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Report by Mike Goldstein – RockPoP Gallery

Cover Tale for August 31, 2007

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Subject – “Stevie Ray Vaughan – Real Deal: Greatest Hits, Volume 1″ – a 2006 release on Epic Legacy Recordings, with Cover Photography by Robert M. Knight.

The story of Dallas, TX born and bred guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan is legendary – a story of an extremely gifted musician’s daily life of inspiration, discovery, fame, addiction, recovery and redemption, and then an untimely dying. Like Hendrix just before him, guitarists all above the planet watched in amazement as the axe-grasp from Texas channeled the spirits of the blues and rock’n'roll to create a blazing fashion of playing that was all his individual.

A 1982 overall performance of his band Double Difficulty at the Montreaux Festival caught the eye of David Bowie, who requested Stevie Ray to play on his new album Let’s Dance. This was swiftly followed by a record deal with Epic and the launch of the band’s 1st album, the chart-busting Texas Flood. That record was adopted up by a speedy succession of other folks (Could not Stand the Climate and Soul to Soul), along with the band’s embarking on a relentless tour schedule. This continued right up until 1987, when Vaughan’s drug and alcohol use caught up with him and he checked himself into rehab.

Soon after this a lot-needed bust, the band ongoing to tour (though at a slower pace) and then introduced their most-productive album – the Grammy-profitable In Step – in 1989. In the spring of 1990, Stevie Ray and his brother Jimmie (of Fabuous Thunderbirds fame) recorded an album (Family Fashion) which was scheduled for launch in the drop of the 12 months. Then on August 26, 1990, right after the band played an Alpine Valley, WI present (which highlighted a “guitar superstar” encore jam of “Sweet Property Chicago” played with brother Jimmie, bluesman Robert Cray, and SRV’s guitar idols Buddy Man and Eric Clapton) on a warmly-received American tour, the 35-calendar year-previous Vaughan boarded a helicopter headed for Chicago. Minutes afterwards, the helicopter crashed and killed Vaughan and four other passengers.

In 2006, following a string of posthumously-released recordings, Sony’s Legacy division put out a remastered and updated sixteen-track retrospective of SRV new music titled True Offer: Greatest Hits – Vol. 1 and went to properly-identified SRV photographer and pal Robert M. Knight to find just the proper picture to grace the cover. Robert was the only photographer on hand that night in Wisconsin and took the final photos of SRV in overall performance and prior to his boarding the helicopter. Reaching back into his archives also introduced back a flood of recollections – some happy and daily life-affirming others really unpleasant – when he chose an image for this package from another concert in 1990 exactly where he’d caught SRV “in the light”. Robert recounts some of the particulars of his romantic relationship with Stevie Ray, the photos he took of him that fateful night, and more in present-day version of “Cover Stories”…

In the words of the photographer, Robert M. Knight (interviewed August 2007) –

“There was a stage that night time that Stevie wished me to arrive back to Chicago with him to go see Buddy Man perform. I did not like the notion of flying at night time in helicopters as they do not have any kind of radar, so I didn’t go.

A guest in the hotel place I was remaining in had set the alarm clock to flip on a information station, and the next morning I awoke at 9AM with the information about the crash. Soon my phone started out to ring with calls from publications that needed my images from the evening just before to illustrate their tales. Even so, Stevie was my buddy and I could not bear to have my photos of him used alongside of images of a helicopter crash. I sat on them for two decades prior to I permit them be used.

As for this distinct shot, I had just come off operating with Sony/Epic on the re-release of Jeff Beck’s 1969 album Beck Ola, where the label had utilized about 12 of my shots carried out in 1968 for that package. When we finished the undertaking, Sony requested who else I may possibly have in my archives as they were operating on numerous re-releases of classic albums. About 80% of my album assignments have been when the labels are hunting for very good pictures that have currently been performed. The moment they see what is in your archive, they call back about and over for other jobs.

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I had been working with Stevie Ray given that 1989, when I photographed numerous dates on the Stevie Ray/Jeff Beck tour. I also shot a number of journal handles during pre-manufacturing at Prince’s Paisley Park in Minneapolis and got to know Stevie very nicely.

This picture of Stevie on stage in Minneapolis was 1 that had been fooled with early on making use of a procedure I produced in the late 60′s using “Kodalith” film in specific chemical compounds that avoid the silver halide from linking jointly – providing the illusion of blackness – but the dim regions are in fact manufactured up of the real grain of the movie.

I only received to know Stevie when he was sober. A lot of time, he would come into Los Angeles, give me a call and we would just hang out and discuss. Stevie basically died of medications and alcohol six a long time previously in Switzerland and soon after rehab he became sober and arrived back to lifestyle and was strolling, I experience, “in the mild”. When I photographed him, I tended to get pictures of Stevie in “The Mild”.

