Note: this release was originally purchased as a cassette tape, later replaced by a CD.
Ahhhh, some blues boogie grooves do this Texas boy a world of good. A labor of love between two brothers joined with the brilliance of producer Nile Rodgers. Jimmie is a better vocalist than Stevie Ray, but Stevie Ray is a better guitarist than Jimmie. So it all works out. It might be sacrilegious to say this, but this is my favorite SRV album simply because it's more R&B pop without being straight up blues. The album won a couple of Grammy awards, but didn't come close to having a Top 40 hit (Tick Tock peaked at 65). A pure road trip album - this is perfect for speeding down the highway with the windows down, volume at 11.
Tracks: All 10 tracks are great fun for me to hear; I don't skip anything. I'm not saying it's the best track, but my favorite is the instrumental Hillbillies From Outerspace. My other top tracks are White Boots, Long Way From Home, and Telephone Song. I never understood the decision to release Tick Tock as the album's lead single since its soulful sound, while very enjoyable, is much different than every other track on the album. That must have surprised a lot of people that bought the album hoping to hear more along the lines of that track.
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: When I originally bought this tape, I was living in a small town that had two stores where one could purchase music: Wal-Mart on the east side of town and K-Mart on the south side of town. For a brief time, a local independent record shop opened across the street from the Sonic. I really wanted the store to make it, so I went in one afternoon and bought a few items, including this tape. By the time I went back for more a few weeks later, it had closed.
The aforementioned Hillbillies From Outerspace was once used as background music for my answering machine message back in a time when I was meticulously creative about such things. You remember the huge answering machines with the two little cassette tapes, don't you?
Previously revisited for the blog:
Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble - Greatest Hits (1995)
We are in complete and total agreement on this one.
ReplyDeleteThe only answering machine we ever had had no tapes and voice mail was introduced shortly after we got married if I remember correctly.
Before my family migrated to the desert in 1981, we lived in a small town in Illinois. There were two places to buy albums, singles and 8-tracks: one was the Gibson's/Pamida on th edge of town (and I could be horribly misrememebering the name of that department store) and this guy's house on the main street in town across from the Burger Chef. He closed in his porch and I'd say half the house was set up with bins. There were three rooms: the porch had all the new releases while another room was popular music and the third, smallest room was classical and jazz. Lots of burning incense. I only bought three or four albums there and thinking back it didn't seem creepy then (my Dad was always there with me, looking for music on his own) but in retrospect, It kind of does. Ask me about the old man who turned his porch into a candy shop across the street from our elementary school. A dollar's worth of cherry Zotz and I'd be set for weeks.