Another from the Michelle Archives…Its Stevie Ray Vaughn and “Tightrope”
Stevie Ray was a true force of nature…and born to play guitar.
Pure emotion…pure talent
If you ever had the chance to witness Stevie Ray Vaughan perform…you too understand that he didn’t just “play” the guitar…he channeled music from the depths of his soul and through his body and guitar, which were connected as one. Mesmerizing to the point of hypnotic, watching the music burst out of him with such beautiful yet brutal violence and magnitude was to behold some form of musical and spiritual possession. Stevie Ray Vaughan’s legacy permanently resides in the rarefied pantheon reserved for bona fide guitar gods.
It was a religious experience…
“Tightrope” was part of the “Instep” album… In Step is the fourth studio album by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble released in 1989. The title In Step can be seen as referring to Vaughan's new-found sobriety, following the years of drug and alcohol use that eventually led Vaughan into rehabilitation. It was also Vaughan's final album with Double Trouble. In 1990, he recorded a collaboration album with his brother, Jimmie Vaughan, called Family Style; later that year, Stevie Ray Vaughan died in a helicopter crash.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX5ioDq1m5I - SRV and "Tightrope" – Live from Austin (The Great Austin City Limits)
The lyrics are amazing and I suppose have more personal meaning to me than those of a lot of songs…as I look at my life and see it in each line of the song….
“Tightrope”
Caught up in a whirlwind can't catch my breath,
knee deep in hot water broke out in a cold sweat
Can't catch a turtle in this rat race,
feels like I'm losin' time at a breakneck pace
Afraid of my own shadow in the face of grace,
heart full of darkness spotlight on my face
There was love all around me but I was lookin' for revenge,
thank God it never found me would have been the end
I was walkin' the tightrope steppin' on my friends
Walkin' the tightrope it was a shame and a sin
Walkin' the tightrope between wrong and right
Walkin' the tightrope both day and night
Lookin' back in front of me in the mirror's a grin,
through eyes of love I see I'm really lookin' at a friend
We've all had our problems that's the way life is,
my heart goes out to others who are there to make amends
We've been walkin' the tightrope tryin' to make it right
Walkin' the tightrope every day and every night
Walkin' the tightrope bring it all around
Walkin' the tightrope from the lost to found
Walkin' the tightrope stretched around the world
Walkin' the tightrope save the boys and girls
Walkin' the tightrope let's make it right
Walkin' the tightrope do it do it tonight
Walkin' the tightrope
