Stevie Ray Vaughn
Crossfire
Day by day night after night....blinded by the neon lights
Hurry here hustlin there....no ones got the time to spare
Moneys tight nothin free....wont somebody come and rescue me
I am stranded....caught in the crossfire
Stranded....caught in the crossfire.
Tooth for tooth eye for an eye....sell your soul just to buy buy buy
Beggin a dollar stealin a dime....come on cant you see that i
I am stranded....caught in the crossfire
I am stranded....caught in the crossfire.
I need some kind of kindness....some kind of sympathy oh no
Were stranded....caught in the crossfire
Save the strong lose the weak....never turning the other cheek
Trust nobody dont be no fool....whatever happened to the golden rule
We got stranded....caught in the crossfire
We got stranded....caught in the crossfire
We got stranded....caught in the crossfire
Stranded....caught in the crossfire
Help me
_______________________________
Stephen "Stevie" Ray Vaughan (October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990), born in Dallas, Texas, was an American blues guitarist. His broad appeal made him one of the world's most influential electric blues guitarists. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Stevie Ray Vaughan #7 in their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. He was the younger brother of Jimmie Vaughan.
Life and career
Early life
Vaughan was born at 10:13 am on October 3, 1954 in Dallas, Texas and was raised in that city's Oak Cliff neighborhood. Neither of his parents had any strong musical talent but were avid music fans. They would take Vaughan and his older brother Jimmie to concerts to see Fats Domino, Jimmy Reed, and Bob Wills.
Even though Vaughan initially wanted to play the drums as his primary instrument, Michael Quinn gave him a guitar when he was eight years old. Vaughan's brother, Jimmie Vaughan, gave him his first guitar lessons. Vaughan was later quoted in Guitar Player Magazine as saying, "My brother Jimmie actually was one of the biggest influences on my playing. He really was the reason I started to play, watching him and seeing what could be done." He played entirely by ear and never learned how to read sheet music. By the time he was 13 years old he was playing in clubs where he met many of his blues idols. A few years later he dropped out of Kimball High School and moved to Austin to pursue music. Vaughan's talent caught the attention of guitarist Johnny Winter, and blues-club owner Clifford Antone.
Adult life and career
1983's Texas FloodVaughan's first recording band was called Paul Ray and the Cobras. They played at clubs and bars in Austin during the mid-1970s, and released one single. Vaughan later recorded two other singles under the band name The Cobras. Following the break-up of The Cobras, he formed Triple Threat in late 1975, which included bassist Jackie Newhouse, drummer Chris Layton, vocalist Lou Ann Barton, and sax player Johnny Reno. Barton left the band in 1978 to pursue a solo career, followed by Reno in 1979. The three remaining members started performing under the name Double Trouble, inspired by an Otis Rush song of the same name. Vaughan became the band's lead singer.
Tommy Shannon, the bass player on Johnny Winter's early albums, replaced Newhouse in 1981. A popular Austin act, Vaughan soon attracted the attention of musicians David Bowie and Jackson Browne. Both Browne and Bowie first caught Vaughan at the 1982 Montreux Jazz Festival, where some members of the audience booed the band because they disliked Double Trouble's hard blues sound; the crowd response was quite different when they were subsequently invited to headline "Blues Night" at the festival in 1985.
In November, 1982, Vaughan recorded in Jackson Browne's studio in downtown Los Angeles. The recordings were brought to the attention of A&R man John Hammond and became Double Trouble's critically acclaimed first album, Texas Flood (1983), produced by Hammond; it featured the top-20 hit "Pride and Joy" and sold 500,000 copies, earning the band a Gold Record. Additionally the album was nominated for a Grammy and its song "Rude Mood" was nominated for best rock instrumental. Vaughan won three categories in the Guitar Player's Readers Poll: "Best New Talent", "Best Blues Album", and "Best Electric Blues Guitarist" (beating out none other than Eric Clapton). He became only the second guitarist in history to win three Guitar Player awards in one year (the first is Jeff Beck). Vaughan won the "Best Electric Blues Guitarist" award every year until 1991.
Also in 1983 Bowie featured Vaughan on his 1983 album Let's Dance. Vaughan was even asked to go on tour with Bowie, but declined so he could continue to play with Double Trouble.
The band's next album, Couldn't Stand the Weather, was recorded in January 1984. During the summer of 1984 Vaughan and Double Trouble appeared on numerous TV shows, including Rockpalast, Much Music, and Solid Gold. During the Grammy awards of 1984, Vaughan, along with George Thorogood, presented Chuck Berry with a lifetime achievement award. "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" from Couldn't Stand The Weather was nominated for "Best Rock Instrumental Performance".
These bookings were preparing the band for a night at Carnegie Hall in New York City on October 4, 1984. The show featured one Double Trouble "set" and the other with guests Dr. John on keyboards, George Rains on drums, Jimmie Vaughan on guitar, Roomful of Blues Horns, and singer Angela Strehli. The group rehearsed in September 1984 at the Caravan of Dreams in Fort Worth, Texas.
