Stevie Ray Vaughan And Double Trouble: ‘The Complete Epic Recordings Collection’
Written by Johnny H and Andy P
Sunday, 07 December 2014 04:00
October 4th 2014 would have been Stevie Ray Vaughan’s sixtieth birthday had he not been taken from us way too soon in a helicopter crash back in August 1990. Being a metalhead back in the eighties I was never really a fan of his music whilst he was still alive, and it was only when I fell in love with the debut album by fellow Texan blues rockers Arc Angels in 1992 (featuring Tommy Shannon on bass) that I actually started joining the influence dots back to Stevie Ray Vaughan And Double Trouble.
As a result I thought I’d start this overview of the recent 12 CD box set celebration of the life and times of Stevie Ray Vaughan by asking someone who was lucky to experience the majestic might of the guitarist many cite as the go to man for blues inspiration first hand, and I didn’t have to look too far either as Uber Rock’s very own Andy P offered up the following when I asked him how seeing SRV live opened his eyes to a whole new world of music……
“My one and only time of seeing and beholding the magnificence of Stevie Ray Vaughan was as a 17 year old in the press pit at the Reading Festival in 1983. On a day that included Anvil, Suzi Quatro, Magnum, Lee Aaron, Heavy Pettin’, Marillion and the infamous Stonehenge set of Black Sabbath.
So he kinda stuck out a bit like a sore thumb and like Steel Pulse the day before he caught the attention of the bottle throwers. Unlike Steel Pulse who ended their set early with bottles clanging off their steel drums he persisted with real flair asking the crowd politely, ”I know it’s fun but put a stop to it.”
Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble were at the Reading Festival to promote their debut album ’Texas Flood’ which had been released about 2 months earlier. My older brother bought the album after reading about it in Guitar Player magazine and so I was somewhat familiar with the tracks even if it did take me a while to fully appreciate and ‘get it’.
I’d never heard anyone play and sound like this before, dressed mainly in black with a riverboat gambler’s hat, he coaxed his Stratocaster to produce an aggressive, full throttle take on the blues genre. Like with his opener of ‘Testify’ and at others times an unparalleled subtlety as in song closer ’Texas Flood.’ They played at least half of the album during their set along with Hendrix’s ‘Voodoo Chile.’
Being an aspiring guitarist how could I not be blown away? Here was someone with a genuinely original take on a well-trodden genre. Up to then I’d been kinda looking forward to Alvin Lee the next day in Ten Years After, but really I could have gone home after Stevie Ray Vaughan and been a happy camper.”
Wise words and vivid memories from my Uber amigo and opinions that have stuck with me during the intervening years since Andy and I first became friends, and as it would proves the perfect person to encapsulate what Stevie Ray Vaughan’s music has done for so many other people worldwide. It’s also telling that Andy also picked up on the point that during his relatively short professional career Vaughan largely redefined the genre of blues rock and this is something I would wholeheartedly agree with, and I suppose the greatest tribute you can pay the man in the riverboat gambler’s hat is that to this day his legacy lives on in such fantastic musicians as Henrik Freischlader, Phillip Sayce, and Kenny Wayne Sheppard.
Anyway to the task at hand and this superb box set brings together all of the Stevie Ray Vaughan And Double Trouble albums released on Epic whilst adding in a 22 track 2CD collection of rarities called ‘Archives’, plus if that wasn’t enough there’s also the very first commercial release of ‘A Legend In The Making’, a previously promo only 9 track live recording from Toronto’s El Mocambo Club from 1983. This all comes housed in a clam shell box with an accompanying 32 page booklet that takes you track by track (something I’m not about to try and start doing here) that spans throughout the guitarist’s recording legacy.
If you have any of the previous sets that Epic has put out under this guise by the likes of Judas Priest (see once a metalhead always a metalhead), Cheap Trick, Blue Oyster Cult or ELO then you’ll already know the attention to detail is bang on, with each album coming in a card mini replica sleeve of the original LP cover. OK nerds like me might prefer the Japanese versions that also have the inside sleeves too but for a dozen albums of this quality retailing at around about £45, that’s got to be a bit of a bargain in the eyes of a sane man.
I do have a very minor gripe with this release though which stops me from declaring it the ultimate Stevie Ray set and this is It would have been nice to have actually have had the legacy editions of the likes of ‘Texas Flood’ and ‘Couldn’t Stand The Weather’ included here with their additional 2nd discs of extras, because then that really would have made the box set truly “complete”, as I suppose would have been the inclusion of the Nile Rodgers produced ‘Family Style’ album Stevie Ray recorded with his brother Jimmie. Then again how long is a piece of string when it comes to someone like Stevie Ray Vaughan, and in more than one aspect of his career I’m not for the first time thinking that perhaps he is the Hendrix for the current fortysomething generation, as people continue to discover the magic of Vaughan’s musical legacy through the various complications and rare recordings that come out from time to time.
Enough of my yacking though, what I’d suggest you do next is watch the Double Trouble live show from Montreux back in 1985 that I’ve tagged in this feature, a show that went on to make up a part of the ‘Live Alive’ album, which of course is also included in this set. Then take some time to collect your own thoughts about the legend that was/is Stevie Ray Vaughan and get ready to hit that Amazon link below Go on you know you want to….. Until the next time folks, enjoy the music.
http://www.srvofficial.com/us/home
To pick up your copy of ‘The Complete Epic Recordings Collection’ – CLICK HERE
