I was reading Stevie Ray Vaughan's Wikipedia page, and it says "In July, the band played a music festival in Manor, Texas and a videotape of the performance was given to Rolling Stones drummer, Charlie Watts. Double Trouble then played a private party for The Rolling Stones at New York's Danceteria nightclub." [en.wikipedia.org]

Does anyone know more of this story? Wikipedia doesn't say but did SRV and Double Trouble want Charlie as their drummer?

You got the Sun, You got the Moon,
and you've got
The Rolling Stones

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yorkey
did SRV and Double Trouble want Charlie as their drummer?

I'm guessing that Charlie was the most accessible Stone to give a video to, but I seriously doubt that SRV was expecting Charlie to leave the Stones for his group.

They didn't want Charlie, but were hoping their tape would get them attention. And it did! Then Mick called Bowie and the rest is history.

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whitem8
They didn't want Charlie, but were hoping their tape would get them attention. And it did! Then Mick called Bowie and the rest is history.

Mick called Bowie? Ah I see. I never thought it was like that. Cheers for the info.

You got the Sun, You got the Moon,
and you've got
The Rolling Stones

Bowie met SRV after his Montreaux show, but I think Mick also told Bowie how great he thought he played...

Bowie asked Vaughan to play lead guitar on his new album Let's Dance. The album became Bowie's best-selling album of his career. Bowie also invited Vaughan to go on his Serious Moonlight Tour. During the rehearsal period, Vaughan decided to attend the funeral of Muddy Waters and, thus, could not be found for 5 days. When David Bowie expressed to Stevie that he wanted him to come down a flight of stairs with a little dance routine while playing his guitar, Stevie realized that this was not his gig. He was not a "pop" artist and refused to rehearse dance numbers like one, soon after he quit the tour with David Bowie, and went back to focus on his music and career with Double Trouble.

Just the right person - not being a popstar - I LIKE THAT

I've always heard that SRV never started the tour due to the "dirt pay" that was offered him.

I've only heard that in 1982 he caught the attention of David Bowie, who asked him to play on the hit "Let's Dance."
Charlie (Watts ) saw a videotape of the band performing at a music festival in Texas and was so impressed that he hired to to play a private party for his band in a New York nightclub.Which one ? :-)



I am a Frenchie ,as Mick affectionately called them in the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1977 .

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SwayStones
I've only heard that in 1982 he caught the attention of David Bowie, who asked him to play on the hit "Let's Dance."
Charlie (Watts ) saw a videotape of the band performing at a music festival in Texas and was so impressed that he hired to to play a private party for his band in a New York nightclub.Which one ? :-)

According to Wiki.
In July, the band played a music festival in Manor, Texas and a videotape of the performance was given to Rolling Stones drummer, Charlie Watts.[7] Double Trouble then played a private party for The Rolling Stones at New York's Danceteria nightclub. On July 17, 1982, Vaughan and Double Trouble played the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, the first unsigned act to perform at the event. A few in the audience started booing the loud band throughout their performance since the event was predominately acoustical music. Vaughan later met David Bowie and jammed with Jackson Browne after the show, during an after party which lasted for hours into the morning.

Stevie played on a few songs on LD - modern love, let's dance, china girl and cat people

Below an outtake from rehearals for the 1983 Bowie tour where SRV never participated.






Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-11-29 18:14 by mtaylor.

You all have the SRV/Bowie fallout wrong. It's very well documented in a book called "Day After Day Night After Night"...both sides are explained in painstaking detail without editorial favortism.

SRV loved the Whipper.
I had never heard he wanted to replace him.

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trainarollin
You all have the SRV/Bowie fallout wrong. It's very well documented in a book called "Day After Day Night After Night"...both sides are explained in painstaking detail without editorial favortism.

not sure if this is where I read that Vaughan was irked when the more he played like Albert King, the more Bowie liked it. To me, this anecdote just shows Bowie's good taste.

Never really liked SRV`s playing on Let`s Dance. Sounded very boring and common in comparison to all the crazy players Bowie had before ( Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew,MicK Ronson, Earl Slick..). So taking Earl Slick for the Serious Moonlight Tour was a far better choice imo. One of my top ever concert.

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trainarollin
You all have the SRV/Bowie fallout wrong. It's very well documented in a book called "Day After Day Night After Night"...both sides are explained in painstaking detail without editorial favortism.

Well, since I obviously haven't read this book, would you mind giving us a summary of what was said?

Here's a few of the things that happened around that time:

Bowie tour would have put a hault on SRV promotion for his debut record

SRV could not do any self-promotion during Bowie's employment

SRV's girlfriend annoyed Bowie during the rehersals

The book goes into great line by line detail of what happened. Again, without taking sides.

Thanks!

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Here's a few of the things that happened around that time:

Bowie tour would have put a hault on SRV promotion for his debut record

SRV could not do any self-promotion during Bowie's employment

SRV's girlfriend annoyed Bowie during the rehersals

The book goes into great line by line detail of what happened. Again, without taking sides.

I'm not sure about the girlfriend part, but that's the way I've always seen it written- SRV was told he could not talk about his own stuff while on the tour with Bowie. There may have also been an issue with the money, in addition to lesser ones with the g/f, performance expectations, etc. (obviously Bowie's style and SRV's style didn't exactly match), but it was mostly that he couldn't talk about, or play with, Double Trouble while in Bowie's employ.

They never wanted Charlie to play drums. He may have been the original conduit to the Stones, who they did meet, and who tried to help them out, but they weren't looking for Charlie to play with them. They knew they already had the right combination of players.

I forget exactly what got them to Montreux. Seems like I remember reading that Bowie or the Stones, someone with a high profile, put in a word for them, because they were unknown and Montreux was a pretty high profile gig. Not to mention a long way from Texas. But I also seem to recall reading that they may have met Bowie at Montreux, so I'm not sure. Anyways, after the Montreux show they were hanging out at the bar in the basement, ending up playing some more, and pretty much blew away everyone who saw them. Jackson Browne was there and was so impressed he told them anytime they could make it out to LA they could use his studio for recording free of charge. Sometime after that they made the trip to LA and got in touch with Jackson. If I'm not mistaken, it was Thanksgiving weekend and Jackson was taken completely by surprise, they didn't give him any advance notice and it had been months since they'd met in Montreux. He was basically like "Huh, what? Who?, Uh yeah, I guess I did say that. Uh, ok, let me make a call" and set it up for them to go to his studio. Kind of reluctantly too if I'm not mistaken, some time had passed and I don't think he still expected them to take his offer seriously. Jackson's guys set him and Double Trouble up in a corner of his studio, which I think was a big warehouse type place, and they stood facing each other and cranked out a bunch of songs over the course of a couple of days. Those recordings basically became the first album, with very little additional work done later.

It's been a while since I read the story, can anyone confirm if what I remember is correct?