Legends 30

hello and welcome to legends number 30 yup that's right 30 Who woulda though I would get to this number So to landmark it im doing this on one my new found faveourite guitarist a real crazy ass in your face blues guitarist by the the name Steve . Mr Stevie Ray Vaughn SRV to the fans




Biography

With his amazing style of guitar playing Stevie Ray Vaughn ignited the blues revival of the 80's . Vaughn drew equaly from bluesmnen like Albert King and Muddy Waters to the more rock players like Jimi Hendrix and even the Jazz guitarist Kenny Burrell . This all helped develop that fiery crazy mofo blues style that made SRV sound so different and years ahead of others . Vaughn bridged what gap there was between blues and rock like no other artist had for a long time . His death in 1990 only emphasized his the influence he had on blues and rock and roll over the world .

Bron and raised in Dallas SRV began playing guitar as a kid inspired by his older brother Jimmie . When he hit junior high he started playing in many "garage bandsd" which occasionally meant he was gigging in the local nightclubs . By the time he was 17 he had dropped out of high school to concentrate on playing music . His first real band was called The Cobras they played bars and clubs throughout Austin during the mid 70's . However the band was not to be and soon came to it's end . After the demise of this band Triple Threat was formed . Triple Threat featured Jackie Newhouse on bass , Chris Layton on drums , Lou Ann Barton on vocals and of course Steve on guitar . After a few years of playing pubs and clubs Barton left the band in 1978 . The group decided to continue performin under the name Double Trouble inspired bu the Otis Rush song of the same name . Stevie Ray soon became the bands lead singer .

For the next few years Stevie Ray and Double Trouble played all around the Austin area soon becoming one of the most popular bands in Texas , In 1982 they played the Montreux Festival and their performance caught the attention of David Bowie and Jackson Browne . After Double Trouble performance Bowie asked Vaughn to play on his forthcoming album while Browne offered the group free recording time at his Los Angelas studio Downtown ; both offers were accepted . Stevie Ray laid down the lead guitar tracks for what became David Bowie's Let's Dance album in 1982 . Shortly afterward John Hammond Sr landed Vaughn and Double Trouble a record contract with Epic and the band recorded their debut album in less than a week at Downtown .

Vaughan's debut album Texas Flood was released in the summer of 1983 just a few months after David Bowie's Lets Dance hit the shelves . On it's own Let's Dance earned SRV quite a bit of attention but Texas Blues was a blues success receiving positive reviews in both blues and rock publications reaching number 38 on the charts and crossing over to album rock radio stations . Vaughan was offered lead guitarist role on Bowie's 1983 stadium tour but Vaughan turned him down and opted to keep on playing with Double Trouble instead . Stevie Ray and Double Trouble set off on a successful tour and quickly recorded their second album Couldn't Stand The Weather released in May of 1984 . The album was more successful than the debut Texas Flood and it reached number 31 on the charts . By the end of 1985 the album had went gold . Double Trouble added a keyboard player by the name of Reese Wynans in 1985 before they recorded their third album Soul To Soul . The record was released in August 1985 and was also quite successful although not as successful as Couldn't Stand The Weather as it only reached bumber 34 on the charts .

Although SRV's career was soaring he was sinking deepm into the realms of Alcoholism and drug addiction . Despite his declining health though Stevie Ray continues to push himself forward releasing the Live double album Live Alive in october of 1986 and launching an extensive American tour in early 1987 . Following the tour Vaughan checked himself into a rehabilitation clinic . His time spent in rehab was kept fairly quiet and for the next year Double Trouble were inactive . Vaughan performed a number of concerts in 1988 including a headlining gig at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and wrote his fourth album . The result of his writing sessions was In Step which was released in June of 1989 and became his most successful album peaking at number 33 on the charts and earning a Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Recording and going gold in just over six months of it's release .

In the spring of 1990 Vaughan recorded an album with his brother Jimmie whcih was scheduled for release in the fall of the year . In the late summer of 1990 Vaughan and Double Trouble set out on an American headlining tour . On August 26 1990 their East Troy WI gig conluded with an encore jam featuring guitarists Eric Clapton , Buddy Guy , Jimmie Vaughan and Robert Cray . After the concert Stevie Ray Vaughan boarded a helicopter bound for Chicago . Just Minutes after it's 12:30 AM takeoff the helicopter crashed killing SRV and four passengers . He was only 35 years old .

