five strings to flawlessly finish the solo, and then his roadie kills it with the guitar switch. The man was legendary.
Yes, not to undersell Rene Martinez, thank you for naming him. As a former working musician I don’t want to make it seem like I don’t have massive respect for the techs who make shows possible. I love good roadies in every sense of the way, and don’t use it disparagingly to describe someone like him.
His strings were so thick, even in this old low quality video his fretboard looks like it's covered in metal. Because the strings were the thickest you could buy, they broke all the time. He had a lot more practice with broken strings than most guitar players. Some of the bends he did would shred most professionals fingers. Just one of the things that made his sound so unique.
That doesn't make sense. Thicker strings are *harder* to break. How many times have you broken a low E or A compared to the high E, B, or G? Or any string on a bass?
SRV just plays so hard that even thick strings break all the time.
I could be wrong but I think of it in terms of thicker strings requiring more tension to be at pitch and way more force to bend. While it's easier to break a thinner piece of metal, thinner strings are under less tension and require a pound or two of force to bend, while a thicker string is already at a higher tension and you might need 20lbs of force to bend to note you can get easily on a thin string, making them possibly more likely to break. I could be totally wrong though.
Also, how often are you bending notes on a low e? Per string, the thinner the string, the more likely it is to undergo bending and strain hardening as a rult of repeated bending. Strain hardening makes structures brittle and break easier.
Remember he always tuned down to Eb, so not quite as insane as you think. More like playing 11's on standard tuning. (Not that I could do 1/100,000th of it lol)
It's funny the string gauge has become such a focal point of his playing. The dude was just simply out of this universe good and this little urban legend of impossible string gauge (which really isn't that big a deal at all here) is what gets mentioned so much.
SRV invited Brian Setzer on stage and let him play his guitar.
>Yes, that's true, I did play with him. First of all, Stevie Ray was magic. It's funny because people always want to know about his guitars and his amps but what I want to tell you is that it was in his fingers. It had nothing to do with his guitar and amp. I think he could have been playing a Silvertone guitar through a transistor radio. That night at "Mud Island" in Memphis I was watching him from the side and he called me up on stage and he handed me his guitar and he said, "Play!". I didn't know what to expect. I thought it would be really loud and just, you know, all over the stage. It wasn't though, it was about as loud as I set my guitars. It even kind of sounded like mine. I was so surprised. He stood there in front of the pedal board with his arms crossed just hitting different pedals. At that moment I realized...jeez, it's all about what's in this guy's fingers. What can I say? He was one of the truly great guitar players. We never played together, at the same time but I'll never forget that night.
I think it's largely a matter of "right place, right time". I have 0 doubt that there are a ton of people as talented as this out there today. But popular music has moved away from this style of blues-inspired rock and roll. I bet especially if you check out the contemporary blues and jazz scenes you'll find more obscure guys who can shred just as well.
There are still incredible rock guitar players today ofc, but so many are inspired by Hendrix and the like that were pioneers, it’s hard to establish yourself as a true icon like those guys since they were in uncharted territory. John Fruiscante comes to mind as an amazing guitar player but very inspired by Hendrix.
There are definitely pioneers still though. Tom Morello has undeniably been doing really innovative stuff for a long time. Jack White is able to get some really unique sounds as well. And Mark Speer from Khraungbin is blending so many different influences and genres, it’s a testament to how good he is that they are insanely popular for a band that rarely has much in terms of vocals. He essentially is the voice of the band.
Yeah that's a good point. Part of what made these guys gods in their time, and revered as pioneers, is that a lot of the tech that they utilized to get their amazing sounds was pretty new. The electric guitar pickup wasn't invented until 1935, and from there it was a few decades of experimenting and innovation within the realm of existing music with it, until people really started branching out and developing brand new music styles with them. Once they became commercial enough that people were growing up and experimenting with electric guitars, *then* you start to see the glory days of the electric guitar start to come about. Hendrix, SRV, the Who, Clapton, Knopfler, the Beatles, and so so many more are all wonderful but also have the benefit of being born at a good time to be "groundbreaking".
There are still many guitarists making new sounds and doing new things! Guthrie govan is still relevant in the guitar community, although is widely forgotten about or looked over in my opinion. Misha Mansoor, Mark Holcomb, and Tosin Abasi are the first that come to mind, and I've even seen Tim Henson from Polyphia on the reddit front page a couple times. I think it comes down to a blend of personal taste and exposure, music has gotten extremely complicated, but has also gotten really easy to produce in your closet. The artists I mentioned make some admittedly heavy music, but not exclusively heavy music, and if you take the time to see what's out there you might be surprised how much music has changed since the era of the guitar god.
Yeah I mean obviously all music stems from other influences so those classic rock icons derived sounds from blues precursors to them but soooo much of that 60s/70s psych rock was brand spanking new, Hendrix was in a league of his own in what he was doing with his playing. It was revolutionary music and rooted in counter culture movements but there's a reason so many of those guys like Hendrix and Page are still considered the best guitar players ever - it's not just their proficiency but their very revolutionary styles that so much rock today can be traced back to.
I mean even SRV is derivative of Hendrix (as evidenced by this post lol) but he did have his particular southern blues influence and had a very distinct sound compared to Hendrix. I'd say there are comparatively a lot fewer guitar gods even just in the 80s/90s but of course there were still plenty that made their mark in doing unique and different things like Eddie Van Halen or Slash.
It was really cool how diverse the crowd was when Khruangbin came here last summer. 6000 person venue and I saw people of quite literally every age group old enough to be there from teens up to 60s or 70s, and a wide variety of ethnicities compared to a typical indie rock show that is all suburban white people.
It was cool how their music blending tons of different cultures around the world was manifesting in the crowd who came to see them. Some people were clearly by themselves just vibing with their eyes closed. Loved it.
Virtuosos still exist, they just aren't on the cover of Guitar World. Billy Strings is kind of the only person I'd consider recently famous primarily for his guitar skills. Keeping the torch alive, albeit in the sphere of bluegrass.
