First Time Watching Stevie Ray Vaughan Live - Voodoo Chile 1989 

One of the most humble, soft spoken, generous, authentic and incredibly amazing generational talents. Texas Flood live at the ElMocambo is required watching.

Texas Flood Live at El Mocambo--hands down the best live performance ever.

Live from El Mocambo may be his best. Texas flood is the song

As you stated, there's no "posing" with his performances. I saw him live five times between May 1984 and November 1989 and every time I came away amazed out how what I heard just FLOWED. Ignore the occasional "stank face" and just watch his HANDS. Not a wasted motion, they flow to exactly where they need to be for whatever he was trying to do. Granted, what you hear is built up from dozens / hundreds of smaller "rudiments" he had played continuously since high school but the final combination was unique every performance. And the drumming and bass are EXACTLY what are needed for him to do his thing. Nothing more, but nothing less either.

GOAT. There never has been or will be another like him.

Need to listen to Texas Flood live from the El Mocambo. It is literally the best live blues performance ever recorded.

There will never be another stevie - I've watched this 100s of times and never gets old

Really excited to see your journey with Stevie! "Texas Flood" Live at the El Mocambo is the most legendary - one of the most of any artist/guitar player - ever. There are dozens more every song different and amazing but that one will knock you off your chair and set the tone for why SRV is revered as he is (amongst many other reasons beyond his guitar playing.) I am subbing up!

I've been playing 35yrs. Never heard anyone describe it the way you did. It's spot on. He doesnt just bend the notes. He twists them. Bend and twist. It's 3 dimentional. There are reasons why it sounds like that. But a perfect description. I'm stealing it. I mean I'm doing a cover of it.

Stevie and Tommy Shannon (bassist) were best friends. He had very strong hands, being able to bend the thickest strings (13 gauge) made. Even though he was super cool, he was a very humble person which is an admirable trait. He changes the tone using the wah pedals (he had one of Jimi Hendrix's given to him).

RIP Stevie.....he was the GOAT! You are loved and missed.

I’m sure someone has mentioned it BUT! This is the show where he shows his absolute stone cold cool: he breaks a string while playing “Little Sister”- you have to watch it✌🏻🤟🏻🤘🏻

SRV was the Master. I was lucky enough to see him live back in the day.

Bass player is the legendary Tommy Shannon. He could follow Stevie anywhere and not miss a heartbeat. Chris Layton is equally legendary on drums. yes, Stevie oozes charisma. Everyone liked Stevie and most just loved him. R.I.P. beautiful man.

Stevie Ray Vaughan was incredible! He was one with his guitar and quite a cool dude. I've loved him since wandering into The Rome Inn in Austin, Texas, and being blown away by his talent. It's always interesting to see what he was wearing. He had a style all his own. If you want your mind blown by another stellar live performance, check out Texas Flood from Live at El Mocambo. The most impressive live performance I've ever seen. Every time someone reacts to it, I can't help but watch it again.

Tommy Shannon is one of the best and most underappreciated bass players ever. His runs in this performance are outstanding.

Jimi Hendrix's Machine Gun would be a great follow up to this.

Two MUST watch performances by this Texas demi god- "Texas Flood"-Live at El Mocambo . Then, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jeff Healey "Look at Little Sister ". Jeff was blind and Stevie Ray let Jeff shine in that performance. Those two performances will change your life. 👌 💯

The best there ever was. RIP Stevie We miss you.

I really love listening to the old blues MASTERS talk about Stevie. They adored him. In all ways. Good dude.

Tommy Shannon was the bassist for Johnny Winter before Double Trouble. He and Chris Layton were magical keeping the beat and flexing with Stevie when live. SRV=GOAT

Life Without You at the Capitol theatre in in Passaic NJ written for his friend Charley Wirz who was a mentor and helped Stevie in how he designed his guitars and who died of a heart attack. Best vocal, great solo and beautiful message.

I’ve always described SRV’s playing as “Effortless Brilliance.” Guy was amazing

SRV didn't die in a helicopter crash, God needed someone to give him guitar lessons.

