Stevie Ray Vaughan – "He is going to shake the world!"

In the early 80s, when Eric Clapton first heard Stevie Ray Vaughan play, it took his breath away. What David Bowie heard was the most exciting guitarist since Jeff Beck…

- By Amit Sharma.

When the legendary Jeff Beck passed away in January, he was remembered as a player who epitomised ‘feel’ in just about every conceivable way. Summarising the profound sense of loss for the guitar community, TG noted how Beck was truly in a class of his own. The same is true of another player we lost more than 30 years ago: Stevie Ray Vaughan.

SRV had that same magic touch that all guitarists strive for, never running out of ideas that could amaze the listener at every turn. As with Beck, you got the sense that this was a musician speaking through their instrument, conveying deep emotions and telling stories via the means with which they were most at ease – a rare gift in being able to effortlessly move audiences through honesty, passion and charisma.

Many guitar players will remember hearing the song Lenny for the first time and feeling like their eyes had just been opened – Stevie Ray Vaughan using sophisticated sixth voicings, Hendrixian doublestops and mouth-watering pentatonics to pay tribute to his wife Lenora Bailey, who bought him the 1965 Strat also named after her. Then there are tracks like Scuttle Buttin’ which saw him defining what would become known as the Texan sound, ripping through open position blues runs at speeds few had ever dared.

From early fan favourites like Pride And Joy, Texas Flood and Cold Shot to latter works like Crossfire, Tightrope and the jazz-influenced masterpiece Riviera Paradise, SRV was in many ways the Jimi Hendrix of the 1980s, paying tribute through renditions of Hendrix classics Voodoo Child (Slight Return) and