Hello everyone... I've been a casual Stevie Ray Vaughan fan for the last few years (since picking up the guitar), but only recently did I come to realize that most of the songs that I like (or at least the ones that made it to the radio and on to his "Essential SRV" CD) are actually covers of old blues tunes.
I realize that many songs that are popular now were actually re-makes of older songs, but it seems like over half of SRV's discography is made up of covers. What do you think of this? To me it knocks him down a little. He was a breathtaking musician - no doubt - but it appears that his talent as a songwriter was not as refined as I once thought. Part of my admiration was his ability to write great songs. It has become clear that he had a great ability to adapt his style to an existing song, but not actually compose on his own.
Any thoughts?
-=- Steve
"If the moon were made of ribs, would you eat it?"
"knocks him down a little?" "SRV - glorified cover band??"
:shock:
No flippin' way. Blasphemy. You know you can go to h*** for such statements as that, right?
Just kidding, sort of. :?
I suppose if you'd thought SRV's talent was mainly songwriting, then, yeah, maybe it was a come down to realize that many of his songs are blues classics. But his versions are too original for me to ever think of them as "covers".
JMHO.
Margaret
When my mind is free, you know a melody can move me
And when I'm feelin' blue, the guitar's comin' through to soothe me ~
I can not deduct points for covering old blues songs! :) imho we need more of that!
ZZ top covered a lot of songs too.
To me what SRV tried to do is bring back some lost gems, to hilight great songs that most people have never heard before, he always gave credit and was very respectful to the original artist.
If it wasn't for SRV I prolly would not know who Albert King was, and that would suck :)
Scott
I havn't found my tone yet, and I have no mojo....but I'm working on it :)
Someone correct me if I am off base.. You have to understand that while it is unpopular and "tacky" sometimes for someone to cover a rock tune, or maybe a pop tune, it is very common for blues performers to use and reuse a tune over and over. For example, google St. James Infirmary and see not only the people that "cover" it but actually change the words when they do. I dont think what SRV was out of the ordinary at all for the style. You may have been a bit misguided in your perception of what he was, but what a talent.
Hope that helps.
Jim
“The hardest thing in life is to know which bridge to cross and which to burn” - David Russell (Scottish classical Guitarist. b.1942)
Robert Johnson was targeted alot.
Wait until he finds out about Led Zep! :shock: :lol:
And Eric Clapton! ;)
Scott
I havn't found my tone yet, and I have no mojo....but I'm working on it :)
BB King did NOT write "The Thrill is Gone". Most people don't know this, but I doubt it really diminishes anything.
Look up Willie Dixon and see how many of his songs you recognize, all written by him, but performed and made famous by others (Foghat, Led Zep, Muddy Waters, Elmore James, Howlin Wolf, George Thorogood, etc) I bet you'll be shocked.
Margaret
When my mind is free, you know a melody can move me
And when I'm feelin' blue, the guitar's comin' through to soothe me ~
Ha, I knew I'd take crap for this one...
My point was that HALF of his "greatest hits" are covers. Yes, I know LedZep covered some tunes, but it seems like most of SRV's best-known music were covers. When I realized that it really shocked me. I'm not a student of the blues, so the songs were not recognizable to me as covers. I just assumed he had written them. Once I found out it took him down a notch for me.
Same thing happened to me when I found out that Elton John didn't write any of his lyrics.
-=- Steve
"If the moon were made of ribs, would you eat it?"
Same thing happened to me when I found out that Elton John didn't write any of his lyrics.
If I were an Elton John fan that would probably bother me much more than SRV. I always considered Elton more in the singer/songwriter category than a painist, whereas I always viewed SRV as a guitarist and not a songwriter.
I can not deduct points for covering old blues songs! :) imho we need more of that!
ZZ top covered a lot of songs too.
Scott
Yeah, but ZZ Top also wrote those "great" originals Woke up with Wood and Tubesteak Boogie. :roll:
Seriously, the thing about blues tune is so often they get great re-interpretation, rewriting or even mix-em-all-up-into-one covering.
(Okay, I really am a ZZ fan for those cool covers such as Dust My Broom" plus the truly hot originals like Cheap Sunglasses, I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide, Jesus left Chicago and La Grange)
-=tension & release=-
Ya I like those same ZZ songs too, on a side note we don't talk about Billy Gibons much around here and I really like his playing, whenever people talk about pinch harmonics Zack Wilde always gets mentioned(for good reason)but billy has been using them for a long time :)
Scott
I havn't found my tone yet, and I have no mojo....but I'm working on it :)
Dali Lima,
Covering old blues standards is as much a part of blues music as the blues scale. Its normal for a player to take a classic, cover it and expand upon it. Thats just the way the blues genre is. And, that is one of th reasons why it has retained its popularity.
I could understand your point if you found out that half of Bob Dylans hits were covers. But, SRV is a woodshedder baby!
At this time I would like to tell you that NO MATTER WHAT...IT IS WITH GOD. HE IS GRACIOUS AND MERCIFUL. HIS WAY IS IN LOVE, THROUGH WHICH WE ALL ARE. IT IS TRULY -- A LOVE SUPREME --. John Coltrane
I'm gonna have to go with Arjen on this one. I've always thought a lot of his stuff sounded similar but he's still an amazing guitarist.
Well, sorry if I step on anyone's toes, but SRV was a pretty one-dimensional musician. Once you've heared Texas Flood you pretty much heared all his licks, and all the rest is just the same stuff in a different order. His El Mocambo DVD is a perfect example of it: most of his songs are pretty much identical, even considering it is blues music. You could take the solo from one song and cut & paste it to another song and noone would notice. Now don't get me wrong, I like his music a lot, listen to it often. But when you get down to it he basically was someone who practiced his pentatonic scale and bluesbar for ten years or so, and then build a carreer out of that bag of licks.
When, for example, you'd check out Led Zep or Eric Clapton you'll find MUCH more diversity in styles and approaches, without them loosing their 'signature' sound. Listen to Eric Clapton 'the Blues' doubledisc. On the first disc he covers 'before you accuse me' twice, and with just those two songs he shows more diversity in blues playing the SRV on all his tracks. Or compare SRV with his idol Jimi Hendrix. SRV might have had 'better technique' but in his short carreer Hendrix showed, IMHO ofcourse, way more 'musicianship' then SRV did in his short carreer.
Now I like all thee of the above, but if I had to 'rate' them I'd put SRV at the third spot, hands down.