Family Style , Steveie Ray's duet album with Jimmie Vaughan appeared in October and entered the charts at number seven . Family Style began a series of Posthumous releases that were as popular as the albums Stvie Ray released during his lifetime . The Sky Is Crying a collection of studio outakes complied by Jimmie Vaughan was released in October of 1991 . The album entered the charts at number 10 and went platinum three months after it's release . In The Beggining a recording of a Double Trouble concert in 1980 was released in the fall of 1992 and the compilation Greatest Hits was released in 1995 . In 1999 Vaughans originla albums were remastered and Reissued with The Real Deal: Greatest Hits Vol. 2 also appearing that year . 2000 saw the release of the four disc box SRV which concentrated heavily on outakes live perfomances and rarities



Discography


Texas Flood:1983


Couldn't Stand The Weather:1984


Soul To Soul:1985


Live Alive:1986


In Step:1989


The Sky Is Crying:1991


In The Beginning:1992


Live At Carnegie Hall







And there you have it the legend that was Stevie Ray Vaughn a man who didn't just know the blues he owned the blues . oh yeah TESTIFY!!!!

Reccomended Listening: Scuttle Buttin
Couldn't Stand The Weather
Testify

List Of Sources: www.alltheweb.com / www.yahoo.com / www.msn.com / www.google.com / www.xtrememusician.com / www.allmusic.com /



Zak

I've been listening to a "the best of" cd of him for about a full week now. Nothing else. non stop.

I even took out my Children of Bodom cd's, to make room for SRV cd's.

I always wondered if SRV really *was* as energetic in his playing, or if he was just spicing it up, to attract the crowd... either way, fantastic guitarplayer, tragic death.

Such a legend he became in a short period of time, great choice .

Isn't a shame that its always the great ones that die i.e.( Stevie, Jimi Allman etc.) Great guitarist great man.

It really pisses me off that someone so bright and full of talent had to go so soon...

Well yeah and the fact that he had just gotten his life together. But I bet he's up in heaven jammin with Jimi right now. haha Thats one jam session I would kill a man to take part in or even watch.

I can see 'em right now...

Hey that would be an awesome poster. Jimi and Stevie sitting on amps in the clouds playing guitar. I might patent that.....no I'm sure someone has already made it.

Would be kewl to see a charcoal drawing of a scene like that .

Would aslo make a bitchin tatoo

Zak

As big of fan as I am I don't think I'd get a tattoo of him or any other famous person for that matter. Although I am hoping to get a tat next year. And If I could draw a little better or took an art class at school I'd definitely do that.

Great choice angusyoungfan!!

As for the tattoo of srv, i got mine done years ago!!

About the song 'Testify', did SRV write that ? Because, on the CD, and in the booklet it says:

5. Testify
-writer unknown-
rec: November 23, 1982


Just wondering

Testify is just one of those songs you can imagine happened through a Jam with stevie and the guys where someone accidently pressed record . Im going to assume it came about in this way where everybody added parts to it so the writer was really unknown as no one person wrote any really specific part . Im probably wrong though lol . Hey testify do youb have a pic of your tatoo? Id love to see what it is unless its in a disgusting place lol

Zak

Whoops sorry the picture didnt load before so assumee there wasn;t one there . Tis bitchin man Tis Bitchin . I wouldn't mind one of him or Angus Young .

Zak

that was awesome. good job!

great post, SRV is a legend,, he has changed the way i play and even think about guitar. have you seen the fender custom shop number one replicas?

srv custom shop

to me, it doesnt look that good, the wear above the pickguard from his hand is off. Also, it carries quite the price tag, $10,000, if i had $10,000 to spend on a guitar i would buy like 5 guitars, and a couple amps, but that is just me.

why did he have to die so early, it sucks... he was so damn good

RIP SRV.... he was so awesome.... I have all his cd's dvd's and actual records... its a shame he died so young.... I did a paper on him a while back.... If I find it I'll post it here...

