Life Without You by Stevie Ray Vaughan guitar tab (text):

"Life Without You" by Stevie Ray Vaughan
from his album "Soul to Soul"
by J.C.T. Kelly  jck7u@virginia.edu
PRELIMINARY NOTES:
SRV tuned down one half-step, so his E, A, D, G, B and E
strings were at Eb, Ab, Gb, Gb, Db, and Eb, respectively.
The chords listed here take this into account... that is,
you must lower them all by one half-step or tune your guitar
down by a half-step in order to duplicate the pitches on his
recording.
STYLISTIC NOTES:  This song, more than any other (I think),
shows the influence that Jimi Hendrix had on SRV.  So,
before you play this song, I recommend that you do a little
outside listening, specifically a lot of Hendrix, preferably
"Little Wing" and "Bold as Love" in order to get the feel of
this tune.  You might also try listening to SRV's cut of
"Little Wing."  It would be possible for me to tab out all
of the little intricacies of the tune, but there's nothing
*special* in it... that is, these little licks are all over
Stevie Ray's and Jimi's tunes.  [Note:  For a more
contemporary example of these licks in action, listen to
Pearl Jam's "Yellow Leadbetter" (sp?)].
Anyway, here's my transcription of the tune (Please forgive
any lyric mistakes I have made).  Enjoy!  (April '95)
TRANSCRIPTION NOTES:
Since there are three distinctive voicings of the E chord
used in this song, I've listed all three of them and
identified them separately as E1, E2 and E3.  These names
have no meaning outside of this transcription:  these chords
are all E major chords, but for this, they should be played
in the voicings I indicate.
(Chords are listed in order of appearance):
           String
_____
Chord\ 6  5  4  3  2  1
     |
E1:    x  x  x  4  5  4
A:     5  7  7  6  5  5
G#m:   4  6  6  4  4  4
F#m:   2  4  4  2  2  2
B:     7  9  9  8  7  7
C:     8 10 10  9  8  8
C#:    9 11 11 10  9  9
D:    10 12 12 11 10 10
E2:    x  7  9  9  9  7
F:     1  3  3  2  1  1
E3:    0  2  2  1  0  0
D#:   11 13 13 12 11 11
A#:    6  8  8  7  6  6
G#     4  6  6  5  4  4
G:     3  5  5  4  3  3
E7+9:  0  7  6  7  8 (0)

INTRO (long and drawn out, with only two chords):
A    F#m

BODY:
E1  E1    A              A   G#m          F#m
Oh, hello baby, tell me, how high have you been
    E1     A                    G#m  F#m
We all have missed you, and the...      way you grin
E1  E1     A            A  B  C   C#
Day is necessary, every no-ow and then.
                   D   D      C#   C     B
The sun could move on, givin' life back again...  aaah
B   B   B   B  A   A   B   C  C#
Fly on, fly on,    fly on, my friend.
    D                 E2 [organ: E, then E7]
Go on...    live again, love again.
E1  E1    A        A  G#m        F#m
Day after day, ni-ight    after night
E1    E1     A
Suddenly singin', every minute
       A G#m   F#m
As the years go   passin' by....  by, by, by...
F#m  F    E3 D#  D             D    C#   C  B
Long look in the mirror, we've come face to face.
B   A#  A   G#  G
Wishin' all the love... we took for granted
G     F#   F       E7+9
Lord, we'd have today....   aaahhh  aaahhh
E1   E1     A                 A G#m F#m
Life without you, all the love...       we passed our way
    E1 E1       A
The angels have waited for so long...
    G#m  F#m
Now they have their way...  take your place

CODA (Repeat and fade out while soloing long and slow):
A      F#m
--
--------------------------------------
|  J.C.T. Kelly  jck7u@virginia.edu  |
--------------------------------------