Track Listing

1. Say What!
2. Ain't Gone 'N' Give up on Love
3. Pride and Joy
4. Mary Had a Little Lamb
5. Superstition
6. I'm Leaving You (Commit a Crime)
7. Cold Shot
8. Willie the Wimp
9. Look at Little Sister
10. Texas Flood
11. Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
12. Love Struck Baby
13. Change It

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7129 in Music
• Released on: 1990-10-25
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Live

Amazon.com
Most live blues recordings have a feeling of intimacy, as if the concerts took place in some out-of-the-way venue for an audience who not only know all the lyrics, but know the performers personally as well. Live Alive, in contrast, feels like a large-scale rock concert, an epic production full of grand gestures. But really, nothing suited Stevie Ray Vaughan's style better; everything, from the overall sound to the solos, feels big. The roar of the audience, especially for favorites like "Pride and Joy," "Cold Shot," and "Texas Flood," is huge but distant, an arena sound. Overall, Live Alive leaves the impression of a series of stellar moments caught on tape, with an intensity rarely captured in the recording studio. --Genevieve Williams

Customer Reviews

Difficult to rate
Pay attention- this album is for srv's fans. Not the best of his live work. This album was greatly redone in the studio so first of all- it's not really that live of an album. Don't get me wrong- there really isn't anything bad on the album Change it may even be a better version. Leaving you and superstition are the only songs not on his other albums that are worth it [ Srv himself remarked after sobering up that he thought willie the wimp was in badtaste and didn't want it on radio]. If you're a big fan go ahead and get it... after you get all the other stuff. If you are a casual fan of Stevie's blues and blues rock and occasional jazz- any of his other albums live or otherwise would be better. It's a good album but at the bottom of stevie's work taking under consideration the availibility of the songs and so on. So buy it if you have his other stuff and can't stand not having these 3 songs.

Not his best
Some good stuff, but not his best. FYI, not to rain on everybody's parade, but this was recorded during the period when the whole band was pretty messed up on drugs and alcohol, and much of it was later overdubbed in the studio because the original tracks were below par. His best live stuff is probably Carnegie Hall...

****1/2. Much underrated
The late Stevie Ray Vaughan rocked on stage. His rendition of Howlin' Wolf's "Commit A Crime" may lack the raw punch of Wolf's original, but that's a minor complaint...most of this album is simply excellent, filled with gems from Vaughan's first three albums.

Stevie Ray's muscular and versatile guitar playing is sublime, with more grit than most of his studio orginals. His vocals are good, too, and the song list is magnificent, featuring the rare, non-LP track "Willie the Wimp" about the bizarre 1984 funeral of a Chicago "wiseguy".

Other highlights include Vaughan's best song, the superbly groovy "Pride And Joy", as well as "Look At Little Sister", "Cold Shot", "Love Struck Baby" and the slow blues "Texas Flood" and "Ain't Gone 'N' Give Up On Love", but there are really no weak songs, and this album should appeal to fans of both blues and rock music.
The sound is good, although not always crystal clear, and the band is excellent. Several songs actually sound better in this live setting than on the original studio albums, partly because of the blistering blues-rock arrangements which include keyboards (piano and organ).

Apparently some people feel that Vaughan's playing wasn't up to his usual standards when this album was recorded, that he must have been having a bad night or something. I've heard a lot of live SRV, and I can't make any sense of that claim, especially since "Live Alive" wasn't recorded during just one show, but actually incorporates cuts from different concerts in both 1985 and 1986. He must have been having some bad years, then, and this myopic claim sounds particularly absurd when it is brought forward by people who then go on to praise Stevie's "Live At Montreux" album. Several of these performances are from, yes, you guessed it, the very same 1985 Montreux performance.

Contrary to what some people have apparently heard and chosen to believe, this is a very enjoyable, soulful live album, and it is highly recommendable to anyone with an interest in Stevie Ray Vaughan, or contemporary blues and blues-rock in general.