How's This For A Start?

Superstition by Stevie Ray Vaughn And Double Trouble

Stevie Ray Vaughn. He is a legend of Texas Blues guitar. He acquired his first electric guitar in 1963 when he was 9 years old. History shows that it was a great acquisition. His first album, Texas Flood was a critical success but his solo on David Bowie's song China Girl the year earlier had been his real introduction.

By 1986, he had established himself as a major star and a live album was what the public wanted (I guess). The Live Alive album was recorded over 4 shows and feature many of the songs that laid the ground work for his rise to blues legend. The song Superstition, originally by Stevie Wonder, was selected as the single. It was a live recording with some studio overdubs (so "mostly" live). The video shows Stevie Ray and the band arriving for sound-check before their show (on Friday the 13th) and they experience some of the things that can bring you bad luck (broken mirror, stepping on a crack, walking under a ladder, having a black cat cross your path). During the course of the song, the members of Double Trouble are befallen by "accidents" at the hand of the black cat. Stevie Ray survives to bring the song to a completion. The Black cat's owner is proven to be Stevie Wonder. What a comedian that Stevie Wonder is....I wonder if he saw that coming?

Now, one of the reasons I feel this song deserves more of our love is that Stevie Ray was the first act I ever saw Live. He came out on stage, plugged in his own guitar, walked up to the mic and said, "How ya'll doing tonight?" and proceeded to destroy the crowd with his genius.

Please enjoy this song and see a tiny bit of what I experienced over 30 years ago.