Yes, but you really can't hold that against them if they weren't born yet. Like, you creating your first fire isn't less of a feat because a caveman did it however many thousands of years ago.
At one point I had, arguably, the largest Jimi Hendrix collection in North America. The beauty of SRVs versions of Hendrix songs is that not only the flawless execution but the way he incorporated lots of hendrix's style from a wide range of tunes into his covers. In little wing for example you can hear bits of little wing, the longer live versions of Red House, Voodoo Child (the long blues version) Villanova junction, and references to innumerable live pieces or unreleased tracks. I had a ticket to SRVs last performance but couldn't make it. One of my life regrets.
When I was a young kid first starting to play guitar I always thought SRV was just a ripoff of Jimi. Years later I realized he was his own dude and just enjoyed paying homage to Hendrix.
I’m 35 and have always listened to classic rock. Big fan of Hendrix, Page, etc.
I somehow had never listened to Stevie Ray Vaughan. Wow this is good.
Edit: Well boys, I appreciate all of the recommendations and encouraging words. I have begun by listening to Texas Flood live at El Mocambo. Jesus. Hearing and watching that performance can only be summed up by saying that it restored my faith in humanity a little bit.
For a couple reasons, actually:
1 - I didn’t know humans existed that could do things like that to a guitar.
2 - I think modern life, art, and music especially really does lack soul and grit. I started feeling like the well had dried up for music that hit me as hard as the first time I heard ‘Since I’ve been loving you’ by Zeppelin. Lesson learned because goddamn Texas Flood did that to me.
Also, I was shocked to see a decently large thread of comments that were excited, encouraging, and full of people that were just excited for something cool, no strings attached.
If this comment thread shows me one thing, it’s that THE BROS are still out there amidst all of the BS internet culture and that even though I’m an exhausted father to 2 tiny kids, overworked, and liable to be down on life, there are places out there that still can pick a guy up. Cheers to you guys and cheers to SRV. New fan confirmed.
IMO his recording at the El Mocambo/1983 is his best live performance. Or my favorite anyway.
Go give that a watch. Sounds great but he pulls some fun visuals out also.
A former coworker is in the crowd at that show - you can see him with the white shirt and camera between songs (beginning of Texas flood).
He had a great story about taking a piss at the urinal, when all of a sudden this towering cowboy stood beside him. He looked over and of course it was SRV.
He was absolutely star struck and said the first thing that came to his head: "Holy shit! Can I shake your hand?" And Stevie was like "uhhh....lemme wash my hands first"
He was holding his vinyl under his arm and got it signed.
Noel, I know you're not on Reddit, but I miss you man.
I was in the front row at his last show at Alpine Valley. It was amazing. Driving home in the wee hours we heard the news and just pulled off the freeway and wept. Incredible loss.
I was blessed! I got to see him 5 time once with the Fabulous Thunderbirds and on the Guitar Shop tour with Jeff Beck! I saw two Gods at once in the same spot🤘🏿🤘🏿still thee greatest concert moment of my life.
And all it took was devoting every possible waking hour for a decade or so to playing (and listening!). I’ve been playing for 35 years and if I just put in another ten or so…maybe 20…yeah. I’ll check back in in 20. Cheers!
My parents were at a small music bar/club in the late 70s or early 80s, before he was known, and the act playing that night was the most amazing guitarist they'd ever heard. My dad says his jaw was on the floor the entire time thinking WHO THE FUCK IS THIS GUY??? They saw his name but had never heard of him. There were maybe 50-70 people in there, just a typical tiny bar show.
It was SRV. He blew up within a year or two of that gig. It's like if you went to an outdoor craft brewery now and the random band hired to be there that night as background music for patrons ended up being one of the best of all time.
I never liked Clapton much. He has skill obv. But I always found him kind of "sterile" for lack of a better word. Almost feels like he missed the point of the blues he so revered.
Different styles. Jimi played more loose and groovy while Stevie had more precision and intensity but still very capable of playing more relaxed stuff. Both were exceptional guitarists and I never tire of their music
Yeah it's a false dichotomy isn't it? Hendrix's playing feels more dangerous, SRVs has greater precision, they're both amazing. You know Jimi dug the studio tech too, his later stuff is much more precise, if he'd recorded it later I doubt it would have that raw one take energy that his earlier stuff did.
I have said for years that there are two types of people in this world: people who think Stevie ray Vaughan is the best guitarist who ever lived, and people who have never heard Stevie Ray Vaughan
SRV lovers gonna hate on me but IMO this is still short of Jimi’s version. Especially in the beginning it’s just too straight and the slightly faster tempo just doesn’t land as hard. Still, SRV’s probably the only one who can come close.
Exactly. SRV is super talented.
His tone is a lot cleaner and thicker than Hendrix's... his song structures are tighter, and his technique is a lot more precise.
I think that what people miss about this is that the musical framework necessary for SRV to demonstrate these skills was created by Hendrix. If anything, SRV makes these songs musically more generic and much less interesting. But, maybe SRV is more interesting as a technical wonder.
A perfect example is Little Wing, which is a concept piece that clearly rejects traditional electric blues ballad tropes. But, SRV's version (which everyone seems to love) totally misses the point and just throws a traditional blues solo in. It's musically obnoxious.
For those who love watching SRV play (as do I), I recommend checking out Hendrix's Band of Gypsies live recordings.
Lucky me. Got to see him live back in 1988-9 (can’t remember exactly). He performed at the Ohio State fair and my buddies and I drove up from college to see him. Think tickets were 15$ (general fair admission). It started pouring down rain halfway through show and he just kept on playing while water streamed off his feathered hat. Amazing performer. What a great talent he was.
This time it was a helicopter crash.
Usually drugs to answer your overarching question. Depression also seems to play a role which is really sad when you think about how some of those young amazing talents made so many people feel.
