I found this site and wanted to throw my favorite musician in the mix. Stevie Ray Vaughn died on August 27, 1990 in Alpine Valley Wisconsin.
I found this site and wanted to throw my favorite musician in the mix. Stevie Ray Vaughn died on August 27, 1990 in Alpine Valley Wisconsin.
I love him. He was sexy soulful and if his bio was anything to go by, a wild man lol. His life ended in tragidy but the go thing was he had finally kicked the money off his back and was living a clean and healthy lif until his death. His music is phenominal and his guitar playing was compared with Hendrix but never with Clapton. (Eric Clapton is great but even he will tell you Stevie was better.)
His life was cut way to short. I can hear his influence in other guitarists like Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Mato Nanji of Indigenous. He was one of the greats. I still enjoy listening to his music. Stevie Ray did indeed beat his drug and alcohol addictions. I read towards the end of his life his face lit up whan someone asked him how he beat his demons. He turned his life around when it wasn't the cool thing to do. As a result his bass player Tommy Shannon and even his brother Jimmy Lee Vaughn took steps to get clean. God Bless Stevie Ray Vaughn!
I live in Austin, and his music is played on various radio stations ALL the time. He has a statue in Town Lake Park - if anyone is interested.
I saw this DVD of the band Los Lonely Boys, and I hate to say it, the lead guitarist wants SO much to be the next Stevie Ray - that most of their songs had Stevie's guitar licks. Sorry - I found it disgraceful!
i love stevie ray vaughn. he was so soulful, and his voice makes me quiver. hte man was a true talent and i still love listening to his music.
I once had a roommate that repeatedly played back his music videos. Thus I really hate Stevie from the bottom of my heart!
Stevie was the best!
Texas Flood is one of my favorite Stevie Ray songs.
He died so young...
-Morbid1
cold shot was my fav
I try to visit his grave whenever I'm at my father-in-law's house near Dallas.
Dennis Leary (or Bill Hicks) had a funny quote:
"I mean Stevie Ray Vaughan is dead, and we can't get Jon Bon Jovi on a helicopter! Come on folks... Yeah John get on the helicopter there's a hairdresser in there, go ahead."
I'm not a fan of Stevie (mainly due to the fact I never really listened to him) but thought I would share the quote with you.
About 10 years ago, I saw a VH-1 special on his life. It had some mind bending performances. I have searched for a copy of this program, and came up with nutin. Anybody know how I could get a copy?
Got to see SRV at Tango's in Dallas in the late 80's. Blew me away. Unfortunately, my GF ATM wasn't a blues fan and insisted on leaving after the second song. Still, I'm glad I had the opportunity to see him live.
ps. SRV played lead guitar on David Bowie's Let's Dance album.
I still miss this man, such a great guitarist. Riviera Paradise is my favorite along with Leave My Girl Alone.
SRV is one of my all time favs... anyone read the biography Caught in the Crossfire? I saw that VH1 show on youtube recently but Viacom Int had them yanked, they only had a 3 year license to show it at the time it was made and never renewed the license so I dont see it being produce for sale anytime soon... what a shame, its a fabulous show!
I saw SRV 4 times at various locations in NYC back in the day and one of those times was in a very small "ballroom" where Stevie and the band were no more than ten feet in front of me. My ears are still ringing and I'm not kidding. The volume was indescribable.
I heard that the night before his copter crash he had a dream he would die in one...freaked him out all day, then.....
Stevie Ray did have a dream that he died on the eve of his last show. He was almost killed at a show in July of 90 when the beam that holds the curtain on stage fell right after he exited. It smashed the neck of his favorite guitar " ole number 1 " . He traded messages with Dr John a few weeks before he died that Dr John said scared the hell out of him. He won't say what the messages contained but it had to do with Stevies death. I have several books on Stevie Ray as he is my favorite musician and guitarist. B B King said he single handedly saved the blues. Stevie turned a lot of people on to some older blues players like Buddy Guy, Albert King, Freddie King, Lonnie Mack and T-Bone Walker. He always gave these and others credit for the foundation that they laid for him and other young blues players. He is truly missed by me and a host of others.
This is one of my favorite pictures of him - even though you can't really see him....lol. I love this poster. October 3rd was his birthday.
Guest
In addition to his popularly played songs, I loved one of his songs a lot of people have never heard "Life by the drop". I love to listen to it when I am missing all my old friends. I have all his cd's and several dvd's, one of him live on Austin City Limits, you can find them on eBay here and there. He is heavily missed!
