Stevie Ray Vaughan would often throw a Jimi Hendrix song or two into his live set. In doing so, he helped turn a new generation of electric guitar players on to the psychedelic guitar god while establishing himself as latter-day blues legend.
As well as being a live favorite, Stevie Ray Vaughan covered the wah-infused Jimi Hendrix classic “Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)” on his 1984 album Couldn't Stand the Weather. The album became an instant success and sold over a million copies within weeks.
“I loved Jimi a lot. He was so much more than just a blues guitarist,” Stevie Ray Vaughan told Guitar World in a 1985 interview. He could do anything. I was about sixteen when he died. I could do some of his stuff by then but actually I’ve been trying to find out what he was doing more so lately than I was then. Now I'm really learning how to do it and I'm trying to expand on it – not that I can expand on it a whole bunch. But I try."
In this charged up jam of Jimi's 1968 classic filmed in 1985 at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, NJ, Stevie Ray Vaughan channels the raw spirit of Hendrix in his own inimitable way.
Buy Stevie Ray Vaughan's Couldn't Stand the Weather here.
Take a look at Fender's Stevie Ray Vaughan Stratocaster here.
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