10 Greatest Rock Music Guitar Solos Of The 1980s
7. Pride And Joy - Stevie Ray Vaughan
Texas-born musician Stevie Ray Vaughan got his big breakthrough playing guitar on David Bowie's Let's Dance album, before being signed as an artist in his own right.
The blues-inspired performer, along with his backing band, Double Trouble, put out Texas Flood in 1983. It birthed two singles, one of which would become Vaughan's signature song. You could say it became his... Pride and Joy... you know... because that's the name of the song.
Pride and Joy is a throwback to classic twelve bar blues; an original composition that could easily have been passed down to Vaughan from his grandfather. Whilst the main bulk of the song is fairly simple, the solo is anything but.
It's Stevie showing all of the reasons why he's some people's favourite guitarist of all time. He expertly plucks a succession of exquisite notes from his trusty six-string, making it sing just as sweetly as any vocalist. It is both a love letter to blues of old and a statement of where the genre would go in the future.
Vaughan died in 1990, aged just 35, but boy did he make an impact in his brief time.