I said I'd post it and here it is, my 3rd trimester final paper from last year:

Stevie Ray Vaughan was one of the greatest musicians of his time. His style was a product of the styles of many guitar greats, such as Freddie King, Albert King, B.B. King and Django Reinhardt. His style was so original but he never failed to give credit to his influences. Many people credit him with saving the blues in the 1980’s, and no matter what kind of music you like, you have to admit, this Texan had some serious soul.
Stevie Ray Vaughan was born on October 3, 1954. He had one older brother Jimmie Vaughan, who was 3 and-a-half years older than he was. Stevie began to play the guitar at age eight. His first guitar was a Gibson Messenger, given to him by Jimmie. Even though he had a guitar of his own, Stevie always snuck into Jimmie’s room and played his guitars. Jimmie had a profound affect on Stevie in his early guitar playing years. Jimmie’s record collection contained many Albert King records. Albert was one of Stevie’s main influences. In 1968, he bought a 1954 Les Paul and joined The Chatones, where he met his future bandmate Tommy Shannon.
In 1972, Stevie Ray Vaughan dropped out of high school and moved to Austin, Texas. The blues “scene” was booming in Austin because of the very popular club, The Vulcan Gas Company. One night at a gig, Stevie had finished his first set of songs, and he said “Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t know about you, but I’m going to go see Albert King, and if you have any brains you will to.” He packed up and left. When he got to the concert there weren’t many people left. He just pulled up a table and stood there, staring at Albert. After a few songs, Albert had finished. He walked over to Stevie, and gave him his guitar. That was the first time Stevie met Albert but it would not be the last. This was one of the most significant moments in Stevie’s life.
About three years later, he went to another Albert King gig. Stevie once said “he (Albert) never forgets a face”. Before the concert started Albert went over and said to Stevie “Remember me, it’s your older brother?” jokingly. Later that evening, Stevie was brought up on stage and played the rest of the night. Stevie, being the unexpected type of person to play guitar so well, being a teenager and all, shocked every person in the building with his incredible performance. Albert unplugged his guitar and put it backstage. Albert was quoted as saying “The skinny white kid was scaring my guitar away.”
In 1973, Stevie bought his most famous guitar, “Number One”. It was 1963 Fender Stratocaster, with a sunburst finish. It had a 1962 pao ferro Stratocaster neck. “Number One” had been modified to fit Stevie’s personal preferences. These modifications included switching the guitar frets out and putting bass frets in, and the use of and an extremely heavy gauged set of strings. The vibrato (or whammy) bar had been replaced with an inverted lefty system as opposed to a righty system. The pickups had been shielded to avoid excess noise. The piece de resistance was a custom engraving of Stevie’s initials on the pickguard: “SRV”. This is the guitar that is most associated with Stevie Ray Vaughan. In an unfortunate but freak accident, its neck was snapped by a falling lighting truss at a gig in New Jersey (Garden State Arts Center). It was later repaired by Rene Martinez; Stevie’s guitar tech. Stevie also owned many other “Strats” and other custom guitars. He also owned a Vox wah-wah pedal that had been owned and used by Jimi Hendrix. He acquired this through a trade with Hendrix, in turn through Stevie’s older Brother, Jimmie. (Stevie is rumored to have made $40 on the deal.)
During live shows Stevie Ray Vaughan used his many “Strats”, two Fender Vibroverb amplifiers, two Vox wah-wah pedals, two Ibanez ts-808 tubescreamers. Sometimes, when it was a larger venue, he also used two Fender Super Reverb amplifiers and Howard Dumble Steel Stringer amps. He also used Fender Bassman amps during the recording of “In Step”.
In 1979, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble were formed. Tommy Shannon played bass, Chris “Whipper” Layton played drums and Stevie Ray Vaughan played Guitar. This was Stevie’s first major band, although Stevie had been a part of many other bands in his teens. Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble were noticed by Jerry Wexler, a famous Texas blues, country and rock producer. He pulled the right strings and got SRV and double trouble into the Montreux Jazz festival in Switzerland, which was very rare for an unsigned band. Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble played so well at the festival that David Bowie, a famous British rock star, wanted to get them a contract. Stevie Ray played on Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” album. The album was a smash, but during the tour Stevie could only talk about his band in the context of Bowie’s tour due to his contract. SRV dropped out of the tour and went back to Texas to play in local bars and pay-almost-nothing gigs. “That was the real Texas thing to do.” (Michael Point)
A little while after this, Texas flood was recorded. This was Double Trouble’s first album. It was recorded in Jackson Browne’s Studio, who volunteered it after he had also noticed Stevie’s immense amount of talent. “Texas Flood” was also recorded with no overdubs. This album was one of few very excellent blues/rock albums of the early 1980’s. It contained many cover songs of Stevie’s idols such as: Larry Davis’ “Texas Flood”, George Clinton’s “Testify” and Buddy Guy’s “Mary Had a Little Lamb”.
In 1984 “Couldn’t Stand the Weather” was recorded. This was a jazzier album and marked Stevie’s position as king of Texas Blues and Heir to Jimi’s (Hendrix) Throne. It contained an almost hypnotic version of Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Chile”. It also contained W. C. Clark’s “Cold shot”. This was a very heartfelt song for Stevie because it coincidentally dealt with his rough and rocky relationship with his wife, Lenny.
In 1985, Reese Wynans joined SRV and Double trouble. He was an organist and joined just in time to record “Soul to Soul”, a very funky blues-rock album. It showcased a lot of Stevie’s different rock techniques as well as his very Django Reinhardt styled “Gone Home”. This was a very jazzy song that exposed Stevie’s more mellow and sensitive side.
Sadly, the tour following this album and the recording of “Live Alive” led to Stevie Ray’s abuse of drugs and alcohol. SRV was known to stay up for days on end via the use of cocaine and strong liquor. This lifestyle led to Stevie’s collapse at a gig in England. His mother, Martha Vaughan came to London and brought her drug addled son back to Texas. At home again, he entered drug and alcohol rehab centers and got cleaned up from his self destructive life style.
Sadly Stevie Ray died in a helicopter crash in Wisconsin in 1990. He had just played at an All-Star jam session featuring Buddy Guy, a Chicago blues legend, his brother Jimmie Vaughan, Eric Clapton, himself and many other blues greats.
One of the greatest things about Stevie was that his emotion was injected into every thing he did. On “Texas Flood” Stevie had many lyrical references to his relationship to his wife. Most of his guitars were named after important people in his life. They had names such as: Lenny, Butterscotch (for its color) and Charley. If you listen to any one of his albums you can feel the intensity of his singing and playing. “From every string-bend, hammer-on, and slide you could hear his emotion” (www.corax.com)-that was the blues, pure emotion and feeling. He will be missed and his music will be cherished for generations.
Stevie Ray Vaughan will be remembered as a guitar idol, a good Texan, and a man “who may have passed on, but still plays the blues” (Martin Scorsese presents the blues: Stevie Ray Vaughan, liner notes) He used a small amount of gear in his performances and conveyed such complex emotions. Stevie Ray Vaughan was probably the best guitarist of his time or any other.

