STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN
& DOUBLE TROUBLE
Greatest Hits (Epic)
STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN
& DOUBLE TROUBLE
Live From Austin, Texas (Epic Music Video)
“Taxman” was a scare. Amidst the Beatlemania boomerang, Stevie
Ray Vaughan’s take on the Fab Four’s tune was nearly as lame as the
computer-concocted “new Beatles song with John Lennon,” “Free as a Bird.” A
previously unreleased tune from an aborted Michael Jackson-generated Beatles
cartoon, “Taxman” sounds like it’s got a scratch vocal welded onto a one-take
studio toss-off. This is an outtake? Outtake, yes. And unfortunately,
it’s welded to SRV’s Greatest Hits. Just another marketing scam, right?
Right. So, it’s to Vaughan’s everlasting credit that its inclusion on his
label’s maiden hits collection doesn’t stink up the whole album. How could it,
really, when it’s in the company of 10 other SRV chestnuts like “The House Is
Rockin’,” “Tightrope,” “Little Wing,” “Life Without You,” and “Change It”? You
say 11 hits from a rock-solid catalogue of albums is not enough? I say, true,
Rhino Records could’ve probably compiled a far more interesting collection of
material. The fact of the matter is, however, that you just can’t argue with
the 47 minutes on Greatest Hits. These songs taken together equal a disc
that’s as valuable as all those Chess label greatest hits collections from the
likes of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Willie Dixon, and the rest of ’em. SRV
stands tall and in that group of his heroes, it’d probably be incomprehensible
to him that a collection of his hits could be as vital as one of theirs. Did we
mention a beautiful cover photo, and good liner notes from local guitterorrist
Dan Forte? Okay, so maybe the big, bad, bloodsucking, major label vulture Epic
isn’t so bad. Especially not when they have the good sense to strike up a deal
with Austin City Limits to release both of SRV’s appearances on the
Austin-shot PBS postcard show. As writer Forte (again) points out on the box of
this 63-minute video cassette, SRV’s two guest shots on the long-running
program bookend his career. The first, done in 1983, captures a young firebrand
who’s nervously spewing furious blues like Mt. Vesuvius. It’s classic stuff,
really, and of the three songs shot, “Voodoo Chile” (dropped verse and all) is
the real show-stopper. By the time Vaughan returned to ACL in 1989 — clean and
sober — almost everything he layed his hands was show-stopper strong, and the
six tunes taped for that appearance are no exception; “Riveria Paradise,” in
particular, is a stand out. Epic has also had the smarts to include the “Little
Wing” video at the end of the tape, meaning that for now, we can all breathe a
sigh of relief: SRV’s legacy still remains largely unsullied. We’ll check back
next year, to see how the purported box set turns out.
— Raoul Hernandez
This article appears in December 22 • 1995 and December 22 • 1995 (Cover).