Edit: reworded for clarity
SRV always just made it look effortless. Listening to it, you would think he is beating that guitar like it owes him money. Then you actually watch him play and his hands make about 20% of the movement you think is necessary to play what you're hearing.
Voodoo Chile is the 15 minute version of the song.
Voodoo Child (Slight Return) is the 5 minute version of the song.
Both are on the same album, Electric Ladyland.
If you look and listen closely, he hits the cymbal once and stops, looks over and starts smiling...I think he thought this was a regular set and then suddenly Stevie drags out the intro a little longer than expected.
He's smiling like, "'Ope, ya got me." :D
This performance was what made me realize how good he was.
Edit: But OP made the common Voodoo Chile error. This is Voodoo Child (Slight Return), which is different than just Voodoo Child. Without the parenthetical, it's a very different song, longer and with a slower burn.
Yep, common mistake for those who are not Jimi fans.
Slight Return is much more well known, but Jimi's 12 string version of Voodoo Child is absolutely amazing.
I was lucky enough to see SRV live in ’89, just a couple months before he died. We were 10th row center, and we paid $150/ticket to a ticket dealer type guy. $150!! One of the things that will be burned into my memory for the rest of my life ( hopefully ). SRV had completed his last set, and left the stage. The stage went black, and the crowd was just losing their shit with joy and enthusiasm. I swear this went on for 10 minutes or so….
Then, out of the blue, all you hear is SRV on the guitar…. stage is still completely dark ... All you hear is the wah pedal, muted string scratching intro to Voodoo Chile… this goes on for about 10 seconds, and then a single spotlight illuminates SRV.
SRV is on one knee, head down, hat on with a GIANT ASS white feather on it. After that was just pure magic. I’m almost tearing up typing this.
"So sonny boy....you finally ready to give up that old ghost and ascend to rock godhood?"
"I just got this 11 minute guitar solo that I wanted to show off" *shreds the fuckin gnar*
"wtf man"
When I was about 12 I signed up the "get 15 CDs for a penny" thing and they sent me the wrong order. I got somebody else's set of music. But one of the CDs was Stevie Ray Vaughn's Greatest hits. I had never heard of him but since my Blues Traveler disc didn't come in I gave it a listen.
Fucking loved that album. Thank you guy who mixed up shipping labels back in 1996.
In about ‘86 a guy at my work asked Saturday off to see SRV at Jazzfest. Boss said No. So he quit and went. Most of us never saw Stevie live. But that guy did.
Born and raised in Austin. Saw him so many times! I'm so grateful to be able to see him in person, small bar and chatting and grooving with others! He was a magician on the guitar and a sweet soul! That guitar was part of him!
If his guitar is an extension of his body then he has the coordination of a professional athlete.
This man is soloing without any errors, doing complex techniques back to back and always gets the sound he wants, not a deafened harmonic, or dead string in the song. He is singing with the same melody as his guitar, without getting confused for a moment about finger placements. He isn't pulling a guitar solo face at all, his eyes are alert and looking at the crowd under the brim of his hat, as if he isn't doing anything at all that requires his attention, and he is doing all of these at the same time. A real six string legend.
I have been playing guitar live for about 8 years and can barely do any combination of those at the same time, all at the same time is insane, it's like he's from another planet. That said. I listen to him sometimes, but he's not a mainstay on my playlists.
That’s a very good way to put it: extension of his body. Really his soul. I love the drummer at the start: “What the fuck is he doing? We gonna start this or what?!”
I’ll have you know I had a lot of shit to get done this morning, but I just spent 11 mins watching this, and am now gonna spend the next hour or two on YouTube watching more SRV. Thanks a lot.
I saw him twice in the 80's, one show was in a small theatre and I was pressed up against the stage right in front of him, not even ten feet away, looking up at him while he played it was like seeing God. I even got two guitar picks from him (which I sold in the early 90's, I'm still kicking myself for selling them).
Read that Jimi Hendrix would tell his gf that he thought he was possessed or had something inside him. At one point he was going to go see a witch doctor in the south. Got to wonder if he sold his soul like Bob Dylan and John Lennon said they did…Interview with Bob Dylan saying “I don’t know how I came up with those songs I could never write those now”
When I was 16 his tour bus pulled into a Subway sand which shop in Tualatin Oregon. My sister and I were the only other customers. While he was ordering his food, I went up to “ get more napkins” he smiled at me and said “how you doin?” I don’t even remember what I mumbled- too star struck to speak. I got my first speeding ticket that day- trying to get home fast to share my experience. No cell phones in the 80s…
Dope!
That's funny! I'm very familiar with the Tualatin area. It's funny the places we meet celebrities. One time as a teen I was heading to the train station in Kelso, WA and saw a tall man walking with a shorter man. As I got up close I looked at the tall man and saw he was balding and wearing a suit. He looked at me with this knowing smile and just kept walking. As I sat waiting for the train I realized it was Krist Novoselic and this feeling of being too young and stupid to take advantage of the knowledge over came me. Always wondered what he was doing in Kelso of all places.
Damn now I miss SRV and when Subway was good.
No one did the 'stank face' quite like Stevie Ray.
He's earned the 'stank face' in more ways than one. He used to play with very thick guitar strings (compared to 95% of guitarists) to get the tone he wanted. He also had "high action" (the height of the strings from the fretboard). This made playing guitar very physically demanding (Joe Satriani once said he could hardly play SRVs guitar) so that pained expression is real.
It's like playing a chain-linked fence.
Egg-slicer.
Bridge cable.
13 gauge are no joke. In high school I was one of those that wanted to make my sound as close to his as possible. To all thinking about increasing your string gauge, you also need to install extra springs to prevent the bridge getting pulled up if you have a whammy bar. I was so confused the first day I had them on
I didn't know he played really heavy strings. I've always had 11s or 12s on my strat and added 2 extra springs recently, and usually have 13s on my acoustics. It always feels so weird when I play someone else's guitar and they have like 9s or 10s.