I've heard other guitarists who knew him say that his strings were soooo tight it would have bloodied their fingers to play it. G.O.A.T without doubt. Be safe

More Stevie please! :) #RIP

A lot of requests coming in for Texas Flood live at the El Mocambo, 1983. I agree, check it out. another one from the same show is "Lenny" Don't miss that one. Stevie will blow your mind. I really enjoyed your reaction to Voodoo Child. Please keep going with Stevie.

He could play behind his back better than anyone else. There's one live performance where a string breaks, and he switches to a 2nd guitar without missing a beat.

Syed, I think you’d appreciate his live “Look At Little Sister.” I believe it’s from the same show. During the performance, he breaks a string. He continued playing with no trace of a signal to his crew, seemingly confident that they are on it. After a while and barely a glance over his shoulder, someone shows up with another guitar. The switch was so seamlessly smooth it was beautiful. I had to replay it a dozen times. Check it out.

Favorite artist to watch reactions of, such an awesome rabbit hole. Little Wing live @ the El Mocambo, or Texas Flood @ the El Mocambo, are an absolute must. Solid reaction man.

A gifted man...fought his demons...got sober AND IS THE GOAT!!! Died so young ! RIP SRV!

Stevie didn't play the guitar, the guitar played him. RIP Stevie

Glad you mentioned the Bass player. I think he is one of the best. He will never be in the unemployment line. 😄

ALSO from this performance - you MUST see "Couldn't Stand the Weather"....He showcases each member of the band, and it is AWESOME (the very definition thereof...)

One of the best blues guitarist of all time! RIP Stevie Ray.

I love at the end how he peers out at the audience, as if to say, "How was that..Pretty good?!"

Bingo. I discovered SRV when he opened for the Pretenders in '84. I could not believe my eyes or ears. I was lucky enough to see him again headlining in a small hall in '85. And then we lost him.

One of the few guitarrists that even could/can play this song and get away with, WITH the highest honour. Hat off for SRV. Otherwise you are totally right - he was brilliant in the studio. Live - he was devastating. Not many musicians are better live than in the studio, but SRV was surely one of them.

Stevie makes me sweat every time I hear his performances, the amazing thing is that he played with heavy gutair strings which he would often break and keep going like it's no big deal...incredible

God dam Stevie was so good, just effortless

🙌👏‼️I always enjoy your thoughtful and knowledgable reactions so much💯 I was excited to see you do Pride and Joy even if it was from a recording. You are so tuned in and perceptive you identified within like 20,seconds how closely meshed his guitar is to being an additional appendage. You really got a lot out of listening to him but how much more fun is he to watch❓🎸🎶‼️ And yes he was the coolest guy on the planet for sure and mostly cuz he wasn't trying to be, he just was. A very humble, sweet, and kind guy too. You should know that no two songs from him are ever played the same. It would depend on his mood and where the river of music would take him whenever he strapped in. For your own personal enjoyment (if not a reaction) you should check out his version of Voodoo Chile from his Toyko concert. It is about 15 minutes long and he weaves and blends new levels and interesting side trips and slides back into the main chords effortlessly. He elevates it to new heights IMO. Stevie was a huge fan of Jimi's since a young age and got a lot of inspiration from him. And you observed the watchful eye of Tommy Shannon the bassist. This group was such a tight Band of Brothers. Tommy and Chris Layton on drums kept an eagle eye on Stevie so they could keep him in the pocket while Stevie soared around them. The more you watch him live you will see he adjusted his foot pedals, his amps, all the knobs and dials on his guitar and tunes his guitar all without missing a beat in most cases. He even seamlessly has guitars switched out after breaking those heavy gauge strings he used all the while playing live. Talk about a pro boss move. You have barely begun your discovery of this incredibly gifted and other worldly artist. I would love for you to react to a tune Stevie wrote called "Aint Gone 'N' Give Up On Love" at the Capitol Theatre 1985. (Not copyright blocked at all) Thanks for this great reaction today✌️💙 and shout to Eddie for suggesting it to you👏✌️

I don’t remember what live video it is. But there’s one where he actually plays the guitar behind his back

Great reaction! And yes, he was as humble as he was talented. Along with the other live performances mentioned, I think you’d love “Tin Pan Alley” with Stevie Ray Vaughan and Johnny Copeland making a guest appearance. Deep Blues and one of his coolest looks.

