SRV’S GREATEST GUITAR MOMENTS RANKED
Back in 1983, David Bowie’s Let’s Dance hit the airwaves. Stinging, badass blues-guitar licks leapt out of the mix, demanding to be heard. Against the slick contemporary backdrop of the Nile Rodgers-masterminded production, the sounds were fresh and exhilarating, yet seemed to come from another time altogether. Eric Clapton recalled that when he heard the song on the radio, he stopped his car and said, “I have to know who this guitar player is today. Not tomorrow but today.”
Stevie Ray Vaughan had made a lasting first impression. Over the seven years between his debut and his tragic death in a helicopter crash on 27 August 1990, he was prolific, creating four studio albums with his band Double Trouble, a collaborative album with his brother Jimmie, and a rich archive of live and studio recordings, plus film, guest appearances and more.
Today, 30 years on, his effect on the course of guitar has been profound: most recently, Alan Paul and Andy Aledort’s book Texas Flood has uncovered fresh and comprehensive insight into Stevie’s life and music, and is a must-read for fans. Here, in tribute to SRV’s legacy, we present 20 guitar highlights from his too-brief but extraordinary career.
20 TESTIFY
Originally an Isley Brothers gospel track featuring pre-Experience Jimi Hendrix underpinning the brothers’ unchained vocals with tasteful R&B guitar, Testify was tackled by Stevie Ray on his 1983 debut LP Texas Flood. SRV channelled the track’s irrepressible, taut energy through his six strings, first bringing his mastery of Hendrix’s inventive chord work to the fore before launching into the Jimi trick bag with untamed ferocity in the instrumental’s progressively more intense solos. As with the whole of his debut album, his varied use of effects and his cycling through the pickup-selector switch to vary his tone is instinctive.
SECOND STRING
This is one of the few tracks on SRV’s debut Texas Flood that isn’t a complete ‘live’ take. The guitarist