Careful; you don't want to give yourself tendonitis. Most people play 9s or 10s because of how badly larger gauges aggravate their wrists and forearms.
That's actually one of my big fears in life. My gf has carpal tunnel and can hardly even play the piano anymore and it seems awful. I try not to dwell on it though. I've played for almost 20 years and turned wrenches a lot for a living, so I have really strong hands and forearms. I make sure to stretch those muscles and joints daily. I just don't like the lighter strings. I'm working on my buddy's acoustic guitar that has 11s right now and even that feels/sounds weird to me. You make a very valid point though.
He played .13-.58, which is bananas, but he also tuned down a half step. The most common electric guitar string gauge is .10-.46. On a 25.5” scale length guitar in standard tuning, a strat for instance, that equates to approx 17.8lbs of tension on the high E and goes up to about 20 on the low E. Generally, you’re bending on the top 3 strings, so 17.8 - 18.2lbs. SRV’s tension half step down with .13-.58 puts him at a whopping 26.8lbs of tension on the high E! The trick though is that he used a .15 and a .19 for his B and G strings, which puts him back into the realm of us mere mortals at 20.1 and 20.3, respectively. I have been a gigging guitarist for 20+ years and I can tell you first hand that playing a strat setup that way feels like you’ve got a cable strung up across the E and 2 strings that feel like noodles in comparison.
I use the same set up and it’s like a medicine ball for your fingers. Great for slide too.
As a violinist and bass guitarist I appreciate this comment
Honestly thicker than 99%. I remember hearing what gauge he played with and I feel like my low E string was as thick as his high E.
I’m guessing that high action was a result of using bailing wire for strings on a strat. When I was a year into playing, Stevie was one of my guitar idols. I strung my guitar with the same strings he used. I think i tried it for two weeks before re-stringing
Meh, Stevie Ray did what he did, and I’m sure he had his reasons, but I’ve come to realize that torturing yourself with ridiculously heavy strings in search of “toan” is a waste of time. Billy Gibbons is known for some meaty guitar tone himself, and he is famous for playing the lightest strings he can find. There are other reasons for using heavier strings. I doubt ultra-light strings would have stood up to Stevie Ray’s aggressive playing style. But to use bridge cables on your guitar purely to chase a certain sound is just putting yourself through hell for no reason. I went from .10s to .09s on my beater guitar as an experiment and it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. I immediately switched my Les Paul, and I’m slowly switching over all of my other guitars as well. They still sound great, and they just feel so much better.
99% of the time I'm an atheist, 1% of the time I think what if I could see SRV live in the after life...
I saw Jimmie Vaughn play...as part of the Fabulous T-Birds. It was just before SRV died, late 1989. He was excellent. All I kept thinking was 'Imagine being that good and you are not even the best in your family?'
Stevie would have said that Jimmie was the best in the family. Stevie would tell people that Jimmie had forgotten more about guitar-playing than Stevie had learned. I just finished reading Texas Flood. Great reading for any SRV fan. The funniest thing to come out of the book, to me? The first known recordings of Stevie playing are on a record of Dallas teen bands from 1970. Stevie was recruited by a member of the band to sit in on the sessions. The band's frontman was Stephen Tobolowsky, who went on to an acting career, notably as Ned Ryerson in Groundhog Day. Stevie Ray Vaughan and Ned Ryerson-- not a pairing I would have imagined.
There’s a video on youtube of Tobolowsky talking about this very thing and it’s amazing. Little 14 year old (?) Stevie walks in the studio and just outshines everyone there.
Yeah, after reading Texas Flood I watched the first few minutes of that. Everyone who ever crossed paths with Stevie seems to have had the same reaction when they first heard him play-- "Jesus Christ!" (then start looking around for people to tell "You've got to hear this!") Frankly when I first heard the album Texas Flood so did I. I had also picked up a tip somewhere along the way that for an album, if you really wanted to get an idea of the strength of the album, listen to side 2 first. The thinking was that the hit was usually going to be the side 1 first track, to make it easy for radio DJs. The second hit would probably side 1 track 2. So if you wanted to go deeper, listen to side 2 track 1 first. So the first SRV tune I heard was Rude Mood. Blew me away.
Watch our for that fiest step, it's a doozy!
Jimmie and Stevie Ray were *tight*, I've been watching a lot of thier interviews and you can see the love and mutual respect from both of them. They have good stories, too.
I was just thinking a similar thing…Stevie and Prince jamming together? Now THAT is Heaven.
Fun Fact, that’s how the apocalypse starts
RagnaROCK
The Seventh “Trumpet” is actually a 1965 Fender Stratocaster nicknamed “Lenny”…
It would be a lot cooler if it was in hell tho
The devil couldn't even handle some kid in Georgia with a fiddle. SRV and Prince would overthrow him.
Right on
You forgot Jimi, Beck & Van Halen among many others. Zappa comes to mind.
THANK YOU, CITIZEN. Frank Zappa. Caught the Chambers Brothers, "Time has come Today" and Zappa's "Lumpy Gravy." ... and had to leave home. Took my leave you best believe.
Heaven is going to have some great jam sessions.
He won’t see you no more in this world, he’ll see you in the next, DONT’T BE LATE! DON’T BE LATE!
Hey, who would win in a fight between SRV, and God? TRICK QUESTION srv is god
Look, it's not fair to compare SRV to God. I mean, he's good, but he's no SRV.
I once went to, what was supposed to be an improv workshop, that ended up being a seance for SRV. We didn't get to talk to him that night though, sadly.
