Live Alive
Live Alive is the first live album compiled from four live performances by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble. The performances were recorded on July 15, 1985 at the Montreux Jazz Festival; July 17–18, 1986 at the Austin Opera House; and July 19, 1986 at Dallas Starfest. Much of the album was overdubbed in the studio.[2]
| Live Alive | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Live album by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble | ||||
| Released | November 15, 1986 | |||
| Recorded | July 16, 1985 at Montreux Jazz Festival July 17–18, 1986 at Austin Opera House July 19, 1986 at Dallas Starfest | |||
| Genre | Electric blues, R&B, funk | |||
| Length | 70:26 | |||
| Label | Epic | |||
| Producer | Stevie Ray Vaughan, Double Trouble | |||
| Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
The 1985 Montreux performance was much better received than the 1982 visit, when some of the crowd booed Vaughan's hard blues sound. The song selection for Live Alive displays many of SRV's biggest influences: Jimi Hendrix ("Voodoo Child (Slight Return)"), Howlin' Wolf ("Commit a Crime"), and Buddy Guy ("Mary Had a Little Lamb"). The song "Don't Stop By The Creek, Son" (Johnny Copeland) was performed at the 1985 Montreux show but was omitted from the CD release.
The album received mixed reviews. The album was praised for Vaughan's live playing, his ability to improvise and his ability to make covers sound like his own, but was criticized for Vaughan's uneven playing (mainly caused by his drug abuse), and the lack of the typical Vaughan sound.
"I'm Leaving You (Commit a Crime)" is incorrectly credited on the album to C. Burnett, better known as Howlin' Wolf. Although Howlin' Wolf was the first to record the song on the album The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions, it was written by James Oden, although Bill Janovitz says otherwise on www.allmusic.com.[3] The title is also incorrect, because "I'm Leaving You" is a completely different song by Howlin' Wolf. The song was originally titled "What a Woman!", but was released in 1981 (after Wolf's death) as "Commit a Crime" on the album "All Night Boogie". It is not unlikely that the title used on Live Alive was an honest mistake, since the lyrics start with "I'm leaving you woman, before I commit a crime". When Kenny Wayne Shepherd recorded the song for his 1995 album Ledbetter Heights, he carried on the mistake and used Stevie Ray Vaughan's title for the song, and also credited Howlin' Wolf as the writer.
Track listing
All tracks are written by Stevie Ray Vaughan, except where noted.
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Say What!" | 4:51 | |
| 2. | "Ain't Gone 'n' Give Up on Love" | 6:24 | |
| 3. | "Pride and Joy" | 5:04 | |
| 4. | "Mary Had a Little Lamb" | Buddy Guy | 4:15 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5. | "Superstition" | Stevie Wonder | 4:43 |
| 6. | "I'm Leaving You (Commit a Crime)" | Chester Burnett | 5:35 |
| 7. | "Cold Shot" | W. C. Clark, Michael Kindred | 5:40 |
| 8. | "Willie the Wimp" | Bill Carter, Ruth Ellsworth | 4:38 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9. | "Look at Little Sister" | Hank Ballard | 2:44 |
| 10. | "Texas Flood" | Joseph Wade Scott, Larry C. Davis | 4:13 |
| 11. | "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" | Jimi Hendrix | 9:37 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12. | "Love Struck Baby" | 3:46 | |
| 13. | "Change It" | Doyle Bramhall | 5:04 |
| 14. | "Life Without You" (Appeared only on vinyl and cassette copies) | 9:30 |
Personnel
- Stevie Ray Vaughan – guitar and vocals
- Tommy Shannon – bass
- Chris "Whipper" Layton – drums
- Reese Wynans – keyboards
References
- Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble / Stevie Ray Vaughan Live Alive Accessed March 22, 2019
- Quote from Tommy ShannonThe Guitar Magazine Vol 6 No 2, January 1996
- "Commit a Crime - Howlin' Wolf | Song Info". AllMusic. Retrieved 2019-03-22.