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Post subject: I love SRV, but...
Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 10:20 am
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I love Stevie Ray Vaughan.

I first heard him play in 1983, when I was just a wee lad of 13. I had already fallen under the spell of blues music. I wasn’t articulate enough to define what I liked, but I knew what was good when I heard it…and SRV was better than good, he was spectacular.

His swagger, his gigantic and tough Texas tones, the instruments, effects and amps he used, and the killer image of the Texicano Gypsy wearing a black bolero—that just oozed cool. The fact that he had Tommy Shannon and Chris Layton (and later, Reese Wynans) backing him up added to his brilliance well—all of his band were tops on their specific instrument.

Growing up near Fort Worth, I received a goodly amount of the effects of the Austin Blues Revolution happening just down I-35. The Fabulous Thunderbirds, LouAnn Barton, SRV&DT, Bugs Henderson, Mason Ruffner, and many, many others were always running through town, and the interviews and performances of these artists that were played on KZEW and Q102 educated many a young man on the merits of this killer scene. The fact that ZZ Top had figured out a way to combine their Texas Boogie Blues (that they had already been doing for a decade plus) with electronica on “Eliminator” just added to the whole scene and mystique of Texas Music at the time.

As I learned more about music (guitarists, especially), I discovered the guys that influenced Stevie Ray—Albert King, Hubert Sumlin, Lonnie Mack, Albert Collins, Kenny Burrell, Jimi Hendrix and a million other unknown and unnamed greats. If you listened to those players and then listened to a SRV&DT album, you could connect the sonic bloodlines easily…and although he could play exactly like any of those musicians (e.g., his versions of Hendrix’s “Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)” and Burrell’s “Chitlins Con Carne”), he rarely did so. Rather than rebuilding the same old shack, he used their foundation and took a brick here and a plank there, and built his own mansion…he sounded like everyone, but he still had a sound uniquely his own.

Having said that, I can’t stand 90% of the Vaughan-abees that came after him. Granted, he was going to affect anybody who came after him, but the guys who rip him off note-for-note, lick-for-lick, etc. just drive me nuts. If I see one more guy who thinks he’ll sound like SRV because he has a battered Strat, a TubeScreamer and a Fender tube amp, I’ll probably puke.

He would probably be flattered that people love his music, but he himself would tell these guys, “That’s nice, but where’s your second gear? What are you going to do to build on what I’ve put in place?”

Let SRV rest in peace. There are too many people copying (and downright ripping off) the late Mr. Vaughan...and everyone else, too.

Very few people are going out and experimenting with axes or amps or stompboxes or tweaking tones or putting something unexpected into the mix anymore. Instead, they just go out and get a guitar similar to what their hero used, an all-in-one pedal (Digitech, anyone?) that samples or models their hero's sound and an amp (usually a digital modeling one, or occasionally a good tube rig) similar to their hero. Then they wonder why they don't sound like their hero...instead they just have a generic, processed tone.

What made SRV so great was his originality. He could sound like Hendrix or Albert King or Freddie King or Hubert Sumlin or Buddy Guy or Lonnie Mack or Kenny Burrell or any number of other artists that came before him...but he instead combined all of those influences and came up with something new. He also used equipment (from axes to amps) that most of those guys wouldn't have touched, much less used (only two of the guys I mentioned were Strat players).

Who will be the next Hendrix or Billy Gibbons or SRV or Jimmie Vaughan or Peter Green or Clapton or Bugs Henderson or David Grissom or Buddy Guy? It will be the guy that says, "screw the trends and let me build off of what has already been done...and do it my way."

Be honest--who's the last musician (and not just guitarist) who turned you on with something new? They might have been influenced by someone before them, but they actually sounded like themself?

It's been a while for me, too...

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Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 10:49 am
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Wow, I like SRV, but my thoughts of him when he was alive is that he wanted to be just like Jimi Hendrix. To me he was a white Jimi clone, he would even steal some of Jimi's moves. If he was original to you, I understand, but I never thought so. I thought he was exactly what you mention that you can't stand (Vaughan-abees), to me he was the first Hendrix-abees. To me there is no Vaughan-abees, they are Hendrix-abees, including SRV.

With that said I like SRV too

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Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 11:02 am
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His style and tone were a bit off from Hendrix. Hendrix's style of the blues was way different. SRV really didn't get so much into incorporating feedback into the structure of his music.

the Vaughanabees bother me too. The closest thing to Hendrix's sound is Trower.


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Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 11:23 am
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Senor Screamin' Armadillo,
Interesting post - well written (but why you felt you had to post it in two places I do not understand).
I too remember the horde of guitar players coming out of Austin all being proclaimed as "the next SRV" - and, of course, none of them were. Most are gone, thank heaven. Some have grown into their own sound re Chris Duarte.

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery". Everyone incorporates elements of their root influences into their sound. How much do those root influences ring out to the listener - I guess we could discuss that all day long...

As far as my answer to your question at the end, I will throw out two names.
I think that Walter Trout has his own distinctive sound and I find it quite enjoyable and exciting.
Joe Bonamassa as well. Very distinctive and fresh and it moves me.

Let me edit myself - three names. I have mentioned her before, a young singer-songwriter from Australia that I I really, really like. Missy Higgins. Check out her website missyhiggins.com for a taste of her stuff.

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Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 11:49 am
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63supro wrote:
His style and tone were a bit off from Hendrix. Hendrix's style of the blues was way different. SRV really didn't get so much into incorporating feedback into the structure of his music.

the Vaughanabees bother me too. The closest thing to Hendrix's sound is Trower.


