Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble - Live Alive
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Free Music Notes for Live Alive
Free Music Review: STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN CHANNELS GOD AND HENDRIX ON LIVE ALIVE !
Hit: 5 Stars
Live Alive (1986) was originally released as a two-record set of live performances from 1985-86. There's a lot of music here and it's all great, but get this especially for the back-to-back versions of Texas Flood and Voodoo Chile (Slight Return). In the 6:30 minutes of Texas Flood, I have no doubt that Stevie felt the presence of God. I do just listening to it! Jimi Hendrix is channeled in the unbelievable 9:37 minutes of Voodoo Chile (Slight Return). Just these two songs are worth the price of the CD, but there is plenty more to love here. Fourteen songs that average around 5:00 minutes apiece, including Pride And Joy, Cold Shot, Willie The Wimp, Look At Little Sister, Love Struck Baby, Superstition, and more. Some of this was recorded at the Montreaux Jazz Festival in 1985. They booed Stevie there in 1982, but you won't hear any of that this time around. Only wildly enthusiastic positive cheering. Is this essential Stevie Ray Vaughan material? Absolutely. If anything, just get this for Texas Flood and Voodoo Chile (Slight Return). Stevie Ray Vaughan has never sounded better than he does on those two. Just ask God and Jimi.Free Music Review: Live Alive Minus One
Hit: 4 Stars
This is an excellant SRV album. I had to buy several copies in cassette version because I played it so much I kept stretching it out! The only problem I have with the CD version is that the "powers that be" eliminated the "Life Without You" version that appears on the cassette. This is inexcusable, in my opinion, and I can only assume it happened because of pressure to be "politically correct"....Stevie makes very direct references to South Africa and Apartheid. Stevie "preaches" in the middle of the song and gives one of the all-time classic lines...."I may be White, but I ain't stupid!" I would really, really, REALLY like the studio to reconsider and re-release this album on CD in its original form. In any event, this is a "must have" CD for any serious SRV fan.Free Music Review: really good. good as any live album.
Hit: 5 Stars
this is a really good live album. some of the songs he sings are first timers for him like Superstition or I'm Leaving You (Commit a Crime). but all and all, a really great album.Free Music Review: Not His Best
Hit: 4 Stars
Stevie's contract mandated that he produce another album. He was so strung out on drugs at the time that he was unable to produce new material. A live album was all he was able to come up with. The available material (mostly the Montreaux performances) evidently didn't meet the highest standards of quality so a lot of overdubbing was done. Stevie's drug induced monologue at the end of Life Without You was an embarrassment to many of his friends and colleagues.
BUT IT'S STILL STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN AND THEREFORE FANTASTIC!!!!! The CD still rocks. It still has some great guitar work. As far as I'm concerned it's still a good piece of work. This was the first SRV tape I got, and I was not disappointed. SRV was a great guitarist. Period. This CD is also great.
But his other stuff is much better.
Free Music Review: ****1/2. Much underrated
Hit: 4 Stars
The late Stevie Ray Vaughan rocked on stage. His rendition of Howlin' Wolf's "Commit A Crime" may lack the raw punch of Wolf's original, but that's a minor complaint...most of this album is simply excellent, filled with gems from Vaughan's first three albums.
Stevie Ray's muscular and versatile guitar playing is sublime, with more grit than most of his studio orginals. His vocals are good, too, and the song list is magnificent, featuring the rare, non-LP track "Willie the Wimp" about the bizarre 1984 funeral of a Chicago "wiseguy".
Other highlights include Vaughan's best song, the superbly groovy "Pride And Joy", as well as "Look At Little Sister", "Cold Shot", "Love Struck Baby" and the slow blues "Texas Flood" and "Ain't Gone 'N' Give Up On Love", but there are really no weak songs, and this album should appeal to fans of both blues and rock music.
The sound is good, although not always crystal clear, and the band is excellent. Several songs actually sound better in this live setting than on the original studio albums, partly because of the blistering blues-rock arrangements which include keyboards (piano and organ).
Apparently some people feel that Vaughan's playing wasn't up to his usual standards when this album was recorded, that he must have been having a bad night or something. I've heard a lot of live SRV, and I can't make any sense of that claim, especially since "Live Alive" wasn't recorded during just one show, but actually incorporates cuts from different concerts in both 1985 and 1986. He must have been having some bad years, then, and this myopic claim sounds particularly absurd when it is brought forward by people who then go on to praise Stevie's "Live At Montreux" album. Several of these performances are from, yes, you guessed it, the very same 1985 Montreux performance.
Contrary to what some people have apparently heard and chosen to believe, this is a very enjoyable, soulful live album, and it is highly recommendable to anyone with an interest in Stevie Ray Vaughan, or contemporary blues and blues-rock in general.