In November, Vaughan won two W.C. Handy National Blues Awards: "Entertainer of the Year" and "Blues Instrumentalist of the Year." It was the first time a white person won either award. During this time, he also began recording with one of his earliest idols, blues-rock guitar pioneer Lonnie Mack, to produce the album Strike Like Lightning on the Alligator label.
In late January 1985, the band went on a 6-night Japanese tour with various interviews and performances. In March, the band started to produce their third album Soul to Soul. Reese Wynans, a former keyboardist with Captain Beyond and Delbert McClinton's band, was added to the band not long after. The album's production lasted for two months. On April 10 Vaughan played "The Star Spangled Banner" for opening day of the National League baseball season at the Houston Astrodome (supposedly he didn't get a good audience response from that crowd; he did, at least, get to meet former New York Yankee great Mickey Mantle afterwards). Soul to Soul was released on September 30, 1985; Vaughan received his fifth Grammy nomination: "Best Rock Instrumental Performance" for one of its songs, "Say What!".
In the following months of 1986, Vaughan and Double Trouble went on tour in New Zealand. It was around this time that he met Janna Lapidus, a touring model in New Zealand.
In the summer, the band was considering ideas of a new album, particularly a live album. Shows were set up at the Austin Opera House and at the Dallas Starfest. Audiences saw Vaughan struggle through these shows, as some of the original recordings were filled with technical difficulties.
On August 27, 1986, the Vaughan brothers' father, Big Jim, passed away of heart failure. The boys rushed home to comfort their mother, yet had little time to mourn. A funeral was arranged two days later. After the funeral was finished, a jet rushed Vaughan to Montreal, Quebec, where he played the Miller Beer Festival in Jarry Park.
The recordings in both Dallas and Austin, as well as the Montreux Jazz Festival, were edited and later released on Live Alive in November 1986.
Drugs and alcoholism
Drug addiction and alcoholism took a toll on Vaughan in mid-1986. Cocaine and Crown Royal whiskey were among his addictions. After becoming acutely ill in Germany while on tour, Vaughan managed to struggle through three more shows, but was soon admitted into a hospital in London. Dr. Victor Bloom, who has helped Eric Clapton and Pete Townshend with their addictions, told Vaughan if he hadn't come to the hospital he would have died in a month. After a struggle to get sober in London, he then flew to Atlanta, Georgia to a rehabilitation center. He eventually recovered fully from his addictions and became a teetotaler.
Redemption
Upon his return from rehab, Vaughan did a number of works with other artists including Dick Dale (making a cameo appearance as himself performing a duet of "Pipeline" in the movie Back To The Beach which was then released as a single), Jennifer Warnes, and Stevie Wonder (playing "Superstition" on the MTV special "Stevie Wonder's Characters").
In 1988, Vaughan continued to tour with Double Trouble throughout Scandinavia. Vaughan and Double Trouble recorded In Step in February 1989, which was their fourth studio album and praised by some as the band's best work since Texas Flood. The album won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album. Vaughan shared a headline tour with guitarist Jeff Beck in the fall of 1989. In his beloved Austin, the city he made the "Live Music Capital of the World", Vaughan was presented with a proclamation from the mayor declaring November 26, 1989 Stevie Ray Vaughan Day.
On January 3, 1990, Vaughan gave an AA speech and addressed the Aquarius Chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous. On January 30, 1990, Vaughan made his first appearance on MTV Unplugged, sharing the stage with Joe Satriani.
Vaughan spoke two years earlier about wanting to help produce an album with his brother, Jimmie Vaughan. That time came in March 1990 when the Vaughan Brothers went to work at the Dallas Sound Labs in Dallas, Texas, the same studio used to record Soul to Soul.
Around this time, Stevie spoke of singing beginning to hurt him with a condition he liked to call "hamburger throat." He had acupuncture done to his neck, but had to take cortisone shots to relieve the pain, which made his face puff up.
Death
On August 25, 1990, Vaughan and Double Trouble finished up the summer leg of the tour with shows at Alpine Valley Music Theatre, just outside of East Troy, Wisconsin. The show also featured Robert Cray and his Memphis Horns along with Eric Clapton's set. Alex Hodges, Double Trouble's tour manager, arranged flight by helicopter with Omni Flights.
The next morning on August 26, 1990, Vaughan had what he described as a "horrible" nightmare. He dreamt that he was at his own funeral and saw thousands of mourners. He felt "terrified, yet almost peaceful". He shared this story with his bandmates and some trusted crew members. The band played that night, as bass player Tommy Shannon hopped a helicopter already back to Chicago after they finished
Eric Clapton played the following set. At the end of the show, as fog settled over the audience in the arena, Clapton introduced Buddy Guy, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robert Cray, and Jimmie Vaughan. The musicians chose the appropriate titled "Sweet Home Chicago", a blues classic written by Robert Johnson.