I understand what your saying, but I think your comments could ring true for just about anyone that is considered a clone of someone else. They all generally bring something different to the table. In my mind, while their are differences, he was still a Hendrix clone/wannabee.

I could cite examples of other "clones" that had differneces from the person they "cloned' but I think you get my point.

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Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 11:54 am
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Here's the way I see it. It's very hard to pick up a guitar escpically a Strat and play the Blues and not be ripping off Hendrix. Saying that, I would bet that if you dug hard enough and could somehow hear every person to ever pick up a guitar you would find someone that Hendrix may of copied or immulate. Unless you're the first person to ever make a musical note you are doing something that most like has been done before.

Don't knock SRV.


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Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 12:10 pm
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firstrat wrote:
Wow, I like SRV, but my thoughts of him when he was alive is that he wanted to be just like Jimi Hendrix. To me he was a white Jimi clone, he would even steal some of Jimi's moves. If he was original to you, I understand, but I never thought so. I thought he was exactly what you mention that you can't stand (Vaughan-abees), to me he was the first Hendrix-abees. To me there is no Vaughan-abees, they are Hendrix-abees, including SRV.

With that said I like SRV too

+1
I liked SRV and I was lucky to have seen him once but I can think of many whom I think are better. Ever ones taste is different Johnny Winter is one who I think was better. I have seen him a few times and he plays that style blues better to me.

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Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 12:13 pm
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Lets not forget something, all these great guitarists went back years and looked into where blues began and came up with their own styles from there including Clapton, SRV and the countless others that came along after them. B.B. King, Albert and Freddie King, Muddy Waters...all great musicians who went back to the roots and brought us to where we are now. I love SRV`s music along with the other guitar blues greats, but I`m in no way able to duplicate their work. I just use it to try and better myself.

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Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 12:15 pm
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+1 for Joe Bonamassa

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Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 12:23 pm
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bradleyjp25 wrote:
Here's the way I see it. It's very hard to pick up a guitar escpically a Strat and play the Blues and not be ripping off Hendrix. Saying that, I would bet that if you dug hard enough and could somehow hear every person to ever pick up a guitar you would find someone that Hendrix may of copied or immulate. Unless you're the first person to ever make a musical note you are doing something that most like has been done before.

Don't knock SRV.


Agreed! All musicians are a hodgepodge of influences, including Hendrix himself.

No knock on SRV, not at all. My point is that he is as much of a "clone/wanna-bee" as anyone else out there. If you tap, your EVH, if you use distortion, if you sweep arpeggios, if you speed pick, pretty much anything you do. You have to remember that we play the instrument here, and we are better than the average listener at picking up nuances. You are better than picking out the differences of SRV from Hendrix than the average listener, especially if you listen to both a lot. To the average listener, I think he would sound very Hendrix like though

To me no one sounds like EVH either, but I remember James Hetfeild said that they picked Kirk because all the other guitarist of the time sounded like EVH and Kirk sounded different with his blues oriented chops. Yet Kirk used tapping a lot, a EVH influenced technique. Eddie started the shredding thing, but what shredder sounds just like him? To some, many probably do, to me they do not.

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Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 12:27 pm
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It is against forum policy and does no good to post this thread in several areas of this forum.

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Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 1:28 pm
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cu_jarrett wrote:
It is against forum policy and does no good to post this thread in several areas of this forum.

You are right. :)


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Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 1:34 pm
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Oops--deleted other postings--thanks for info, cu jarret.

I never thought of SRV as a Hendrix wannabe, due to the other non-Hendrix stylings he laid down. Nile Rogers said he originally wondered why Bowie wanted (in his words, not mine), "an Albert King clone," since Albert King was still alive at that point. A buddy of mine who was never much into Hendrix (sounds weird, doesn't it?) always pointed out SRV's affinity for Buddy Guy and Hubert Sumlin licks...and his jazz stuff always sounded like Kenny Burrell to my jazzbo friends. In total, Stevie had his own sound.

I'm not saying that no one should ever steal a lick or tone or idea or even a song from SRV--Lord knows I've done it to him, and a thousand other guitarists as well--it's just the players (famous or not) that have patterned themselves after him wa-a-ay past the "imitation-is-flattery" zone and into the "sonic stalker" mode that drive me crazy.

This could be said about any "wannabe", be it SRV, EVH, Hendrix, you-name-it; get an original idea!!

It's just that right now there are few, if any, new artists that you can recognize in five notes or less...like you can with Jimmie Vaughan, or SRV or Billy F. Gibbons or the Young Brothers of AC/DC fame...most new artists sound like they're imitating someone.

...and I'm not suffering from "good ol' days" syndrome, nor am I obsessed with SRV specifically...actually, I'm a bigger fan of his brother Jimmie and of the Right Reverend Billy F. Gibbons!

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Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 4:41 pm
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Screamin' Armadillo wrote:
Oops--deleted other postings--thanks for info, cu jarret.


No big deal. :)

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Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 6:04 pm
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:twisted: I'm going to take the Devils Advocate position here: :twisted:
People have got to learn somewhere before they can take off and try to create on their own. Whoever they choose to "clone" from is their choice.
Doesn't matter what genre or person they pick to mimic, got to look to the past before you can move ahead.

Basically if you don't like what they are doing, simply don't listen to them.
Trying to convince people to stop mimicking their idols is well I hate to be blunt, but it is just silly.
Almost like trying to go out to convince all the cover bands to stop playing covers, because they are not creating anything new.

Besides there has not been much real innovation in music since Wolfgang Mozart did his thing. Instruments have changed and gotten louder but the actual content has dwindled.
Even the fictional P.D.Q Bach puts a lot of the current performing musicians to shame.

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