It would be easy to tear apart
\nSoul To Soul<\/i>, the third effort from Stevie Ray Vaughan and
\nDouble Trouble, as an album recorded on excesses. Vaughan was
\nadmittedly in the throes of a full-blown addiction to drugs and
\nalcohol at the time this disc was recorded, and he was one short
\nstep away from bottoming out — and eventually rebounding before
\nperishing in a helicopter crash in 1990.<\/p>\n
It would be easy to write this disc off as the aftereffect of a
\nterrible bender — as I was fully prepared to do before reaching
\ninto the overstuffed “inbox” at the Pierce Memorial Archive. But it
\nwould also be inaccurate to do so without giving the music a
\nserious listen. Sure, this disc was not up to the standards that
\nVaughan and his band had set for themselves — there’s no question
\nabout it. But this disc is hardly the recipe for disaster that you
\nmight think it is.<\/p>\n
After all, isn’t this the disc that brought us such classics as
\n“Look At Little Sister,” “Lookin’ Out The Window” and “Change It”?
\nIsn’t this the disc that certified that Vaughan could have just as
\neasily been a killer jazz guitarist? Isn’t this the disc that
\nfeatured “Life Without You,” the track that would eventually be the
\nsong that Vaughan would use to preach his message of sobriety?<\/p>\n
Granted, the solos that Vaughan was cranking out didn’t quite
\nhave the bite that older tracks seemed to have. If anything, there
\nare times that it almost seems like the volume on Vaughan’s guitar
\ntracks was turned down a few notches so that it would blend in with
\nthe rhythm track. Tracks like “Say What!” and “You’ll Be Mine”
\ndon’t have the kind of lasting power that other Vaughan
\ncompositions had. And, thanks to
\nThe Sky Is Crying<\/i>, the first version of “Empty Arms” has
\nbeen reduced to a rather half-assed approach to the song. I’ll
\nfreely admit I thought the version from
\nThe Sky Is Crying<\/i> got seriously overplayed, but I’ll gladly
\ntake that version over the
\nSoul To Soul<\/i> version any day.<\/p>\n
But there is enough on
\nSoul To Soul<\/i> to suggest that no matter how drug-addled
\nVaughan’s life might have become, he still knew how to kick things
\ninto overdrive when the moment called for it. His cover of “Come On
\n(Part III)” and his bluesy take on “Ain’t Gone ‘N’ Give Up On Love”
\nshow that Vaughan still knew what to do with his craft, even if he
\nhad fallen prey to some personal demons.<\/p>\n
In fact, some of Vaughan’s live performances helped to make some
\nof these tracks into classics. I used to have a bootleg tape of
\nVaughan featuring shows recorded in 1984 and 1986 that highlighted
\n“Lookin’ Out The Window” and “Look At Little Sister” performed back
\nto back. The sonic attack of these two songs was incredible – and
\nif you were fortunate enough to hear these performed live, they
\nhelp to enhance the already-great studio versions.<\/p>\n
The remastered CD features two unreleased cuts, including a
\nsnippet of an interview Vaughan did in 1989. The brevity of one of
\nthe tracks, “Slip Slidin’ Slim,” can explain why it didn’t get
\nreleased the first time around – then again, it was a solid effort
\nfrom Vaughan, so we’re left to wonder why it wasn’t tacked on the
\nend of the album as a bonus. The other track will sound familiar to
\npeople, again thanks to
\nThe Sky Is Crying<\/i>. The medley of “Little Wing \/ Third Stone
\nFrom The Sun” leaves no doubt that Vaughan was one of the best
\nstudents of Jimi Hendrix, right down to the unique guitar sound he
\ngot from his Stratocaster. Note that this isn’t the same version of
\n“Little Wing” that’s on
\nThe Sky Is Crying<\/i>, so it’s not like you’re paying twice for
\nthe same track. Just hearing Vaughan’s take on “Third Stone From
\nThe Sun” should pique your interest.<\/p>\n
Vaughan as a jazz guitarist? Listen to “Gone Home,” and see how
\nfar-fetched an idea it was. Again with the volume turned down on
\nhis guitar parts, Vaughan makes a convincing argument that he could
\nhave probably mastered any musical genre that was thrown his way,
\nhad he only lived long enough to try.<\/p>\n
Is
\nSoul To Soul<\/i> a perfect album? Hardly. But it’s also hardly
\nthe disaster we’ve been led to believe it is. Even though it has
\nmany strong moments, you could consider this Vaughan’s musical cry
\nfor help at times. Not counting the in-concert disc
\nLive Alive<\/i> that would follow this release a year later,
\nVaughan would answer that cry with what became his final release —<\/p>\n
In Step<\/i>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25186,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5991],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-36391","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-stevie-ray-vaughan-double-trouble","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36391"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36391"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}