Texas Flood |
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Released: June 13, 1983 Peak: 38 US, -- UK, 15 CN, 46 AU Sales (in millions): 2.0 US, 0.06 UK, 2.06 world (includes US and UK) Genre: blues |
Tracks:Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts.
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Rating: 3.822 out of 5.00 (average of 15 ratings)
Quotable:“This album is the kind of raw double shot of blues and rock that made Vaughan one of the 1980s’ best in-concert performers.” – Ted Drozdowski, Amazon.comAwards:(Click on award to learn more).
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About the Album:While he became “the fallen torchbearer of the ‘80s-‘90s blues revival,” TD2 “Stevie Ray Vaughan was already an underground hero in blues circles and had begun earning national attention for his hard-edged-but-tasteful playing on David Bowie’s Let’s Dance album” TD1 when “this legendary 1983 debut” TD2 arrived. “Blues was no longer hip, the way it was in the ‘60s. Texas Flood changed all that, climbing into the Top 40 and spending over half a year on the charts, which was practically unheard of for a blues recording. Vaughan became a genuine star and, in doing so, sparked a revitalization of the blues.” STE “Produced by legendary talent scout John Hammond,” TD1 Texas Flood “captures the rising guitar star” TD1 “as rockin’ blues purist, paying tribute in his inspired six-string diction to his influences Larry Davis (who wrote the title track), Buddy Guy, Albert King, and Jimi Hendrix.” TD2 In fact, “critics claimed that, no matter how prodigious Vaughan’s instrumental talents were, he didn’t forge a distinctive voice; instead, he wore his influences on his sleeve, whether it was Albert King’s pinched yet muscular soloing or Larry Davis’ emotive singing.” STE “That was sort of the point of Texas Flood. Vaughan didn’t hide his influences; he celebrated them, pumping fresh blood into a familiar genre.” STE However, “Vaughan's true achievement was finding something personal and emotional by fusing different elements of his idols. Sometimes the borrowing was overt, and other times subtle, but it all blended together into a style that recalled the past while seizing the excitement and essence of the present.” STE “This album is the kind of raw double shot of blues and rock that made Vaughan one of the 1980s’ best in-concert performers.” TD1 When Vaughan and his band “cut the album over the course of three days in 1982, he had already played his set lists countless times; he knew how to turn this material inside out or goose it up for maximum impact. The album is paced like a club show, kicking off with Vaughan’s two best self-penned songs, Love Struck Baby and Pride and Joy, then settling into a pair of covers, the slow-burning title track and an exciting reading of Howlin’ Wolf’s Tell Me, before building to the climax of Dirty Pool and I’m Crying.” STE “Vaughan caps the entire thing with” STE “his own contemplative Lenny, a tribute to his wife at the time, … [which] suggests a jazz-fueled complexity that would infuse his later work.” TD2 “Vaughan’s guitar and vocals are a bit brighter and more present” TD2 and “sounds even more dramatic in its remixed and expanded edition.” TD2 “And the newly included bonus numbers (an incendiary studio version of the slow blues Tin Pan Alley that was left off the original release, and live takes of Testify, Mary Had a Little Lamb, and the instrumental Wham! from a 1983 Hollywood concert) illuminate the raw soul and passion that propelled his artistry even when he was under the spell of drug addiction.” TD2 Notes:A reissue adds an interview (SRV Speaks) as well “Tin Pan Alley (aka Roughest Place in Town),” and live version of “Testify,” “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” and “Wham!” |
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First posted 10/4/2010; last updated 3/18/2024. |
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