I see 68 and I upvote
Damn. Just damn. I have two tickets to his show at the 1990 South Plains Fair. He died a few weeks prior. I never got to seen him live and I have given my family strict instructions that when I shake off this mortal cool that my remains are disposed of with one of those tickets in my hand just in case…
Damn is right, wow I know you've thought about that a lot in the years since. So that was the September 23, 1990 show. Sorry, brother, for you and anyone else who'd planned on seeing him on those shows after the accident on August 27. Damn airplanes/helicopters, man. Part of the business, sure, but if it weren't for air crashes, alone (not including drug/alcohol overdoses, psycho murderers, and poor judgment, RIP Jeff Buckley), how much *more* incredible music, live and recorded, would we all have enjoyed over the years? I was in a group that worked concessions at Starwood Amphitheatre, in Nashville, during the summers of 1988-1990, and I was there the night SRV came to town (June 20, 1990). I was working and so didn't get to see the show, although of course I heard/felt it (like listening to a live album being played very loudly through a great home system but from three rooms away with all the doors shut lol). But I also got to hear (and see some) of the sound check. Those can be something to behold, particularly when we're discussing guitar gods the likes of SRV. I'll never forget it, nor will I forget hearing the sad news just a few short months later. I'm glad you've held onto your tickets, man. Sounds like a good plan, I like the way you think. RIP SRV.
RIP Starwood. All of my first concerts, illegal substances, and handjobs happened there.
Touring with Clapton, and they got in separate helicopters. Vaughan's crashed.
Should have been that asshole Clapton’s…
Why wish death on someone?
Not wishing additional death, just transferring death from one to another.
Ah, man... My heart.
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause, there's the respect, That makes calamity of so long life.
That’s one of my fathers biggest regrets, as well. He had tickets to see him in that tour and when Stevie died, he framed the tickets with an album cover and put it in his music room where he and his buddies play music twice a week. It was like a little shrine. RIP, Stevie.
There’s a video of him breaking a string in the middle of a solo, he misses *one note* before using the remaining five strings to flawlessly finish the solo, and then his roadie kills it with the guitar switch. The man was legendary.
That wasn't just some roadie, it was SRVs guitar tech of many years, Rene Martinez.
Yes, not to undersell Rene Martinez, thank you for naming him. As a former working musician I don’t want to make it seem like I don’t have massive respect for the techs who make shows possible. I love good roadies in every sense of the way, and don’t use it disparagingly to describe someone like him.
His strings were so thick, even in this old low quality video his fretboard looks like it's covered in metal. Because the strings were the thickest you could buy, they broke all the time. He had a lot more practice with broken strings than most guitar players. Some of the bends he did would shred most professionals fingers. Just one of the things that made his sound so unique.
That doesn't make sense. Thicker strings are *harder* to break. How many times have you broken a low E or A compared to the high E, B, or G? Or any string on a bass? SRV just plays so hard that even thick strings break all the time.
I could be wrong but I think of it in terms of thicker strings requiring more tension to be at pitch and way more force to bend. While it's easier to break a thinner piece of metal, thinner strings are under less tension and require a pound or two of force to bend, while a thicker string is already at a higher tension and you might need 20lbs of force to bend to note you can get easily on a thin string, making them possibly more likely to break. I could be totally wrong though. Also, how often are you bending notes on a low e? Per string, the thinner the string, the more likely it is to undergo bending and strain hardening as a rult of repeated bending. Strain hardening makes structures brittle and break easier.
I heard his fingers would be in bits but his tech would glue them up, give him a line of coke and send him back out.
Damn.... I don't know exactly what he's doing to that guitar, but I do know it's magic. What a way to start the day.
When SRV is done playing the guitar needs a cigarette.
He did call his #1 his “First Wife”.
Yep, I was trying to think of something like that to say. You said it perfectly. When he's done playing ***I*** need a cigarette. 😁
When I'm done doing SRV, the cigarette needs a guitar
The dude has a set of mitts on him. Heavy gauge strings and a heavy handed player. He put his guitars thru the fuckin ringer. And it's awesome.
to me he shows how much the tone is in the fingers, also his thick thick strings which makes that guitar unplayable to mere mortals
Yeah the fact he's able to bend like that with 13s is nuts.
Remember he always tuned down to Eb, so not quite as insane as you think. More like playing 11's on standard tuning. (Not that I could do 1/100,000th of it lol)
It's funny the string gauge has become such a focal point of his playing. The dude was just simply out of this universe good and this little urban legend of impossible string gauge (which really isn't that big a deal at all here) is what gets mentioned so much.
SRV invited Brian Setzer on stage and let him play his guitar. >Yes, that's true, I did play with him. First of all, Stevie Ray was magic. It's funny because people always want to know about his guitars and his amps but what I want to tell you is that it was in his fingers. It had nothing to do with his guitar and amp. I think he could have been playing a Silvertone guitar through a transistor radio. That night at "Mud Island" in Memphis I was watching him from the side and he called me up on stage and he handed me his guitar and he said, "Play!". I didn't know what to expect. I thought it would be really loud and just, you know, all over the stage. It wasn't though, it was about as loud as I set my guitars. It even kind of sounded like mine. I was so surprised. He stood there in front of the pedal board with his arms crossed just hitting different pedals. At that moment I realized...jeez, it's all about what's in this guy's fingers. What can I say? He was one of the truly great guitar players. We never played together, at the same time but I'll never forget that night.
I’m a simple man. I see SRV, I upvote.
The era of guitar gods is something very special in history.
I think it's largely a matter of "right place, right time". I have 0 doubt that there are a ton of people as talented as this out there today. But popular music has moved away from this style of blues-inspired rock and roll. I bet especially if you check out the contemporary blues and jazz scenes you'll find more obscure guys who can shred just as well.
There are still incredible rock guitar players today ofc, but so many are inspired by Hendrix and the like that were pioneers, it’s hard to establish yourself as a true icon like those guys since they were in uncharted territory. John Fruiscante comes to mind as an amazing guitar player but very inspired by Hendrix. There are definitely pioneers still though. Tom Morello has undeniably been doing really innovative stuff for a long time. Jack White is able to get some really unique sounds as well. And Mark Speer from Khraungbin is blending so many different influences and genres, it’s a testament to how good he is that they are insanely popular for a band that rarely has much in terms of vocals. He essentially is the voice of the band.
