The song was “Voodoo Child (Slight Return),” Jimi Hendrix’s thundering closer from the 1968 album Electric Ladyland. Stevie Ray Vaughan loved it, played it on stage, and still hesitated when it came time to put it on a record. Six years later, on the last night of his life, it was the final song he played with Double Trouble.
A Hendrix Song He Wasn’t Sure He Should Touch
In January 1984, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble went into the Power Station in New York City to make their second album, Couldn’t Stand the Weather. Their debut, Texas Flood, had been a surprise success, and the band had spent months on the road. Now they needed new material, and they needed it fast.
The trio had already been playing “Voodoo Child” in clubs. Recording it was another matter. Stevie Ray Vaughan had built his name as a blues man, and Hendrix’s song was loud, wild rock and roll. Bassist Tommy Shannon remembered exactly what was holding his friend back: Stevie was afraid of what the blues purists might say.
“I really had to talk Stevie into doing that track.”
The Bass Player Who Pushed
Tommy Shannon had known Stevie Ray Vaughan for years, and he believed the hesitation was not about the music at all. In his view, Stevie simply needed someone to give him permission.
“He needed encouragement to pursue what was in his heart.”
Shannon’s argument was short. As he later told Guitar World, he said to Stevie, “Hey, there’s nothing wrong with stepping over the line.” The band agreed to cut the song once they got to New York.
Nearly Eight Minutes Without a Single Mistake
Like much of that album, “Voodoo Child” was recorded live in the studio, with the three of them playing together in the room. Stevie Ray Vaughan played it on Number One, the battered Stratocaster that went nearly everywhere with him, turned up loud through a wall of amplifiers. John Hammond, the legendary talent scout who had signed him to Epic, supervised the sessions.
Engineer and co-producer Richard Mullen never forgot what he heard that day.
“That take was live from beginning to end, seven minutes of pure guitar energy without a single miscue.”
For Tommy Shannon, the moment meant even more. Guitar World’s account of the sessions calls the track the turning point for the whole album, the moment the pressure to top Texas Flood finally lifted. “It felt like breaking out of jail,” Shannon said.
Couldn’t Stand the Weather came out on May 15, 1984, reached No. 31 on the Billboard 200, and became the band’s first platinum album. “Voodoo Child” quickly turned into a highlight of every show.
The Song He Saved for the End
By the summer of 1990, Stevie Ray Vaughan was sober, playing some of the best shows of his life, and wrapping up the long tour behind In Step. Night after night, “Voodoo Child” was the song he closed his set with. He ended with it at the Kalamazoo County Fair in Michigan on August 24. Then the band headed to Wisconsin for two sold-out nights opening for Eric Clapton at Alpine Valley Music Theatre.
Alpine Valley, August 26, 1990
Late in the set on the second night, his big brother Jimmie Vaughan joined him for Freddie King’s “Goin’ Down.” Then came “Crossfire.” And then, as he had done all summer, Stevie Ray Vaughan finished with “Voodoo Child.”
Lisa Schultz of Milwaukee was in the crowd. Decades later, she still described it to a local TV station as a version that “would melt your face.”
He came back out for one more song, an encore jam on “Sweet Home Chicago” with Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray and Jimmie. That was the last music Stevie Ray Vaughan ever played. “Voodoo Child” was the last song he ever played with Tommy Shannon, Chris Layton and keyboardist Reese Wynans, the band he had built.
After the show, four helicopters waited to fly the musicians and their crews to Chicago. Stevie Ray Vaughan took a seat on the third one, alongside three members of Eric Clapton’s team: agent Bobby Brooks, bodyguard Nigel Browne and assistant tour manager Colin Smythe. The pilot was Jeff Brown. They lifted off into thick fog not long after midnight. Moments later, the helicopter struck a ski hill less than a mile away. All five men were killed. No one knew until the helicopter failed to arrive, and the wreckage was found around 7 a.m.
Stevie Ray Vaughan was 35. He was buried in his hometown of Dallas on August 31, 1990.
The Line He Was Afraid to Cross
It is hard to imagine his story without that song now. The track he almost left off the album became the one fans waited for all night, the one he trusted to close every show, and the last thing he and his band ever played together. All it took was a friend telling him there was nothing wrong with stepping over the line.
Were you lucky enough to hear Stevie Ray Vaughan play “Voodoo Child” live? We would love to hear where you were.