“Rude Mood” by Stevie Ray Vaughan

Six songs into Texas Flood, Stevie Ray Vaughan's debut album, comes "Rude Mood", a blues instrumental, a 4/4 shuffle that tears along at 264 beats per minute. It's his spin on Lightnin' Hopkins' "Hopkins' Sky Hop", and he starts it alone, laying out the riff on guitar with quick bass notes and muted clicks in between so the thing swings before the bass and drums even arrive; once they do, they lock onto that beat and ride it to the finish.

In 1984 it was up for the Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance but lost to Sting's "Brimstone and Treacle". He kept playing it live, too: it turns up on Live at Carnegie Hall and the Live at Montreux 1982 DVD. Every so often he'd trade his trusty Stratocaster for an acoustic guitar and take it faster or slower than the record.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.