The Day the Blues Died
30 years ago. Alpine Valley (East Troy Wisconsin) – a natural musical amphitheater 90 or so miles from Chicago. There is a single road in and out. Getting home after a concert takes – literally forever! Eric Clapton was the headliner. Three helicopters had been lined up to extract Clapton and his entourage back to Chicago after the gig. His tour manager decided to stay at the venue, opening a seat on one of the helicopters – a seat that was made available to the supporting acts. Wanting to get back early, the guitarist leader of one of those acts took up the offer and climbed aboard for the short flight on a warm but foggy August night. The helicopter never arrived in Chicago. All aboard, including the guitarist, Stevie Ray Vaughan (SRV), had died when the chopped slammed into an nearby hill. The date was August 27th 1990: it was the day the blues died.
Last week I sat through “Top of the Pops – the best of 1989.” It was not a pleasant experience – aside from an appearance from the Stone Roses, mainstream music at that time was horrible manufactured pop, house music, cheesy pop rap and hair metal. While there was a thriving alt rock scene around in those days – before the internet all we had was commercial radio, MTV and whatever they were paid to play on the TV. Sonic Youth, Husker Du, Inspiral Carpets, Dinosaur JR – they were not in the radar. There was, however, a quiet revival of blues rock that had gradually been building stream throughout the decade: old blues folk like Buddy Guy, Albert King, BB King, Lonnie Mack, Roy Buchanan, Otis Rush, Koko Taylor, Taj Mahal, John Lee Hooker, Albert Collins, Johnny Copeland, Fenton Robinson, were joined by a host of younger stars – Robert Cray, Joe Louis Walker, The Kinsey Report, Robben Ford, Eric Johnson, Jeff Healey, Gary Moore, Bonnie Raitt etc. The Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton were rediscovering their blues roots. At the forefront was a 35 year old journeyman blues guitarist from Dallas, signed to a major label (Sony/Epic) – who was just emerging into national prominence (crossover appeal): SRV. The 1990s promised to be his decade. When he died, the blues revival petered out and Grunge, Shoegazing, Baggy and Britpop came to define guitar music.
The SRV story reads like a Shakespearean tragedy: childhood and teenager years in older brothers’ shadow, years touring the club circuit, playing on Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” – but then not going on the world tour, being “discovered” by John Hammond, a demo record (made at Jackson Brown’s studio) that turned into the major label debut (a recent mofi $125 ultra disc – it probably didn’t cost much more than that to record!), life threatening substance abuse issues, near death, sobriety, resurrection, rising stardom, Saturday Night Live, album with brother, beautiful girlfriend….and then bam!
As Huey Lewis said ” He went through all that just to die in a fucking helicopter crash!”
Today it is hard to separate SRV the legend from the musician. How much did he contribute to blues as a musical form? Certainly, and in particular his first 2 albums, Vaughan was able to replicate the riffs and solos of Albert King, Albert Collins, Kenny Burrell and Jimi Hendrix with an extraordinary degree of precision. He played fast and loud with extraordinary tone without a huge array of effects pedals. Not unlike Eric Clapton, whose early style was a facsimile of Freddy King’s, SRV was gradually building up his own vocabulary at the time of his death (for Clapton it would have been at the time of Layla, perhaps).
I’m sure that he was best seen playing live and jamming: although everybody is familiar with the the “In Session” video/CD with Albert King, my favorite live moment was SRV, King and Paul Butterfield from 1987 (take note of how he introduces Albert). This was a “superstar” session hosted by BB King.
Aside from a good bit not great “live” LP, the albums recorded with Double Trouble still sound fresh and engaging. The 1990 release, “In Step”, was notable for its more commercial veneer (“Tightrope”, “Crossfire”) and confidence indicated a group of musicians ready to cross over into the more financially rewarding rock genre. All of those records have been reissued by Analogue Productions – and are available as a box set and are a worthy investment. If I was to pick one to own it would be “Texas Flood” – a raw rough debut recorded live in the studio – but there isn’t much between it and “Couldn’t Stand the Weather”. “Soul to Soul” is ok – but at that stage the drugs were a problem.
SRV and Double Trouble (Chris Layton (drummer) and Tommy Shannon (bass), 
originally, joined later by keyboardist Reese Wynans) were reputedly a great live band. There are several available live albums and videos (Montreux Jazz Festival 1982 and 1985 stream here) and- there are so many official bootlegs out there – but for official material I would go with the meticulously planned Carnegie Hall concert with the bigger band and horn section. This has been released on both CD and vinyl.
Just prior to his death, SRV recorded a co-leader album with his older brother, Jimmy Vaughan Family Style”). It was released posthumously – and for me represented one of the most disappointing albums I have ever queued up to buy – on the day of release. On cassette. I expected down a dirty Texas blues (like “Showdown” – the Cray, Collins, Copeland album). Instead they released a Nile Rogers produced AOR record, with that ghastly 1980s sheen and popping drum sound. I have never owned the record in vinyl or CD. Last week – out of nostalgia – I streamed Family Style in the car: it was far better than my prejudiced ears of 30 years ago recall.
Finally, if you want to read more – Alan Paul released an official biography “Texas Flood” in 2019 – it is an excellent read and an even better audiobook (the “interviews” are voiced by a combination of bandmates and actors) – and it is available on Scribd.
audioexchange 