The Life of Stevie Ray Vaughan
This paper is about how a small time boy from Oak Cliff, Texas with a dream, revolutionized the way blues guitar was played. By 17 he new what he wanted to do with his life, thus dropping out of school to become a blues guitarist. All throughout Stevie's career he was loved and adored for his gentle touch and majestic rhythmic guitar playing. Throughout his life he led three bands to hitting it big, released five albums with "Double Trouble". Most importantly, Stevie became sober. He turned away from the substances, even though he believed they gave him the drive to play the way he did.
By age eleven Stevie Ray Vaughan was an impressionable boy, whose brother's rhythmic guitar playing inspired him to pick up his first guitar. In 1963, he would begin an era of guitar playing that would revolutionize the way blues was done. As early as 1961, Stevie was already sneaking into his brother's room just to sneak a strum on Jimmie's guitar before he came home. "I just felt like I was destined to play blues guitar. Whenever I picked it up I just felt this surge of adrenaline over take my nine-year-old body", implied Stevie (Patoski 4). In 1963, Stevie had taken up guitar playing and had apprenticed himself to Jimmie (Patoski 1-20).
By 1972, he was an ambitious blues guitarist with only one thing on his mind, his guitar. Stevie felt it was pointless to stay in school, when what he really wanted to do with his life had nothing to do with school. So by his junior year Stevie had dropped out of high school to play his guitar full-time in his band, "The Cobras". "The Cobras" consisted of five members; the drummer, John Turner, singer, Bruce Bowland, bassist, Tommy Shannon, keyboardist, Mike Kin...
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...blues artists across America. In 1990, when this great legend was tragically killed in a fatal helicopter accident, those who have come to know and love Stevie for his music and his genuine kindness, mourned his passing. This is a legend that for sure will never be forgotten and will always live on in the hearts of blues artists everywhere.
Bibliography:
Work Cited
Patoski, Nick. Caught In The Cross Fire.Little Brown and Company: Canada, 1993
Cherry, Steven. "Stevie Ray Vaughan, October 3, 1954 - August 26, 1990". www.uark.edu/~scherry/srv. 23 Feb, 1994. Online. Aol
Fushay, Sheri. "The Sky Is Cryin'". www.aramisgraphics.com/srv/index.htm. 24 Apr. 1997. Online. Aol
Sonny’s Blues is first-person narration by the elder brother of the musician struggling with heroin addiction and issues with law. However, on closer inspection it appears that Sonny’s unnamed brother is also very troubled. His difficulties cannot easily be perceived and recognized especially by the character himself. The story gives accounts of the problems Sonny’s brother has with taking responsibility, understanding and respecting his younger brother’s lifestyle.
Ray Charles Robinson was the son of Aretha and Bailey Robinson. When Ray was still a newborn, his family moved from Georgia, where he was born, to a poverty stricken community in Greenville, Florida. In the early years of child development, Ray showed a curiosity for anything mechanical and he often watched the men nearby work on their cars and farm machinery. His curiosity in music wasn’t sparked until one day when he snuck into Mr. Wiley Pit's Red Wing Café. When he came in Pit played boogie woogie on an old upright piano. Pit would care for George, Ray's younger brother, so as to take the burden off of Ray’s mom. However, George drowned in his mom’s laundry tub when he was four years old. After witnessing this horrific tragedy, Ray would feel an overwhelming sense of guilt later on in life.
He also was known to influences experimental new music and electronic music. Although he spent a good part of his life in the recording studio, he also performed live. In addition to being one of the greatest vocalists in the 1950s, Holly played guitar, a variety of percussion instruments, and electric bass. Although Holly’s music career was short lived, the amount of music he produced is very impressive. As a songwriter, he is famous for developing his own material. It is in his songs and his band, The Crickets, that we truly see Buddy Holly’s unique musical personality. Holly also appeared to be a vocalist and instrumentalist, playing bass and guitar on almost all his songs. “Buddy Holly played rock and roll for only a few short years, but the wea...
