TheUglylucy4's video: Crossfire

"Crossfire" was written for Stevie Ray Vaughan by the Austin-based songwriter Bill Carter and his wife/songwriting partner Ruth Ellsworth. The pair also wrote some other songs for Vaughan. Tommy Shannon, Chris Layton and Reese Wynans, all of whom were members of Vaughan's band Double Trouble, also got a songwriting credit on this track. It is the second track off of Vaughan's fourth LP...In Step...released in 1989. The title of the LP, In Step, can be seen as referring to Vaughan's new-found sobriety, following the years of drug and alcohol use that eventually led him into rehabilitation. Dedicated to sobriety, the album title is a reference to the 12 Step Program for alcoholics. The songs on the album refer to the pressures of life that lead to substance abuse, but show how you can still rock even when you are sober. Stevie Ray Vaughan rode a wave of public and critical acclaim after his 1983 explosion onto the national scene with the album Texas Flood. Subsequent albums Couldn't Stand the Weather (1984), Soul to Soul (1985), and Live Alive (1986) all helped to cement Vaughan as one of the great guitar-gunslingers of the 20th century. However, his success was coming at a great price. Stevie Ray Vaughan was destroying his life with Old Crown whiskey and cocaine. Vaughan quickly realized that many of the choices he had made in life were ultimately ruining him, and he now understood that the only salvation for his career and his life resided in sobriety. "Crossfire" is one of his anti-drug messages. The ballad is loaded with these references..."Day by day,night after night,,Blinded by the neon lights,Hurry here, hustlin' there,No one's got the time to spare,Money's tight, nothin' free,Won't somebody come and rescue me". The opening lines end with his plea for help (from his addiction). "Tooth for tooth, eye for an eye,Sell your soul just to buy, buy, buy,Beggin' a dollar, stealin' a dime,Come on can't you see that I,I am stranded ,caught in the crossfire". These are all substance abusing lines common in that world. The "selling of your soul" and "stealing a dime" all lead to the "crossfire" addicts find themself in. The crossfire of drug abuse and sobriety. "Save the strong lose the weak,Never turning the other cheek,Trust nobody don't be no fool,Whatever happened to the golden rule"...addicts do not trust anybody (while using) and that "golden rule" is the known rule of addiction. That is to say, if addicts do not come clean they are (without question) pre-designed to one of three possible endings...incarceration, institutionalization, or death. Stevie Ray Vaughan's death did not come from drug abuse but rather a helicopter crash. He was tragically killed on Aug 27th 1990, moments after sharing the stage with Eric Clapton, Robert Cray and brother Jimmy Vaughan. In Step was Vaughan's final album with Double Trouble (dying a year later) producing "Crossfire"...Vaughan's first No. 1 single.