(If you’re not into reading my intros, just skip to the video, but don't miss it—it’s one of the best things on youtube.)
Albert King was one of the legendary Three Kings of blues (Albert, B.B. and Freddie). He was self-taught, and did not read music. He played a right-handed guitar left-handed and upside down. He was not as commercially famous as B.B., but was probably the more agile and fluid player, and was also a great vocal stylist. His unorthodox playing style gave his chording and progressions a unique sound (clear parallels to Jimi Hendrix, who also played his guitar “backwards”.)
Stevie Ray Vaughan was born and raised in Texas, and he and his brother Jimmy became major figures in the world of blues and southern rock. Stevie Ray considered his greatest influences to be King and Hendrix. He emerged as of the greatest electric guitarists of all time, a master of both emotion-drenched blues and ferocious, technical shredding. He achieved a level of commercial success that eluded most of the great Black musicians, and unlike others in the industry, he worked to redress that injustice: he devoted considerable effort to bringing the older generation of Black musicians to a broader audience, often inviting them to play as guest stars in his own concerts. At a time when Black musicians were abandoning the blues, Stevie Ray was seen by many as the force almost single-handedly keeping the blues alive.
I was fortunate enough to see both King and SRV live—King in a tiny venue in Mountain View, CA. which held perhaps 150 people, and SRV twice in local stadium-sized venues. They remain among the most treasured memories I have of live music performances.
Here is a 1983 recording of the two of them together. King was 60 at the time, SRV only 29. They had become great friends, and Albert often referred to Stevie Ray as his son. This could have been remembered as a hand-off of sorts, a passing of the torch, but Stevie Ray died before Albert, killed in a helicopter crash just after playing at a music festival in 1990.
This video is almost an hour long, but if you love blues or rock, it is a one-of-a kind artifact of a vanishing musical era. It’s like the Rosetta Stone for electric blues, or all-you-can-eat lobster, take your pick. If you have not seen it before, I promise you it’s worth every minute.
I miss both those guys. i love the faces of pure joy that guys like AK and BBK and others made when they played. And, how when they hit that perfect riff or note, they let you know it. SRV on the other hand, looked like he was passing a kidney stone when he was hitting those notes. I also love the humor they displayed when trading riffs....awesome!!. I also love the expression of the bass player in the background, who seemed like he was on another planet.
ReplyDeleteThis brings me back to the Playboy Jazz festival in '86 where i saw SFV doing this with BBK. Of course, it was very different than with AK, but the back and forth was just as great.
Keep em coming! Skibsted