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About the decades, I have completed numerous album assignments with Jeff Beck, Robert Cray, John Lee Hooker and have also performed several dozens of magazine covers with each and every a single in rock and roll. Currently, we are in manufacturing of a key documentary on my existence and function by producer Tim Kaiser (Will and Grace/Seinfeld) and will cover a lot of the Stevie story as portion of the undertaking. I’d witnessed a accurate ‘guitar legend’ in Stevie, so it was excellent to have this picture of him on the cover of this ‘Greatest Hits’ file – he was my friend and ‘the true deal’.”

Editor’s notice – Right after his death, then Texas governor Ann Richards declared his birthday – October 3rd – as “Stevie Ray Vaughan Day” in Texas and you will find been a fund-raising concert (for the SRV Memorial Scholarship Fund) each year in Central Texas to commemorate this date. http://www.srvrideandconcert.org/

The town of Austin also commissioned and unveiled a statue of SRV (which is now a well-liked tourist attraction that stands in Lady Bird Lake park) and Fender Guitar has issued 2 diverse commemorative (and warm-selling) types of his greatest-identified guitar – his beat up ’59 Stratocaster known as “Quantity A single”.

Later this year, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of SRV &amp Double Trouble’s debut at Montreaux, Epic will be releasing a freshly-remastered re-problem of the 1990 DVD bundle titled Pride and Joy that, in accordance to the label, “has been updated, upgraded (to new Stereo and 5.one surround-sound mixes), and expanded to a lot more than two times its original length. The new DVD version of Pride and Joy reprises the authentic eight segments, and now provides a bonus promo video clip clip (“Tiny Wing”), a few acoustic figures from the authentic MTV “Unplugged” series, two tv commercials, and performances with Stevie Ray’s older brother Jimmie in the Vaughan Brothers (along with the EPK designed for that band). The new 17-track DVD will arrive in retailers November 6th on Epic/Legacy, a division of SONY BMG Audio Enjoyment.”

About the photographer, Robert M. Knight –

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Raised in Hawaii, and now based on the West Coast, Robert is a prolonged time advertising photographer who also specializes in the Rock’n'Roll songs industry. His career spans from 1968 to the existing. Consistently doing work in the new music sector for international report firms, publications and musical devices companies, Robert is very best identified for his “Guitar Legend” archive, acquiring worked with this sort of “traditional” artists as Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Eric Clapton and such up to date artists as John Mayer, Steve Vai, and Maroon 5. His restricted-version prints are represented by the prestigious Limelight Company (www.limelightagency.com).

Robert is also aspect of Guitar Center’s “Hollywood RockWalk” crew, operating alongside RockWalk director Dave Weiderman. Robert and lover Maryanne Bilham have an exhibition of 10-foot-tall images on the outdoors of the more than 200 Guitar Centers around America., creating it one of the most significant outdoor gallery exhibits of original photographic art.

Robert has published many textbooks, like 50 Rock Guitarists (1995 Shinko Songs) and Hollywood’s RockWalk – The Very first 10 years (1996) and was portion of the 1996 guide Led Zeppelin – The Photographers. His most-recent enterprise is an inventive collaboration referred to as “RockMachine” – an entity that makes great art and style for the rock tradition.

In July, the Tough Rock Resort in Las Vegas honored Robert and guitarist Slash by dedicating a situation of memorabilia on the main casino floor, which was then followed by a dinner get together for 50 rock celebrities and friends at Kerry SIMONS restaurant. Billy Morrison (The Cult, Camp Freddy) jetted in as host DJ. The social gathering continued at System English with a audio/visual retrospective of Robert’s career as a leading rock photographer.

To look at Robert’s archives and obtain prints of his greatest-identified photos, please go to – http://www.nikonrocker.com

About “Cover Stories” - Our weekly sequence will give you, the new music and art enthusiast, a look at “the producing of” the illustrations, pictures and designs of many of the most-acknowledged and influential photos that have served to bundle and promote your all-time-favourite recordings.

Each Friday, we’ll meet the artists, designers and photographers who created these performs of art and find out what motivated them, what procedures they employed, how they collaborated (or fought) with the musical acts, their administration, their labels, etc. – all of the points that influenced the last item you observed then and nevertheless see today.

We hope that you appreciate these looks behind the scenes of the songs-related art organization and that you’ll share your stories with us and fellow enthusiasts about what role these operates of art – and the new music they coated – played in your lives.

All pictures Copyright 1990 &amp 2007 Robert M. Knight http://www.nikonrocker.comPortions of text Copyright 2004 Robert M. Knight All other text Copyright 2007 – Mike Goldstein &amp RockPoP Gallery (www.rockpopgallery.com) – All rights reserved.