I was surfing and read some info on David Bowie's album Lets Dance which Stevie was lead guitarist on and the author was doing a synopsis of all the albums and called Stevie a Jimi Hendrix imitator.... thats the one thing Stevie was NOT! He always gave credit to those that came before him and was always himself!
I have been to Stevie's grave many times. Most recent visit was on Oct 3. His 53rd birthday, left yellow roses of course.
i think hendrix emulator is more accurate.
i was going to put this in another thread,but my ex-wife was cremated and put in a samovar urn,she had the show closed with srv doing life by the drop.
Last edited by midnitelamp; 10-16-2007 at 10:40 AM.
Love SRV.
I worked 3 summers at alpine valley where he died. Walked up the ski hill before that he crashed into. Worked with some old guys at Alpine who had been around then and were there that night. They never really talked about it. Eric Clapton was supposed to be on the helicopter to. I will have to dig up some pics if I have any.
Glad you started this thread. SRV is certainly worth his own thread!
Not to nitpick, but just a minor correction: SRV chopper went down as it left Alpine Valley Music Theater in very dense fog. The location is actually East Troy, Wisconsin. I used to live six miles from the site.
Crashed into a skit lift thingy at the top of the hill..sits in a valley and can get super foggy. I hopefully will have some pics in the next few months of the area what not.
Stevie Ray was one of the nicest guys I ever had the pleasure of meeting.
Last edited by Captain Kundalini; 10-27-2007 at 11:02 AM. Reason: typo
I adored him......still can`t believe he`s gone.....
i think he was soooo sexy, the way he moved and the pained expressions he had on his face....i wonder, did he ever find love??
I live about 20 miles from Alpine Valley and was there that night. I hate to admit I was never a huge SRV fan, but still, the accident affected everyone there deeply. Just such a shock, and he's such an icon.
Wraith is right, the helicopter went down just after it took off. Alpine Valley sits way low and it does get very foggy. A really sad night. We were staying at the hotel that night, but left and went home. It was all too much.
Sharing another Sydney story of my encounter thus with Stevie Ray Vaughn! The Southern Cross Hotel in Goulbourn St, one evening after work in a club, my brother (huge fan!) and I were walking past the hotel, we were stopped in our tracks by a striking figure coming out the front door. Im intrigued by the concept of Charisma, and if anyone had it, it was Stevie that night! We didnt approach him as he seemed larger than life, normally we might have said hi! He was in a long trenchcoat, grey I think, and had feather earrings hanging from his ears, True! His complexion was great, pasty and pale... but hey this is Sydney we love that! A few months later, I think it was we were in a truck, moving house and heard of his death! We were devastated as he did have "Charisma"
Q: How many guitar players does it take to cover a Stevie Ray Vaughn tune ?
A: Evidently all of them.
My brother's band played in Chicago at the World Ampitheater the night before SRV died, and we ran into him and I traded t shirts with him. He never mentioned that dream about dying. We went to his concert at Alpine the next night and didn't know until the next morning that he died, we were told it was Eric, and I was freaked, but SRV dying freaked me out more, and it was my birthday. I have great pic of him that night, will have to go through that pile of pictures and find them.
I was,still am, a huge fan of Stevie Ray Vaughn. He was killed on the 27th of August. My birthday is the 28th. I woke up to find out one of my favourite performers was dead. Shot that birthday all to hell.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKdg0Pj_zGc
Crash Site!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pK6qpK-xNA
Brief funeral footage and video of gravesite
Last edited by Danny62; 11-06-2007 at 06:14 PM.
Thanks Danny, as usual the death hag guru comes through.
Reading that new Eric Clapton Autobiography, he talks about the show they played together the night of the accident. I didn't realise that 2 of Claptons crew and his booking agent also perished with SRV.
Even though I'm not a fan of SRV, the thing that bugs me the most about this tragedy is that the helicoptor crashed into a man made ski hill! And why was the hill created? For one thing only. Money. To get people to come and ski to make money off of them.
If only they hadn't built the hill, SRV and the others who perished could have still been alive today.
I hope those who built the hill are feeling massive massive amounts of guilt and shame over contributing to the helicoptor crash.
He says there were a series of helicopters waiting to go, EC had his own seat, and that Stevie Ray was supposed to drive back to Chicago, but grabbed the extra seat on the other 'copter.
He says all 4 helicopters went up into the fog, and he didn't find out til the next morning that SRV's copter went up, turned the wrong way and slammed into the ski slope. Sad.
Some aspects of this remind me of the Buddy Holly Crash...was it Waylon Jennings who flipped the coin, lost and went on the bus instead....?
Last edited by endsleigh03; 11-08-2007 at 10:52 AM.