Dez Top Rock/Pop, #18: Stevie Ray Vaughan

Blues Savior

It is rare to come across an artist who can almost singlehandedly revitalize an entire genre of music. Stevie Ray Vaughan saved blues music in the 1980’s. Blues was considered all but dead by the time the thin ties and synth bleeps of the 80’s rolled around. Most of the original masters were dead, dying, retiring or toiling in obscurity. Rock artists played blues or bluesy music, many quite well (Allman Brothers Band, ZZ Top). But they approached blues from the rock perspective.

Then out of the clubs of Austin came this blues whirlwind of a guitar player. Unlike the rock artists who played some blues, SRV was a blues player who occasionally played some rock. He lived and breathed blues history, but crucially he was not weighed down by it (vs. Eric Clapton). Vaughan’s playing is a museum of blues guitar playing. You can hear all of the great guitar players in his playing, but instead of merely aping the masters (again, see Clapton), Vaughan threw all of these influences into the blender, revved it all up for a rock audience, turned it up to 11 and blazed a new blues trail while remaining rooted in the rich blues past. He inspired an entire generation of blues-based rock guitarists, and created a wonderful but too brief body of work. Vaughan (and to be fair, Robert Cray also) brought blues out of the cutout bins and back to the mainstream, proving that you could say and play new things in this classic American musical genre.


ABOVE: SRV is always fun to watch play. Here is one of his great blues shuffles on speed, "Rude Mood."

He had his own mini-Dylan at Newport moment when he appeared at the Montreux Blues Festival in 1982. This was a festival for blues traditionalists, and Vaughan came out blazing with his speed and volume, playing the guitar behind his back and with his teeth. You can hear the audience get angry and boo as he storms through his set. But important people were listening. In the audience that night were Jackson Browne (who offered Stevie and his band free time in his studio to record their debut) and David Bowie (who snagged him for lead guitar duties on his upcoming Let’s Dance album. SRV was due to tour with Bowie, but dropped out when Bowie refused him and his band, Double Trouble, an opening slot on the tour).

His demise is one of the real tragedies of rock and blues. After overcoming serious addictions, he was living a clean life, felt revitalized and renewed, and was riding high on his breakthrough record In Step. He perished in a helicopter crash after playing a gig with Clapton, Cray, Buddy Guy and brother Jimmie Vaughan. It would have been exciting to see where he would have gone after the near perfect blues/rock hybrid of In Step.

You know, I don’t really even listen to SRV all that often anymore, but he was one of my musical heroes growing up. In compiling this list, I tried to take the long view over my entire life as a music fan. I was fortune enough to catch him live five times, and they are some of my more memorable concert experiences. Standing outside in 100 degree weather in the Astrodome parking lot, being hosed down by the HFD, as SRV tore through a set at the Miller Lite Festival (didn’t ANCIANT collapse from the heat? I seem to remember that, or perhaps the story has grown more dramatic over the years). Later that night, Stevie opened for The Who in the Dome. A double bill with Jeff Beck (talk about guitar heaven). And a month before his death, I caught him on a double bill with Joe Cocker. Great memories. Great shows. Great man.

What To Listen To:
It is difficult to overstate the importance of SRV’s debut, Texas Flood. A rare record that created seismic shifts in a musical genre. It is his most pure blues record. I love the sophomore effort, Couldn’t Stand the Weather. I think that it contains his most successful crossover material, the humorous “Cold Shot,” the great title track, and the furious instrumental workout, “Scuttle Buttin’”. In Step was his mainstream breakthrough, his most accessible and commercial effort. But honestly, all of his records have some filler. Compilations serve SRV (and blues music in general) very well, and Essential Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble is the best compilation of many out there.