Stevie Ray Vaughan - The Real Deal: Greatest Hits Volume 1

Mid-price mélange from late, great Texas bluesman

The record business’ current problems mean that there’s likely to be an even more rapid turnover of best ofs in the future. So, after several volumes of Greatest Hits, a box set, Martin Scorsese Presents and a 2-CD Essential, this is the latest SRV comp to hit the racks. To think, the guy only recorded four original studio albums.

Eight tracks, including the obligatory classics Pride & Joy, Texas Flood and Cold Shot, duplicate 2001’s Greatest Hits. Surviving Double Trouble member, Chris Layton, believes this package presents ‘a more complete picture of the band’, however, and that is fair comment. SRV’s albums are represented by four, four, four and three tracks respectively, with the bonus of a live The Sky Is Crying from 1984, which was previously only available on the SRV box set.

The material may since have been butchered by a million barroom bands, but SRV was the Johnny Winter of his generation, taking the blues to a young new audience and astounding them with his devil-may-care and daring. It’s the delivery as much as the content that impresses, and no record-company accountant can put a value on that.

SonyBMG | 82876815112

Reviewed by Michael Heatley
<< Back to Issue 334