Anyway, the focus of that fateful show was the impending release of a Greatest Hits album by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble. Sadly, this quartet of musicians was reduced to Double Trouble on August 27th, 1990 by a skifield that clumsily interacted with the helicopter Mr. Vaughan was riding in. By clumsy, I mean this reprobate skifield reduced the helicopter to a charred, consumed-by-a-fireball wreck that left body identification largely in the hands of dental records enthusiasts. A tragedy for blues enthusiasts the world over. A career truncated far too prematurely, as are many other blues legends such as Janis Joplin, Rory Gallagher, and Jimi Hendrix.Alas, I never knew of SRV while he was alive, though I would have been too young to appreciate him. But, as an angry young teenager brought up on a diet of The Beatles and Queen, the Blues Show that night opened my eyes to a genre of music I had never realised was out there. Two songs off the new album stuck in my head and I played them time-and-time-and-time again.
First of all was the cover of Jimi Hendrix's legendary blues classic in pentatonic E minor, Voodoo Chile. The iconic (I hate that word, but it belongs in this sentence) track featuring the wah pedal, positive feedback, distortion, and every fret on a guitar drove Hendrix's original 5 minutes song to an awe-inspiring eight minutes of delicious blues infused with rock, jazz and that instantly-recognisable, gravelly Texan voice some of us have come to know and love. The rippling power, the intensity of the chords, the vibrato, the hammers, pulls, and liquid playing style captivated me there and then. It still gets me to this day. I love nothing better than cranking this track up as loudly as is possible and swaying to the rhythm, playing along on air guitar, or a real guitar, or sitting in a meditative pose savouring the overflowing passion I feel from this music. Bliss.
The second track was a slightly more sedentary original track by Stevie. From the last album he recorded with Double Trouble before his death, In Step, Tightrope is a track about his recovery from his days of excessive whisky and cocaine consumption that nearly killed him (ironic helicopter is ironic, you might say). It struck a chord with me and has remained one of my favourite songs since then. A few years later, I had a bit of a disastrous first year at university with alcohol that eventually landed me in hospital. About then I finally understood the meaning behind the lyrics and have been eternally thankful to my family for their support ever since.
But why has this man had such a massive influence on my life? That story starts less than a month after that radio show. In December, 1995, I stayed with my aunt and uncle in Blenheim to go cherry picking, something I lacked the coordination and cut-throatedness to pick cherries at a fast enough pace, and only picked the very best cherries for weighing, rather than any old garbage as the others would to get their volumes, and hence pay, up. This was my very first job and I bought two things with some of this money: my first Sony Walkman, and the tape of SRV's Greatest Hits album. This Walkman and tape lasted until they were stolen in a burglary a few years later, but I pretty much wore both into the ground anyway. One afternoon after a hard day's work, I was playing the cassette loudly on my aunt's stereo when she came home. She heard it and immediately recognised the blues. She gave me a John Lee Hooker tape that had been gifted to them a number of years ago which they didn't like. I loved it. It featured a number of other blues artists that started me on a journey of discovery that is still going. My blues collection has expanded upwards and outwards; SRV's influences, Kenny Burrell and Wes Montgomery, kicked off my enthusiasm for jazz culminating in discovery of artists like John McLaughlin.
Then came university. As I mentioned before, I got a little carried away with alcohol at university. Once I got over that though, I then found myself delving deeper and deeper into my passion for blues. I got my first guitar and taught myself how to play that. As I got better and better, I neglected my studies. Which is perhaps how SRV ended up being a big influence on my life. In retrospect, I didn't enjoy what I was studying and now recognise how important it is to be doing something I really, truly love. I take that approach with sports, life, love, friends, and the workplace. Earlier this year I made a decision to forgo money to make myself happier as my workplace back then was not what I wanted.
I think that explains why he has been such a great influence on my life. What a man. May he Rest In Peace.
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