Tommy Shannon is one of the great blues bassists of his generation. He and drummer Chris Layton played with SRV throughout his career. I doubt they ever played a song the same way twice.

It shows on how much respect he had for Jimi to see that he was more focused on the way it sounds, rather than showing how fast he could play or how magical his fret work is. Because that's what was most important to Hendrix. Probably one of the many reasons Jimi hated that "Best" compliment.

Best Jimi Hendrix cover ever. Recomend the original.

I saw SRV 33 years ago today. Probably exactly to the minute as I'm typing this. He was playing with another pretty good guitarist...Jeff Beck.

This is a cover of a Jimi Hendrix song. SRV is the only guitarist who can play Jimi as good as Jimi and still make it his own. Besides "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)", which is this song, Stevie also does a great version of Jimi's "Little Wing" which is so tender and beautiful.

C'mon man, you don't know how electric guitars work? There are three pick ups on his guitar, and a 3 position lever switch which he repeatedly moves. Each pickup has a different frequency response, so mixing them or selecting one gives a different sound. Plus he has 3 knobs, which can either control the volume of each pick up, OR there is one volume for the output and two "tone" pots to alter the tone. That is for the guitar only. Then on the floor is a selection of "effects" pedals to shape the sound even further. And the primary effects pedal here is the "wah wah" pedal, which when pressed smoothly moves through a sort of flanging, compression, frequency shift range that is like going "wah wah" slowly with your mouth and a strong vocal note. In fact it is Jimi Hendrix' actual Wah Wah pedal that SRV has here. But there are several other effects pedals on the floor some with finger knobs and all with either foot switches or foot pedals, like the motion of a clutch pedal. All told you can do infinitely more and better sounds with good old analogue modulation than any digital crap that masquerades as music these days.

Yes. Coolest person on the planet. Rest in peace SRV. Try "Little Wing," live from El Mocambo. Then there is so much more.

You definitely, definitely have to watch him do Texas Flood, live at El Mocambo. It's a must watch!

Tommy Shannon was Johnny Winters bass player.

Not gonna lie SRV version of Voodoo Child is better than Hendrix

This a tribute in it's finest form. Jimi Hendrix would be proud and flattered.

bassist tommy shannon i believe who also played with johnny winter

Eric Clapton said it best. SRV was like river, it just flowed out of him. When he first heard him play Clapton said I need to see this.

Texas Flood live at the ElMocambo is required watching.

The GOAT.Period!!!!!

SRV is a GOAT for sure. Don’t sleep on “Tin Pan Alley” live with Johnny Copeland. It’s blues and more his natural style.

SRV ~ 🎸🐐 THE goat of all goats **Texas Flood at El Macambo** (Arguably the greatest guitar performance ever caught on film) **Life Without You at Capitol Theater ** You're welcome. 😉

That was the wawa pedal. I've compared to Jimi Hendrix and I think SRV is better, but Jimi was a genius as well. I saw SRV live. Amazing!!!!

Dude, you haven't even cracked the surface yet. After you do Texas Flood check out "Life Without You" live from the Capitol theater and "Mary Had A Little Lamb", yeah the nursery rhyme, from this same Austin concert.

When someone like Eric Clapton says,"“Because when I play, I sometimes stop. Every now and then, I just stop and think ‘what I’m going to do now’. I don’t want to repeat myself, so I get caught up somehow. You freeze, and most players do, I never saw him(Stevie Ray Vaughn) do that; he was a channel in some way.” Your right it just flows out of him. He is the GOAT in my opinion!

First word. WOW. And that says it all. I love this performance, Stevie is the king of cool. He looks like Black Magic doin Voodoo Chile in that outfit. You ought to check out Voodoo Chile live in Nashville. Looses a string, who cares. He's got 5 more. Something else you said to the effect of the guitar being an extension of his body, heard that so many times, and so true. He couldn't have played a song the same way twice, how could you feel the same way each time? Tommy on bass and Chris on those voodoo drums, phenomenal. One amazing band to be so together backing up a guy like Stevie Ray. RIP, King SRV. ☮️to all. P.S. Treat us to Texas Flood at the El Macombo! Everybody wants you to.