The pioneers of the blues normally used guitars to play their music. Blues music is currently accompanied by both traditional instruments and pre-designed digital sounds unlike in the past. This has be...
In closing, the undoubtable influence of music, more specifically of Rock ‘n’ Roll on American society is responsible for a number of changes to the status quo. These range from sexual liberation and racial desegregation all culminating with other influences to create an intergenerational identity. Despite the desperate attempts of older generations to smother these influences, these changes ultimately shaped the years that followed, molding the country into what it is today. Along the way these changes as well as individual involvement in them has also eased the lives of many through empowerment and a feeling of community and purpose. Despite a lull and renewal Rock ‘n’ Roll continues to serve as an agent of influence and change in today’s youth culture and continues to burn in the heart of past generations of loyal fans.
When first reading “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin, it may initially seem that the relationship between musicians and drugs is synonymous. Public opinion suggests that musicians and drugs go hand and hand. The possibility lies that Sonny’s passion for jazz music is the underlying reason for his drug use, or even the world of jazz music itself brought drugs into Sonny’s life. The last statement is what the narrator believes to be true. However, by delving deeper and examining the theme of music in the story, it is nothing but beneficial for Sonny and the other figures involved. Sonny’s drug use and his music are completely free of one another. Sonny views his jazz playing as a ray of light to lead him away from the dim and dismal future that Harlem has to offer.
At first glance, "Sonny's Blues" seems ambiguous about the relationship between music and drugs. After all, the worlds of jazz and drug addiction are historically intertwined; it could be possible that Sonny's passion for jazz is merely an excuse for his lifestyle and addiction, as the narrator believes for a time. Or perhaps the world that Sonny has entered by becoming involved in jazz is the danger- if he had not encountered jazz he wouldn't have encountered drugs either. But the clues given by the portrayals of music and what it does for other figures in the story demonstrate music's beneficial nature; music and drugs are not interdependent for Sonny. By studying the moments of music interwoven throughout the story, it can be determined that the author portrays music as a good thing, the preserver and sustainer of hope and life, and Sonny's only way out of the "deep and funky hole" of his life in Harlem, with its attendant peril of drugs (414).
McLeese, Don. “The Spirit of a Rocker.” New York Times. 18 October 1987. Web. 11
Blues as an art form gave Blacks a medium to manifest their feelings. Feelings ranging from humorous to silly to depressed. Fortunately for a entire genre of music, the only way for Mckinley Morganfield to express himself was through song. Morganfield better known as Muddy Waters became a legendary blues vocalist /guitarist. When the Blues industry saw commercial success many of its artists also saw rising fame. Muddy Waters enjoyed success in the industry up until and even after his death in 1983. Morganfield was born April 4, 1915 to Ollie Morganfield and Bertha Jones. He was born in Rollingfork, Mississippi. Near their two room shack in Rollingfork there was a creek, Deer Creek. As a youngster he used to play in the creek and get all dirty and muddy. It was at this point when his sisters gave him the nickname ‘Muddy Waters’. Bertha died when he was about three. After her death he had to move in with his grandmother in Clarksdale. Raised in Clarksdale, he also went to school there. He went to school until he was old enough to work in the fields. Much like all of the other field laborers Muddy Waters hollered in the fields to pass time or just to get things off of your chest. Waters would also teach himself to play instruments. When he was fifteen he knew how to play the harmonica and he would later teach himself the guitar. The young Waters followed in his fathers musician footsteps. He was part of a band at fifteen, with Scott Bowhandle on guitar and Sonny Simms playing the violin. They would play some Saturday nights in downtown Clarksdale and others he would sell fried fish on nights. And other nights he would watch the greats like Son House, Robert Johnson and Charlie Patton were great musical influences on Waters. The main influence on Waters was Son House, although Waters style of play was more similar to that of Robert Johnson. Muddy Waters was first recognized by word of mouth. Alan Lomax of The Library of Congress went to Clarksdale to record Robert Johnson. But to his dismay, he found out that Robert Johnson was dead and had been for two years. The word on the street at that time led Lomax to Muddy Waters. Waters would record two songs with them in 1941, far before he became famous.