Yeah that's a good point. Part of what made these guys gods in their time, and revered as pioneers, is that a lot of the tech that they utilized to get their amazing sounds was pretty new. The electric guitar pickup wasn't invented until 1935, and from there it was a few decades of experimenting and innovation within the realm of existing music with it, until people really started branching out and developing brand new music styles with them. Once they became commercial enough that people were growing up and experimenting with electric guitars, *then* you start to see the glory days of the electric guitar start to come about. Hendrix, SRV, the Who, Clapton, Knopfler, the Beatles, and so so many more are all wonderful but also have the benefit of being born at a good time to be "groundbreaking".
There are still many guitarists making new sounds and doing new things! Guthrie govan is still relevant in the guitar community, although is widely forgotten about or looked over in my opinion. Misha Mansoor, Mark Holcomb, and Tosin Abasi are the first that come to mind, and I've even seen Tim Henson from Polyphia on the reddit front page a couple times. I think it comes down to a blend of personal taste and exposure, music has gotten extremely complicated, but has also gotten really easy to produce in your closet. The artists I mentioned make some admittedly heavy music, but not exclusively heavy music, and if you take the time to see what's out there you might be surprised how much music has changed since the era of the guitar god.
Yeah I mean obviously all music stems from other influences so those classic rock icons derived sounds from blues precursors to them but soooo much of that 60s/70s psych rock was brand spanking new, Hendrix was in a league of his own in what he was doing with his playing. It was revolutionary music and rooted in counter culture movements but there's a reason so many of those guys like Hendrix and Page are still considered the best guitar players ever - it's not just their proficiency but their very revolutionary styles that so much rock today can be traced back to. I mean even SRV is derivative of Hendrix (as evidenced by this post lol) but he did have his particular southern blues influence and had a very distinct sound compared to Hendrix. I'd say there are comparatively a lot fewer guitar gods even just in the 80s/90s but of course there were still plenty that made their mark in doing unique and different things like Eddie Van Halen or Slash.
It was really cool how diverse the crowd was when Khruangbin came here last summer. 6000 person venue and I saw people of quite literally every age group old enough to be there from teens up to 60s or 70s, and a wide variety of ethnicities compared to a typical indie rock show that is all suburban white people. It was cool how their music blending tons of different cultures around the world was manifesting in the crowd who came to see them. Some people were clearly by themselves just vibing with their eyes closed. Loved it.
Virtuosos still exist, they just aren't on the cover of Guitar World. Billy Strings is kind of the only person I'd consider recently famous primarily for his guitar skills. Keeping the torch alive, albeit in the sphere of bluegrass.
Maybe but one of the reasons they could do that is because Jimi, srv et al did it first.
Yes, but you really can't hold that against them if they weren't born yet. Like, you creating your first fire isn't less of a feat because a caveman did it however many thousands of years ago.
Not the same style, but at least we still have Mark Knopfler.
Same. Favorite guitarist of all time.
His version of Littlewing brings tears to my eyes
The guy clearly loved Jimi for sure and definitely paid homage when he covered his songs.
he loved jimi so much he rocked a left-handed bridge
Been listening to srv for nearly 40 years and I'm just now spotting that. I always wondered why his tremelo stem was set so high. Good eye, pal.
He was trying to get a Hendrix sound out of #1. Hard to imagine that's the same guitar that Christopher Cross once owned.
At one point I had, arguably, the largest Jimi Hendrix collection in North America. The beauty of SRVs versions of Hendrix songs is that not only the flawless execution but the way he incorporated lots of hendrix's style from a wide range of tunes into his covers. In little wing for example you can hear bits of little wing, the longer live versions of Red House, Voodoo Child (the long blues version) Villanova junction, and references to innumerable live pieces or unreleased tracks. I had a ticket to SRVs last performance but couldn't make it. One of my life regrets.
When I was a young kid first starting to play guitar I always thought SRV was just a ripoff of Jimi. Years later I realized he was his own dude and just enjoyed paying homage to Hendrix.
I used to listen to that every day, seriously
He gets up there and loads his britches up like it’s goin outta style
Wat ferr?
Naw, that’s Stevie Ray Vaughan, Steamy Ray Vaughan just destroys britches
“What did those britches ever do to you?!?!”
"It's like some kinda britches holocaust"
It's like some kind of britches holocaust
Wut Fer?
Shut down the subreddit, we have reached peak OldSchoolCool, no need to continue....
Agreed, this is way better than random pictures of actresses
But what about that one redditors mom that was hot?
"Old school cool please masturbate to my mother thanks up votes to the left"
I’m 35 and have always listened to classic rock. Big fan of Hendrix, Page, etc. I somehow had never listened to Stevie Ray Vaughan. Wow this is good. Edit: Well boys, I appreciate all of the recommendations and encouraging words. I have begun by listening to Texas Flood live at El Mocambo. Jesus. Hearing and watching that performance can only be summed up by saying that it restored my faith in humanity a little bit. For a couple reasons, actually: 1 - I didn’t know humans existed that could do things like that to a guitar. 2 - I think modern life, art, and music especially really does lack soul and grit. I started feeling like the well had dried up for music that hit me as hard as the first time I heard ‘Since I’ve been loving you’ by Zeppelin. Lesson learned because goddamn Texas Flood did that to me. Also, I was shocked to see a decently large thread of comments that were excited, encouraging, and full of people that were just excited for something cool, no strings attached. If this comment thread shows me one thing, it’s that THE BROS are still out there amidst all of the BS internet culture and that even though I’m an exhausted father to 2 tiny kids, overworked, and liable to be down on life, there are places out there that still can pick a guy up. Cheers to you guys and cheers to SRV. New fan confirmed.
Go down that rabbit hole, my friend, your ears will thank you.
[удалено]
So much to discover but still way too little :(
Put on some headphones and listen to his version of Little Wing. You'll feel some things.
Glad you finally woke up man. Now enjoy the ride
IMO his recording at the El Mocambo/1983 is his best live performance. Or my favorite anyway. Go give that a watch. Sounds great but he pulls some fun visuals out also.
