Sunday, January 13, 2008

Bush Sucks but Texas Blues Kicks Ass

Stevie Ray Vaughn hailed from Oak Cliff --not what you would call the most fashionable suburb in Dallas. Were it not for great talents like SRV, Dallas would be remembered solely as the overgrown cowtown where JFK was gunned down in the middle of a street. To be sure, Oak Cliff is most often associated with Lee Harvey Oswald. Texas politics turned mean spirited and malevolent with the rise of the GOP.

Tragically, the likes of Tom DeLay, George W. Bush et al will all rot in hell for ravaging the state's environment, beating out Mississippi for "dead last" in Education, and making Texas most notable as the nation's capitol for capital punishment! Texas is not called the gulag state for nothing. It's outsourced prison system must surely rank among the worst in the world with the the possible exception of Abu Ghraib and Gitmo! Houston traffic long ago put LA in the shade. It is not only the air pollution that robs one of a decent breath, it's the breath-taking hubris found among idiots, bigots and oil barons who presume to tell the rest of the world how it should live.

Stevie Ray Vaughn --even in death a breath of fresh air -- is remembered as one of a handful of immortal guitarists, ranked by blues rock cognescenti with Eric Clapton and Jimmy Hendrix. The great B.B. King said of Stevie Ray that he literally channeled his blues licks. And so he did!


Stevie Ray in Concert

You'll get better audio quality with the following player.



Bio: Stephen "Stevie" Ray Vaughan

From his bio on Wiki:

Vaughan is recognized for his distinctive guitar sound, which was partly based on using heavy guitar strings (anything from 13- to 16-gauge sets) that he tuned down a half-step. Vaughan used a wide range of vacuum tube amplifiers during his career, often using multiple different amplifiers simultaneously, but is usually associated with early Fender guitar amplifiers. His influence is often credited for helping to launch the "vintage gear" movement among guitarists, which turned old musical equipment that could once be had fairly cheaply into expensive collector's items.

Vaughan's sound and playing style, which often incorporated simultaneous lead and rhythm parts, drew frequent comparisons to Hendrix; Vaughan covered several Hendrix tunes on his studio albums and in performance, such as "Little Wing", "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)", and "Third Stone from the Sun". He was also heavily influenced by Freddie King, another Texas bluesman, mainly in the use of tone and attack; King's heavy vibrato can clearly be heard in Vaughan's playing. Another stylistic influence was Albert Collins. By utilizing his index finger as a pick a la Albert Collins, he was able to coax various tonal nuances from his amplifiers. Vaughan's brother Jimmie Vaughan has stated that Johnny "Guitar" Watson was the guitarist he and Stevie studied the most.

Like Hendrix, Vaughan worked with only the support of bass and drums for a long time before Wynans joined the group. Also like Hendrix, he exhibited an amazing command of feedback, volume, and distortion. Like Hendrix, he could play lead and rhythm simultaneously with the rare ability to rattle out massive chord clusters and piercing barrages of single notes with incredible precision, drenching them in exotic tones produced by pickup switches, wah-wah pedals, and overamplification.

Vaughan preferred to make use of the immediate tonal capabilities of his guitar amplifiers in "overdrive", adding few effects. Stevie's basic effects included an Ibanez Tube Screamer and a Vox wah-wah pedal. He also used loud volumes for dynamic, coaxing effects from the natural overdriven performance of his amplifiers.

Legacy Recordings

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

One of the last of the great organic electric players...Nice song tribute Len, you have a gifted penchant for showcasing some of America's best musical artists.

benmerc

Unknown said...

My humble thanks, benmerc. It's a pleasure to find this stuff and even better when it finds an appreciative audience. You're right about SRV. He played like a man possessed. No doubt he was.

Anonymous said...

Love your SRV videos and bio information. I had the good fortune of being in college in Dallas in the early and mid 80's when Stevie's career was just taking off. I remember seeing him playing in clubs and then overnight he was playing concert halls. He was so great. Anyone who saw him play never forgot him, that's for sure. Listening to him got me interested in many of the blues players and started my musical quest into other genres of music (jazz, early rock'n'roll). Since his death in 1990, no one has replaced his sound, playing style and talent. I don't think anyone will.

Unknown said...

Glad you liked them, Scott. Unfortunately, Stevie was not among some of the greats that I had the good forture to see and hear live. I can only imagine what it might have been like. Considering that this is not primarily a music site, I have posted quite a bit of music that you might like. Just for fun, I started Class Acts, where you will find vids and playlist covering everything from Country and Western to Classical.

SadButTrue said...

I loved Hendrix, but there wasn't a Hendrix song that SRV did that didn't sound better than Jimi. He had better control of his sound than Jimi did and was more consistent. It was probably the product of all the drugs he was taking, or maybe a product of the relatively primitive mixing technology of the time, but it's very hard to find a live Hendrix performance where he's 'on.'

I don't really believe in an afterlife, but if I did - Man, the jammin' that would be goin' on up there!

Unknown said...

Well, Sad, now that you've brought it up --I think you're right. SRV was probably the best there ever was. I never heard anyone play like that. Glad you enjoyed the cuts.

Anonymous said...

Of course Jimi was a iconic influence for many spin off elements of technique and genre...SR took it in another direction, and did it justice, expanded it in many ways for sure, (in his vision and essence) nuff said...do not want to compare them, both great artists.

I will say though, the first time I heard SR, some youngster who I talked music with and jammed a bit, brought in a tape of select SR recordings of a few Hendrix tunes...just some instrumental splices he had put together. He told me it was some Hendrix's cuts I did not have, or probably never heard of, I listened for a few minutes, said it was great, but that it was not Jimi...it was still missing something. He could not believe I could tell, or would have have said what I did.

So, in art it is all about perception and absorption, I guess. I only saw Jimi live one time, I was very young, but only a few seats back when he introduced his Electric Lady Land material, I have not seen the same sense. I just believe Jimi was pure live art, He literally experimented on stage, he had no template or contemporary reference point, for him at some stage of the event, it was all about losing control, after all it was the sixties.

benmerc

Anonymous said...

FuzzFlash sez...

Wonderful tribute, Len, and heartfelt comments from Benmerc and your good self. No doubt about it, Lil' Stevie was a giant. Here's a killer clip from you tube where the Old Master, Albert King, passes "The Baton" to Stevie Ray.

There is but one thing I promise you, comrades in music and dissidence: it is absolutely fucking impossible to glom this clip without experiencing massive bouts of "chicken-skin" or as the Limeys say, "goose-bumps". This phenomenom overtook me when Stevie chimed in with his solo and starts moanin' for musiscal joy when the spirit moves his beautiful soul. Who knows what deep connections the kid was tappin' in to, but maestro sure picked up on it.

A fuzzflash 5 star recommendation:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nPsIBky8Rg

Unknown said...

Anonymous, thank you for the great comments re: Jimi. Indeed, we are talking about rarefied atmosphere here. It's like making comparisons between Heifetz, Perlman, Menuhin or Stern. Personally, I loved Stern's warm and caressing tones. And Heifetz was lightning. The air is thin at these heights. Likewise --Hendrix and Stevie Ray.

Fuzz --thanks for the "killer clip", indeed! I have added it to the youtube playlist posted in the article. Chicken skin, indeed! You wrote:

Who knows what deep connections the kid was tappin' in to, but maestro sure picked up on it.

As BB himself would say of SRV, he was "channeling".