I recently reconnected with some of my childhood friends after a good decade of being out of touch. As of late myself and one of those friends have been exchanging songs and musical commentary via email. We’ve also fought about some differing political views a few times but that’s a post for a different blog. Anyhow, back to the music discourse. It’s funny how after years of differing paths through life you can find yourself in a pretty descent alignment with someone. Anyhow, this past week she has sent me a few things that I think are just too damned cool not to share with everyone. The first is what could quite possibly be Stevie Ray Vaughn’s last song. I’ll let her tell ya the story:
This is a live recording from the night before Stevie Ray Vaughan died (8/26/90), It’s actually Eric Clapton talking, he was so drunk that he didn’t remember even playing with Buddy Guy…..they left after this concert Eric Clapton’s band and Stevie Ray’s band in 4 helicopters…the weather was bad and Stevie Ray was dead not long after they took off which was after midnight so his death date is 8/27/90…..they hit a mountain….none of the other choppers even knew they were gone until they all landed and were missing one…..The strange thing is, in his book Eric describes knowing something bad was going to happen and having that “bad feeling” when they were getting on the choppers…..Listen to the energy….It will give you chills…….
Listen indeed:
Stevie Ray – Sweet Home Chicago [w Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Vaughn]
The other one is a video of Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis & Fats Domino on stage together, each with their very own piano. That right there makes it a must see but then you get Paul Scheffer (yes, Late Night Paul) directing the whole thing and then a freaking cameo by Rod Stewart…Too much….this will put the fucking Boggie in your Woogie:
If you did not enjoy that then I just dunno…
Autopsy IV
Part time blogger. Full time hater.
dude…ray…..jerry lee…and fats….all on one stage…each with their own piano…and cameos galore. check it out
Great song and wonderful video – thanks for posting. I’m not sure if I missed him, but I didn’t see Rod Stewart – however, that is Ron Wood playing back there.
yah … ronnie wood man
Just awesome!
I was in jail when SRV died! Bummed da shit outta me. Appreciate hearing his last concert! Long live the blues!!!
I live not far from Alpine Valley, in fact I went to my first concert there long after STV died there. But I grew up in a house that loved music. In fact last night my mom and I were rocking out to Stevie Ray and she requested I play him at her funeral.
I’ve heard a recording of that concert, a bad one made with a hand held recorder and I can tell you that this was the last song played there. I never though I’d find a good clean copy of it. Brought tears to my eyes.
I am a sound engineer. Thanks for this recording. Somewhere there exists a good recording of the whole night. I was lucky enough to mix monitors for Stevie & Jimmy around Austin Texas in the late 70′s. Working in Wisconsin a few years back, I met a man who was at Alpine Valley the night of the crash. He told me that the pilot for Stevie’s chopper was an ex ‘Nam hot-dog and he took off nose down-tail up (hurry-up) style in the fog, and hit the mountain before anyone knew what was goin’ on. Can you imagine what SRV would be playing if he was still around ?
I would love to hear more, or chat with anyone about what a great player SRV was. Truly a tragedy.