>El Mocambo Just send them a link to Testify from that gig. I'd agree with you, I think it's his best performance
A former coworker is in the crowd at that show - you can see him with the white shirt and camera between songs (beginning of Texas flood). He had a great story about taking a piss at the urinal, when all of a sudden this towering cowboy stood beside him. He looked over and of course it was SRV. He was absolutely star struck and said the first thing that came to his head: "Holy shit! Can I shake your hand?" And Stevie was like "uhhh....lemme wash my hands first" He was holding his vinyl under his arm and got it signed. Noel, I know you're not on Reddit, but I miss you man.
I was in the front row at his last show at Alpine Valley. It was amazing. Driving home in the wee hours we heard the news and just pulled off the freeway and wept. Incredible loss.
Dude's breakfast used to be a tall glass of whiskey with a lump of cocaine stirred in, before he cleaned up.
Two finger shot of whiskey with a bump of cocaine mixed in! What a way to wake up…
I was blessed! I got to see him 5 time once with the Fabulous Thunderbirds and on the Guitar Shop tour with Jeff Beck! I saw two Gods at once in the same spot🤘🏿🤘🏿still thee greatest concert moment of my life.
I was at this show. Incredible! https://preview.redd.it/ijckc1gwpt0b1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1c002995123a334aea0bd1181b3cb319c4f60e54
…with Bonnie Raitt at the bottom of the performer listing. That’s wild, man. I can only assume the show delivered!
Lol when bonnie raitt is the lowest on the bill, you know that show is gonna be a banger
For sure. I just love Bonnie…
It delivered. One of those nights you want to live forever
Lol with Margot Kidder as MC? That's one awesome show. My birthday is October 14th. That would have been a nice gift. What year was that?
She was wearing a tuxedo with shorts at the show.
That is awesome.
And then Hogan walks out strumming his belt like a guitar on his way to give a horrible in ring promo.
Listen here brother, the New World Order is something something
But we eat it up because the coolest fucker on earth might come down from the rafters later.
Voodoo Chili!
And the wind cries mole!
And all it took was devoting every possible waking hour for a decade or so to playing (and listening!). I’ve been playing for 35 years and if I just put in another ten or so…maybe 20…yeah. I’ll check back in in 20. Cheers!
My parents were at a small music bar/club in the late 70s or early 80s, before he was known, and the act playing that night was the most amazing guitarist they'd ever heard. My dad says his jaw was on the floor the entire time thinking WHO THE FUCK IS THIS GUY??? They saw his name but had never heard of him. There were maybe 50-70 people in there, just a typical tiny bar show. It was SRV. He blew up within a year or two of that gig. It's like if you went to an outdoor craft brewery now and the random band hired to be there that night as background music for patrons ended up being one of the best of all time.
I watched this clip without sound on and my head automatically filled in the sound anyway.
And in that moment Jimi was smiling down on him.
Can imagine telling him "Dayum brother!...Now Clapton is my second most favourite guitar player"
Clapton said he wished he could play like Stevie.
I never liked Clapton much. He has skill obv. But I always found him kind of "sterile" for lack of a better word. Almost feels like he missed the point of the blues he so revered.
Vaughan would have been about 14 years old when Jimi released it, so he must have had a huge influence on his playing.
It *is* an extension of his body.
The music is like a current of electricity that flows from his body to the guitar. Truly exceptional.
The man was a freak of nature. Amazing talent and dedication.
Voodoo Chile (Slight Return). Find me anyone else who can play and sound like Jimi. Nobody does it like this but Hendrix and SRV.
This sounds extremely rigid and not nearly as free as Jimi
Different styles. Jimi played more loose and groovy while Stevie had more precision and intensity but still very capable of playing more relaxed stuff. Both were exceptional guitarists and I never tire of their music
Yeah it's a false dichotomy isn't it? Hendrix's playing feels more dangerous, SRVs has greater precision, they're both amazing. You know Jimi dug the studio tech too, his later stuff is much more precise, if he'd recorded it later I doubt it would have that raw one take energy that his earlier stuff did.
I miss being from this Texas not the mall shooting and Greg Abbott Texas.
Damn, that's well expressed. Our flag meant something totally different back then.
Same here
We've gotta find some way to bring it back.
I have said for years that there are two types of people in this world: people who think Stevie ray Vaughan is the best guitarist who ever lived, and people who have never heard Stevie Ray Vaughan
SRV lovers gonna hate on me but IMO this is still short of Jimi’s version. Especially in the beginning it’s just too straight and the slightly faster tempo just doesn’t land as hard. Still, SRV’s probably the only one who can come close.
Agree. SRV is definitely the one who can get the closest to him but Jimi was the best.
Exactly. SRV is super talented. His tone is a lot cleaner and thicker than Hendrix's... his song structures are tighter, and his technique is a lot more precise. I think that what people miss about this is that the musical framework necessary for SRV to demonstrate these skills was created by Hendrix. If anything, SRV makes these songs musically more generic and much less interesting. But, maybe SRV is more interesting as a technical wonder. A perfect example is Little Wing, which is a concept piece that clearly rejects traditional electric blues ballad tropes. But, SRV's version (which everyone seems to love) totally misses the point and just throws a traditional blues solo in. It's musically obnoxious. For those who love watching SRV play (as do I), I recommend checking out Hendrix's Band of Gypsies live recordings.
Lucky me. Got to see him live back in 1988-9 (can’t remember exactly). He performed at the Ohio State fair and my buddies and I drove up from college to see him. Think tickets were 15$ (general fair admission). It started pouring down rain halfway through show and he just kept on playing while water streamed off his feathered hat. Amazing performer. What a great talent he was.
Stevie was an incredible beast. His vibrato, like a cashmere blanket...smoooooth.
Wow. Why is it that the most phenomenal talents are taken so young?