“Yeah, you like me, but you gotta find yourself in what you hear in me and make it your own. None of this music is our own. All we can do is pass it on.”
~Stevie Ray Vaughan~




~ DISCOGRAPHY~
- Texas Flood (epic records, 1983)
- Couldn’t Stand the Weather (epic records, 1984)
- Soul to Soul (epic records, 1985)
- Live Alive (epic records, 1986)
- In Step (epic records, 1989)
- Family Style (epic records, 1990) ***posthumously released***
- The Sky is Crying (epic records, 1991) ***posthumously released***
- In the Beginning (epic records, 1992) ***posthumously released***



I spent an hour finding this and six hours typing it the first time. It took me so long to get all the research for this. BTW I copied none of this, I did it all... and turned it in 2.5 spaced size 16 font. I got a 95 on it....


I hope you guys enjoy it, Rest in Peace Stevie (**tear forms*** jk)

(BTW sorry about post length, but it was necessary to spread the word and testify about SRV. )

I agree. He was great when he was alive and just as great now.

all the greats go early i suppose

I actually just discovered SRV, today. I saw the dvd of him live at Montreux ,and couldn't believe it. I was totally awstruck. SRV is deffinantly a great. Maybe even the great.

Dudes, if you're looking for cool SRV artwork, you must check out www.srvrocks.com...check out the "links" link, there's lots of cool stuff. Even artists who will do a charcoal or colored pencil or whatever you want drawing/painting based on a favorite picture you send them. Very cool! SRV IS 'DA MAN!!

Stevie Ray Vaughan is probably my favorite guitarist of all time. My mom got me into him earlier this year and my guitar playing hasn't really been the same since. He just blows all my other favorites right out of the water. If that thing about him and Jimi jammin' in Heaven is true, then I can't wait to get there. They were both taken from us way too soon. Btw, I can't seem to find any posters or t-shirts of Stevie at the mall. Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough.

I have never really digged his music too much due to the fact that he really didnt stretch out beyond blues rock music into something more as he could and should have done. However he has some highly energetic tunes and is definatly worthy of being called a legend for his skill at the guitar and the songs he wrote.

I love him. I have all the albums. To top it off I have a recording of his last performance at alpine valley. The last notes of voodoo child ringin out is enough to bring a tear to the eye. RIP SRV