He reaches down to adjust the settings on one of his effects pedals, maybe it was the 'tube screamer'(the old green type, really just a treble booster) but yes he's also manipulating a wah wah pedal to get that 'quacky' sound on the intro, and at the end. Sometimes during the song you'll see him switch the pick-up selector, it's a 5-way switch, on a Stratocastor, due to three pick-up (bridge/middle/neck, 'single coils') He didn't use a lot of effects. Most of the 'effects' are just his own ability to utilize so many playing techniques. He was such a great player and he loved to play, a lot. You can see that he wore right through the clear coating, stain, and even into the wood of his guitar, cuz he played it 'so' much. I think that guitar was on it's second neck. The letters he put on there were the reflective letters people used to put on their mailbox, you could get them at Academy Surplus. And of course he had other guitars too. He referred to this guitar as 'Number 1', his 'number two' he called 'Lenny' after his ex-wife Lenora. I'm glad you got to see this one. You deserved it. "Texas Flood" live at El Macombo, and 'Mary Had A Little Lamb" live in Tokyo are recommended, really just anything by SRV live or otherwise. He has a double-Live album called 'Live-Alive' i'd recommend you get it. Also off his In Step album, Tightrope, Crossfire, and Travis Walk, are classics. I believe he was the greatest blues guitar player of all time. He took what Hendrix did and improved upon it. (I'm not sure how some people aren't able to see this) Even Hendrix would have agreed. But his main influence were the old blues guys. Basically, old black guys that sang and played the blues, and his brother. He also collaborated with some artists and made a song called Tick Tock (it's almost like he was too good for this current world) He played on David Bowie's 'Let's Dance album. Instead of 'guitar god' i think he was more like a 'guitar angel'. Btw; The pick-up near the bridge gives you that edgier sound, but the pick-up by the neck will give you a smoother, "sweet-child-o-mine intro sound". Google 'Sweet Child O Mine, and you'll see what i mean, it's a good example of a neck pick-up sound. Peace

We're not going to let up. We're still going to make you review the live El Mocambo Texas Flood, Voodoo Child, Lenny, and Little Wing. The Austin City Limits show here was good too, but the truly iconic show was El Mocambo. Much better tone. Fewer distracting effects on his guitar. He stretched out a lot more. Longer, crazier solos. Bare minimum, you have to do Texas Flood from El Mocambo. Just do it. You will understand afterward. You will thank us all. I promise.

That guitar is nicknamed "Number One", or Stevie's "First Wife". It's a 1963 Fender Stratocaster which he purchase in 1973. It seems to have been his favourite instrument more or less for the rest of his career, & it suffered *lot* of abuse (& it shows). Check out "Third Stone from the Sun (from Live at the El Mocambo)" for an example of SRV beating the hell out of "Number One". SRV had it fitted with a left-handed tremolo assembly ("whammy bar") so that the arm would be at the top of the strings, partially emulating Hendrix, who played a right-handed guitar left-handed, & therefore upside-down, with the tremolo arm at the top. Besides the nuances of sound SRV created with his hands, there's a volume dial & 2 different tone dials along with a multi-position pickup switch on his guitar, all of which he uses to manipulate the sound of his guitar throughout this performance. (The pickup switch is used to turn on one or a combination of the 3 pickups, where each pickup gives a different sound.) In addition, he's got a wah pedal on the floor in front of him that he uses several times. There's *a lot* going on there.

Saw him at Mesker Amphitheater Evansville IN before the accident. Blew us away. He opened doors for us that went, then we saw the Grateful Dead at Deer Creek 6/28/92, they blw all the walls down. I was a metal dude, SRV and his band Double Trouble were an assault on the senses, the band was killer, they toured hard, telepathy was solid, common in the best bands. Blew me away, Jerry Garcia...the Deadheads...that first set 6/28/92 was killer and opened me upto so much. Music, I'll give it all a try The Grateful are my ride or die but SRV opened my eyes, what a tragic loss, blessed to hvseen him live.

Stevie's brother Jimmie Vaughan, formerly with the Fabulous Thunderbirds, is also an accomplished guitarist. i saw him opening for Eric Clapton a couple of months ago with his own band.

Yes, he has a tone switch and whammy bar on his guitar and another effect or two at his feet, but he’s also a master of tone like no one else, except maybe for his brother. “Little Wing” El Mocambo, please? He’ll leave you speechless.