After the 15-minute jam, the lights went up and the musicians went backstage to trade compliments. Clapton and Vaughan talked about future dates in London to pay a tribute to Jimi Hendrix.
Double Trouble drummer, Chris Layton, recalls his last conversation with Vaughan backstage. He then remembers Vaughan saying he had to call his girlfriend, Janna Lapidus, back in Chicago. He headed out the door to the helicopters.
The musicians expected a long bus ride back to Chicago. Vaughan was informed by a member of Clapton's crew that three seats were open on one of the helicopters returning to Chicago with Clapton's crew, enough for Vaughan, his brother Jimmie, and Jimmie's wife Connie. It turned out there was only one seat left; Stevie requested it from his brother, who obliged. At 12:44 am pilot Jeffrey Browne guided the copter off the ground. Moments after takeoff the helicopter crashed into a ski slope; all five on board were killed. Although the crash occurred only .6 miles from takeoff it went unnoticed by those at the concert site. Vaughan's was the only body found outside of the wreckage; it is suggested by some that he may have jumped moments before the helicopter hit the ski slope but subsequently died during the six hours before recovery: the search for the aircraft was begun at 5am and the wreckage found at 7am via the help of its locator beacon.[6]. The main cause of the crash was believed to be pilot error.
Chris Layton and Jimmie Vaughan did not find out about the crash until they returned to the motel in Chicago. The following morning Jimmie and Eric Clapton were called to identify the bodies.
The media initially reported that Vaughan and his band had been killed in the crash. Layton and Shannon called their families to let them know they were okay.
Stevie Ray Vaughan is interred in the Laurel Land Memorial Park, Dallas, Texas.
Posthumous events and recognition
Vaughan memorial at Town Lake, in Austin, Texas.September 1990 saw the release of Family Style. The 1991 compilation album The Sky Is Crying was the first of several posthumous Vaughan releases to achieve chart success. Jimmie Vaughan later co-wrote and recorded a song in tribute to his brother and other deceased blues guitarists, entitled "Six Strings Down". Many other artists recorded songs in remembrance of Vaughan, including Eric Johnson, Buddy Guy and Steve Vai (The track 'Jibboom' of the album 'The Ultra Zone' recorded in 1999).
In 1991, Texas governor Ann Richards proclaimed October 3, Vaughan's birthday, to be "Stevie Ray Vaughan Day." An annual motorcycle ride and concert in Central Texas benefits the Stevie Ray Vaughan Memorial Scholarship Fund.
In 1992, the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation released the Stevie Ray Vaughan Signature Stratocaster, which Vaughan had helped design. It was a reproduction of his battered 1959 Fender Stratocaster, which he had affectionately named "Number One" (and sometimes referred to as his "first wife"). As of 2007, the model is still in production. It depicts "Number One" as it would have been brand-new in 1963, though when Vaughan bought it in 1974 it was already badly weathered. In 2004, Fender also released a limited edition exact replica of "Number One".
Stephen King's short story You Know They Got a Hell of a Band concerns a small town called Rock and Roll Heaven that's populated by late rock musicians, one of which is Vaughan himself when he's referred to as one of the late music legends set to perform at a concert.
In 1994, the city of Austin erected the Stevie Ray Vaughan Memorial Statue at Auditorium Shores on Lake Ladybird, the site of a number of Vaughan's concerts. It has become one of the city's most popular tourist attractions.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Stevie Ray Vaughan Memorial StatueMusicians such as John Mayer (who has a tattoo duplicating the "SRV" lettering on Vaughan's Number One guitar), Robert Randolph, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Colin James, Jonny Lang, Jason Wayne Loftice ,Los Lonely Boys, Mike McCready, Eric Johnson and Doyle Bramhall II have cited Vaughan as an influence.
The last guitar that Vaughan played prior to his death is on display in the Hard Rock Cafe in Gatlinburg.
In 2008, Stevie Ray Vaughan will become eligible for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Musical influences and style
Vaughan's blues style was strongly influenced by many blues guitarists. Foremost among them were Albert King, who dubbed himself Stevie's "godfather", Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, and Jimi Hendrix. The song "Rude Mood" is a direct derivative (according to SRV himself) of a Lightnin' Hopkins tune called "Lightning Sky Hop". He was also strongly influenced by early blues-rock guitarist Lonnie Mack, who, according to Vaughan himself, "really taught me to play guitar from the heart" (Davis, History of the Blues, DaCapo 2003, p. 246). Vaughan, who had idolized Mack since childhood, produced and played on Mack's 1985 Alligator Records album "Strike Like Lightning" and covered two Mack tunes from the early 1960s, "Wham!" and "Chicken-Pickin'" (which Vaughan renamed "Scuttle Buttin'").
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'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.
Information courtesy of www.wikipedia.com
co-workers and friends. Nate 9/30/07