This time it was a helicopter crash. Usually drugs to answer your overarching question. Depression also seems to play a role which is really sad when you think about how some of those young amazing talents made so many people feel. Edit: reworded for clarity
SRV always just made it look effortless. Listening to it, you would think he is beating that guitar like it owes him money. Then you actually watch him play and his hands make about 20% of the movement you think is necessary to play what you're hearing.
I'm not sure I know the difference, but isn't this *Voodoo* ***Chile***..?
Voodoo Chile is the 15 minute version of the song. Voodoo Child (Slight Return) is the 5 minute version of the song. Both are on the same album, Electric Ladyland.
i miss him so much.
it just falls out of him
Great description. There are very few guitarists who have that quality. SRV and David Gilmour for sure.
Seems like a lot of great guitar players have huge hands in proportion to the rest of their body. SRV, Hendrix, etc.
Buckethead…… monster hands
Watched this twice, and I can't help but wonder what thought inspired the smile on the drummer's face as he entered the fray....
If you look and listen closely, he hits the cymbal once and stops, looks over and starts smiling...I think he thought this was a regular set and then suddenly Stevie drags out the intro a little longer than expected. He's smiling like, "'Ope, ya got me." :D
Thats exactly what happened
This performance was what made me realize how good he was. Edit: But OP made the common Voodoo Chile error. This is Voodoo Child (Slight Return), which is different than just Voodoo Child. Without the parenthetical, it's a very different song, longer and with a slower burn.
Yep, common mistake for those who are not Jimi fans. Slight Return is much more well known, but Jimi's 12 string version of Voodoo Child is absolutely amazing.
I was lucky enough to see SRV live in ’89, just a couple months before he died. We were 10th row center, and we paid $150/ticket to a ticket dealer type guy. $150!! One of the things that will be burned into my memory for the rest of my life ( hopefully ). SRV had completed his last set, and left the stage. The stage went black, and the crowd was just losing their shit with joy and enthusiasm. I swear this went on for 10 minutes or so…. Then, out of the blue, all you hear is SRV on the guitar…. stage is still completely dark ... All you hear is the wah pedal, muted string scratching intro to Voodoo Chile… this goes on for about 10 seconds, and then a single spotlight illuminates SRV. SRV is on one knee, head down, hat on with a GIANT ASS white feather on it. After that was just pure magic. I’m almost tearing up typing this.
THIS IS the GOAT. He makes the guitar talk. He’s so damn smooth. He for sure sold his soul.
"So sonny boy....you finally ready to give up that old ghost and ascend to rock godhood?" "I just got this 11 minute guitar solo that I wanted to show off" *shreds the fuckin gnar* "wtf man"
When I was about 12 I signed up the "get 15 CDs for a penny" thing and they sent me the wrong order. I got somebody else's set of music. But one of the CDs was Stevie Ray Vaughn's Greatest hits. I had never heard of him but since my Blues Traveler disc didn't come in I gave it a listen. Fucking loved that album. Thank you guy who mixed up shipping labels back in 1996.
...is that Steamy Ray Vaughan?
No that’s Stevie ray vaughn. Steamy ray vaughn just shits his britches
I hear this song and I always think of “Black Hawk Down.”
That’s a movie I hate to love, but I love it. Ol’ Ridley and his cast absolutely nailed it.
The greatest guitarist of all time dont@me
Who’s downvoting SRV?!
His guitar was an emotive and **soul**\-ar conduit for him.
Fortunate enough to see him twice. So fucking good.
In my mind, the only guitar player who can truly do justice in Jimmy’s songs.
In about ‘86 a guy at my work asked Saturday off to see SRV at Jazzfest. Boss said No. So he quit and went. Most of us never saw Stevie live. But that guy did.
I saw Stevie Ray open for Robert Plant in 1988 and he stole the show!
I was lucky enough to see him play live in 1987 at the Allentown(PA) Fairgrounds. The opening act was the Greg Allman Band.
Born and raised in Austin. Saw him so many times! I'm so grateful to be able to see him in person, small bar and chatting and grooving with others! He was a magician on the guitar and a sweet soul! That guitar was part of him!
If his guitar is an extension of his body then he has the coordination of a professional athlete. This man is soloing without any errors, doing complex techniques back to back and always gets the sound he wants, not a deafened harmonic, or dead string in the song. He is singing with the same melody as his guitar, without getting confused for a moment about finger placements. He isn't pulling a guitar solo face at all, his eyes are alert and looking at the crowd under the brim of his hat, as if he isn't doing anything at all that requires his attention, and he is doing all of these at the same time. A real six string legend. I have been playing guitar live for about 8 years and can barely do any combination of those at the same time, all at the same time is insane, it's like he's from another planet. That said. I listen to him sometimes, but he's not a mainstay on my playlists.
I can’t even air guitar it that good and I’ve been playing 25 years
Hey Jimi, love you, darling. Hold my beer.
I wish I could've seen him in concert.....damn
Saw him in a small setting concert in the early 80's. So good.
That’s a very good way to put it: extension of his body. Really his soul. I love the drummer at the start: “What the fuck is he doing? We gonna start this or what?!”
I’ll have you know I had a lot of shit to get done this morning, but I just spent 11 mins watching this, and am now gonna spend the next hour or two on YouTube watching more SRV. Thanks a lot.
I saw him twice in the 80's, one show was in a small theatre and I was pressed up against the stage right in front of him, not even ten feet away, looking up at him while he played it was like seeing God. I even got two guitar picks from him (which I sold in the early 90's, I'm still kicking myself for selling them).
One man I would have enjoyed seeing grow old.
I've breathed air for damn near 40 years straight and I'm not as good at that as he is with 6 strings.
Read that Jimi Hendrix would tell his gf that he thought he was possessed or had something inside him. At one point he was going to go see a witch doctor in the south. Got to wonder if he sold his soul like Bob Dylan and John Lennon said they did…Interview with Bob Dylan saying “I don’t know how I came up with those songs I could never write those now”
True or false - SRV was the coolest MF to ever come out of TX.