I like Jimi, but Stevie made this song his own. Stevie is number 1 in my book followed second by Terry Kath...sadly both have passed way before their time. Great reaction.

All of that music is from Stevie Ray, bass, and drums. If you watch carefully you will see he is constantly adjusting the tone, volume, pickup select, using the whammy bar, bending notes, and using foot pedals in addition to playing great guitar and singing.

Great observation about the bass player (Tommy Shannon) watching SRV. Stevie never played a song twice exactly the same and the rhythm section had to adapt on the fly.

Stevie Ray Vaughan has several versions of Voo Doo Child out there. You should do yourself a solid and watch them all. Stevie Ray freestyles every performance. No two are the same. He literally plays both lead and rhythm guitar parts at the same time. He couldn't read music and played by ear. I made a previous suggestion of his duo with Jeff Healey on Look at Little Sister, but honestly, if you watch Stevie's solo performance of that same song, you actually get to watch Stevie Ray play without strings for a brief period, then switches out guitars without missing a lick. Stevie Ray actually requested permission to cover a few of Jimi's songs. He visited Jimi's father in person to ask his permission. Stevie Ray also is using Jimi's actual wa wa pedal when he was performing Jimi's songs. Some say the pedal was gifted to him by Jimi's father and some say his brother Jimmy Lee Vaughan acquired it, when he was playing with Jimi, and gifted it to Stevie Ray.

Can't wait until you experience Texas flood live from el mocambo by SRV

It's great that you called attention to the bass work. That's Tommy Shannon. Chris Layton on drums. The 4th member of the band is Reese Wynans on keyboards but he's not playing on this song. Check out Riviera Paradise or Look At Little Sister from this same show to hear Reese show his stuff.

Yeah SRV has a couple of unique stomp boxes (pedals) Tube Screamer Overdrive and for sure i hear a octave pedal, could be a fuzz/octave combo and of course the wah pedal

He was the nicest man on the planet. When he went to record this , he asked Mr Hendrix for permission. He used Jimi's wawa pedal. When in concert he never played the same song the same way. His base player was in The Edgar and Johnny Winters band. Check out Texas Flood pleased

The live performance you have to see is Third Stone From The Sun …. At El Mocambo.

Yes please... Texas Flood live at El Mocambo is an awesome SRV experience! 🥰✌

Austin Texas, live music capital of the world! Stevie Brings it!

Bass is played by Tommy Shannon. You are the first to notice Tommy in this performance . He was Stevie's best friend and he got one at the same time Steve in the fallo 1986.

Jimi Hendrix father let SRV use Jimi's wah wah pedal for this song.

He also does a cool Hendrix cover called Little Wing. Check out Life without you at the Capital Theatre

He is the only one I've seen that doesn't overplay that song. When people do that it becomes boring. It's still a song. Not a platform to show how fast you can play.

He bends and changes his notes by the dials on his guitar, the bar and pedals create the wa wa. He bends down to pick up new picks on the floor. He was by far the best guitar player ever!

Seeing him live as a kid was amazing I remember walking up to the park as he had already begin to play and the sounds that echoed through were amazing rip goat of guitar

by the way Stevie used very heavy strings. His hands had to be amazing strong to bend those strings.

El Mocambo concert version of Texas Flood....oh boy

He dropped his pick. He can break a string and sub out a new guitar without breaking stride while playing live on stage, SRV was truly amazing R.I.P.

As a long time bass player I can tell you he never plays a song the same way twice

Stevie Ray played his guitar like it owed him money, rip.

The bass player and that drummer are just killing it.

Yes, the guitar and he are one. Gilmore has that as well.

he was really the coolest man on the face of the planet

great cover of a great Hendrix song

In my opinion, this is the best live performance of this song he did that’s on video.

He was truly amazing

Caution: Genius at work. Stevie had Total Command of a myriad of guitar subtleties that he would vary on the fly throughout his performance. Alternating pickups, volumes, wah wah pedal and various tones with such ease most observers don't even notice. That, combined with being a master blues and rock musician made him one of the most if not The Most brilliant guitar players of the past century.

I get chicken skin listening to him play