Karm Rambles About Pieces of Music (KRAPMusic)

[Karmelo]

First blues, first eighties, first tri--Aw, Muse. Anyway.

Album: Texas Flood
Band: Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble
Year: 1983
Genre (Relative!): Blues (Rock)
Number of Tracks: 10
Summary: I'm having trouble writing a summary, so I'll just tell what you expect, like I should have been doing: Stevie Ray Vaughan kicks the crap of the guitar and vocals on this. There's some fun bass now and then, and well, there might be a drummer in there too. No one's really sure.
Track by Track Notes:
1) Love Struck Baby - Certainly not the bluesiest song on the album, this one hits with a fast tempo and that's about it to start with, not really sticking out with anything. The solo's good, but nothing compared to what we're getting into. Not really sure why this is the opening track, although it's not bad, just a bad introduction. Also: Shortest song, so hard to say much.
2) Pride and Joy - Here's some blues, babes. This is a wellknown one, standard blues sound for the most part with a lot of fun guitar bits thrown in there because it's Stevie Ray Vaughan. The bass is bouncy fun, and the solos are great fun. Hm, not much to say, I guess.
3) Texas Flood [Helium] - This is what I'm talking about. The guitar throughout this guy is excellent, and vocals are so bluesy. The trade-off between them bugged me when I first it, now I love it. I'm not in love with the solo as a lot of people are, especially the abuse of the whammy is kinda hit or miss to me, but it's still good stuff. Sidenote: Relistening, even though the bass is pretty simplistic in this song, it seems to stand a lot throughout this album. Perhaps because the drums don't stand out at all in any of these songs? This is an excellent blues song is what I'm trying to say.
4) Tell Me - Pulling out a standard blues rhythm, this song comes out as a pretty standard blues song. Solo is sweet but short, and he does some really bluesy vocals at the end that I probably shouldn't giggle at but I do.
5) Testify - Ah, the Isley Brothers. Is this the first cover I've done? Is the first instrumental I've done? Oh, right. The intro is a great hook that might go one time too many but really I know when I'm nitpicking, then we immediately go to a solo which is quite excellent. Interesting to note about this song: The drums are actually doing an interesting rhythm throughout, and throwing in some fills. They can't compete with Stevie Ray Vaughan's guitar, but still, kudos for trying at least once on the album. Aw, that was cold. The second solo has some really interesting sounds, although it might sound kinda noisy once or twice to an unsuspecting ear. Sorta ends abruptly, but it's all good fun, so you know, whatevs.
6) Rude Mood [Helium] - Right into another instrumental, I really think this is where the guys shine. I love how wild the guitar is throughout this one. It literally never stops throwing new stuff out, and all of it sounds amazing. The bass does some neat stuff that mostly falls to the background, and kudos to the drummer for doing such a straining, boring rhythm for almost five minutes. But really, I can't touch describing the guitar in this one. It's all over the place, but in my opinion, it's more cohesive than a lot of his solos. It's just...whee! Whee is a good word for it. It's the most energy I've heard packed into a guitar, and it works. Alright, I'm done. But seriously, so much fun.
7) Mary Had a Little Lamb - Hahaha, this makes me smile. That said, the guitar unsurprisingly is very enjoyable as it moves around. It's great fun, and it's surprising in the fact that Stevie Ray Vaughan's voice is really good in it in my opinion. "You know what Mary Had A Little Lamb needs? A solo." He makes it work, ladies and gentlemen. The song seems kinda unneccessary, but he makes it work better than most can, in the fact that's actually a good song.
8) Dirty Pool - Stevie Ray Vaughan a lot of his little movements faster than normal in this song, so he decides to play his normal rhythm faster by alt-strumming like crazy. It actually really sounds interesting, but five minutes? It really doesn't last, even with his little breaks. Also, the vocals are good bluesy fun, but the lyrics are kinda eh to me. Oh, now alt-strumming with no vocals. Seriously, it's not that interesting. Look, vocals drop out for a bit at about 2:50. You alt-strum from 2:55 to 3:45. You're supposed to wild solo things like you do AFTER the vocals come back in here. That was supposed be done when you weren't singing. Fine, it's a unique approach, but it's not where you shine.
9) I'm Cryin' - See Pride and Joy. I wish I was joking. Like, look, it's the opposite lyrically, because it's out of love rather in love, but still, it's INCREDIBLY similar rhythm. Like, so similar. So very similar. Not a bad song, but it's Pride and Joy, dang it. Seriously.
10) Lenny [Helium] - Oh man. This song is so...sweet. Look, let me tell you a story. Stevie Ray Vaughan was actually a wizard. With his guitar as his wand, he made this song a spell that would make any woman fall in love with him. But he wrote it for his wife, and only he could play it. There might be exaggerations in there, but man, this song is just...I mean, wow. It's so touching. Really laid back, it's amazing he could do this. It's amazing that the man who is known for that solo in Texas Flood is able to make something this ...beautiful. It's a shame this isn't is most wellknown song. It's just so great in my opinion. Honestly. Amazing. Should have sent a poet.
Final Verdict: Mm. I was going to say a good'un, but I feel I'll bump it down to an alright'un so I can emphasize how great Rude Mood, Texas Flood, and especially Lenny are. Pride and Joy, Mary Had A Little Lamb, and Testify wouldn't be bad to hit either; everything else is pretty missable (hence why too lazy to fetch video links), I guess, although not bad.
Anything Else I Feel Like Adding Because You Can't Stop Me:
-Pride and Joy was in GH3, it was an abysmal, abysmal cover version though
-Pride and Joy was originally written for his wife Lenora, but she believed it was about a past girlfriend so he wrote another song for her. I think that's pretty whiny, but the song he wrote for her is Lenny, so I am so glad about that.
-Texas Flood was in GH, it was an alright cover
-Rude Mood was nominated for a Grammy as best instrumental. It lost to Sting? What.
-The album was released for RB (I've had it on my list to review since the beginning though, I swear)
-The album was also nominated for a Grammy
-Hey people, if you find better videos for those songs, that'd be awesome. Especially because the Lenny video seems to skip for me and that is awful, awful, awful.

I'm going to try to hit two tomorrow if all goes as planned.

All never goes as planned.