Can someone plaese explain to me Stevie Ray Vaughn
troubleman
1,928 Posts
I mean, I've heard a couple greatest hits cd's when I worked retail a couple years ago and dude was playing some realllllll tepid blues. Same boring rifs over and over and over. I've even seen some early live footage of him on this old mixed vhs tape I borrowed from a friend. It put me to sleep. Am I missing something? This dude is considered one of the greatest to pick up a guitar and I just don't see it. Plaese school me. Anyone?
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Easily one of my favorite Folkways albums.
During the mid-70's Stevie Ray was always voted 2nd best guitarist in Dallas behind another Hendrix wanna-be, Tim Wheeler(Hook-Up, last I heard Tim was doing the Beale St. thang...ever run into him??)
But then Stevie Ray was in the right place at the right time, Austin, just when it was in the middle of that "Live Music Capital Of The World" bullshit. And for what he did, he was good....and got better......for me it might as well have been some Broadway production of Hendrixmania
Randy Hansen took it to the next level and came out on stage dressed as Hendrix in friggin black make-up!!!
Frank Marino tells the tale of tripping on LSD, seeing Jimi and picking up the guitar for the first time in his life and was able to play Hendrix licks note for note...
The all had a "gimmick" and it was all pretty mediocre.
The best thing Stevie Ray did was pay due respect to some of the REAL bluesmen and got them an audience of young white kids that they may have missed out on.
SRV did shit differently from his contemporaries. Of course, he was heavily influenced by Hendrix and many blues greats, but he took that and made his own sound out of it. Don't blame him because you're sick of all his imitators.
Who else was tuning a half-step low, putting unbelievably heavy gauge strings on his guitar, and retrofitting with bass frets? He pretty much invented that sound.
first off, while I love a lot of Buddy Guy's records...dude gave Jimi a cold shoulder and has expressed that he wasnt very impressed with Hendrix, even though Jimi worshipped him...so as brilliant as Buddy Guy is, I hold his opinions to be somewhat suspect.
Skills, yes....inventing a sound, yes...but at the end of the day, SRV's sound and songs are underwhleming to me. It doesnt sound like it comes from anywhere magical or goes anywhere magical. I dont see how his guitar playing is transcendental like Buddy or Jimi. Also, I am sure my opinion is tainted by living in Texas for so many years and being told about the genius of SRV a bazillion times. Like living in Memphis, I have to put up with the "genius" of Jerry Lee Lewis, another vastly over-rated "pioneer". That is a another thread however.
His original material isn't my bag. He definitely sounds technically proficient.
sure he has some moments that pertain to the "guy with short sleeved shirt with flames on it" crowd, and anyone can be forgiven for hating on that, but this particular track is pure beauty. Check it out.
I prefer his "Steven Hawking Indiana Jubilee with the Sounds of Soul" live album from '72.
It sounds like in Riviera Paradise, as well as his version of Little Wing and Chitlins Con Carne and all of his slow-burner type tunes, he just throw every soul-jazz licks on the wall and see what sticks. It always starts with chord-melody, segue to smooth, jazzy single note runs, morph into Wes-like with octaves, and build up to a crescendo of blues runs to conclude the track. SRV is a very capable guitarist, but a bit formularic to my ears. Perhaps I am not in the age when long drawn out lead guitar impresses me. On the contrary, I find his short bursts of melody in David Bowie's tune and even Don Johnson's album more effective.
One thing I have noticed: SRV is the ONLY white blues guy that has had a major influence on black blues guitarists (not the old folks, but the younger ones born too late to have seen Hendrix). Don't ask me why, it just is. I've been to enough Monday night blues jams to know!
ask anybody about those guys
Exactly.
pretentious elitist!
Plaese to stop siding with the future me.
& he did wear a distinctive hat
good 'branding' I'll give that to him...
Hell, Mason Williams[/b] is probably more popular than Bell, Sharrock, Fahey & Sete.
it's looking like he played on 'Let's Dance' - does that count????
i believe dick dale covered most of those grounds that you speak of.
gotta give respct to SRV but, i'm on the boat with a lot of you guys. i always felt his tunes on a wide scale to be
easy.
Like it or not the dude got mad skills.
what about willie and the wimp and his cadillac coffin?
As far as white guitarists influencing black guitarists, how about Eric Claptop > Robert Cray (boring, and boring-er...)