...g for only a few minutes, Sonny starts to truly feel the music. The narrator can hear the clarity and freedom echoing from Sonny’s fingers. The narrator envisions Creole telling the other band member and the audience “what the blues were all about. They were not about anything very new. He and his boys up there were keeping it new, at the risk of ruin, destruction, madness, and death, in order to find new ways to make us listen.” (pg 148) Through the Blues, Sonny has the means to fill the air with life; his life” (pg 145) and the narrator starts to really hear the music. Sonny’s dangerous, drunken blends of music and raw notes from the heart cause the narrator to remember the great misfortune of his parents and the death of his beloved daughter. The narrator realizes why Sonny chose the life he did: unsafe and sorrowful, but infinitely more satisfying in the end.
For generations, singers and songwriters of country music have been working to evoke emotions in listeners by performing and writing songs that the listeners will be able to relate to. Country music traditionally reveals stories of life, love, death, and values, all of which can be seen in the works of great singers and songwriters like George Strait, Alabama, Brooks & Dunn, and Alan Jackson. One artist in particular, Garth Brooks, forever left his stamp on country music and on the hearts of his millions of listeners with his hit songs, “The Beaches of Cheyenne”, “Callin’ Baton Rouge”, and “The River”. “The Beaches of Cheyenne” has a storyline containing themes of life, death, love, and regret. The themes of this song branch out much further than the reaches of country music, and makes this particular song relatable to each and every person. "The Beaches of Cheyenne" by Garth Brooks is the epitome of country music, and largely contributes to the success and popularity of country music by evoking emotions in listeners through means of a storyline that conveys strong emotions, relatable to each and every person. “Callin’ Baton Rouge” is fast-paced, upbeat love song that is able to evoke emotion in listeners because of the strong instrumentals in the song accompanied by meaningful lyrics. “The River” is a song about following dreams no matter what obstacles may be in the way, which makes it inspirational and very relatable to everyone that listens to it.
Muddy's first instrument was a kerosene can he used for a drum, next came the accordion, then the Jew's harp, and then a guitar he built from a box and a stick: "Couldn't do much with it, but that's how you learn!" By the time he was 13, he had spent 6 years mastering the harm...
Rag time as it is most commonly know was the type of fast paced music played around 1885 in St. Louis. Scott Joplin was born in 1868 and lived until 1917, but has done a lot in his life span. He was one of the first African Americans to be know as a composer. Born in Texarkana, Texas to a large family with musical background, he began learning to play the guitar and beagle, and gained free piano lessons by showing such fast progression to his teachers. After death of his mother, he left the house at age fourteen. He learned much form traveling through Mississippi playing in local spots and learning form what was offered to him. In 1885 he arrived in St. Louis, at the time a center for a new music phenomenon called ragtime.
In “Sonny’s Blues,” Baldwin described how Sonny used music to get rid of the troubles he had in his life. Sonny was born in Harlem, New York where majority of the people were African Americans. The African Americans adopted various ways to cope with the difficulties, they were facing in the Harlem before the Civil Rights Movement. Sonny was dejected by the strain of being black, poor, and captured within the boundaries of his community. He attempted to oppose the customs by moving away from Harlem, and started his career as a musician. He wanted to become a jazz musician, but somehow, he was addicted to heroin. Many people were addicted to drugs in the Harlem at that time to escape the reality. Sonny was arrested for using and selling drugs. When he was released from jail, he could have gone through the same routine of drugs addiction, just like he had been before being arrested. He was a drug addict and it was very hard for him to cut off contact with drugs. However, Instead of using drugs again, Sonny choose to play jazz music and tried to forget his worries. He had been practicing and playing music for a long time. After living with his brother for a few weeks, Sonny started to turn his life around. Sonny took his b...
“You pushed the limits of playing the guitar, you had young musicians on the edge of their seats waiting for your legendary guitar solos. Hendrix sat in silence for a short period thinking and contemplating the realization of his impact on the world.