Product Description

By the summer of 1982 Stevie Ray Vaughn was already a veteran of the Southern blues circuit. Desperately searching for his big break he was asked to play "Blues Night" at the annual Montreaux Jazz Festival in Montreaux Switzerland. Playing like his life depended on it Stevie put on a fiery performance - full of future SRV classics like "Pride and Joy" and "Love Struck Baby." The audience could have cared less. Every song Stevie played was greeted by an increasing wave of boos and hisses and he left the stage bewildered and heart-broken.As fate would have it the would be the most important single show Stevie ever played. In attendance at the festival were two figures who would prove instrumental in Stevie's subsequent rise to stardom: David Bowie and Jackson Browne. They immediately recognized Stevie's raw talent and limitless passion. Asia result Jackson Browne offered Stevie the opportunity to record (free of charge) at his own studio the tapes would be Texas Flood - Stevie's first studio album for Epic Records. In addition Stevie was asked to play on Bowie's hugely successful Let's Dance album and tour.Three years later when Stevie was invited back to headline "Blues Night" at the festival the crowd now familiar with Stevie's songs and albums treated him like the conquering hero. And Stevie again played like his life depended on it because as we all came to recognize and respect that was the only was he knew how.Format: DVD AUDIO Genre: MUSIC DVD/CONCERTS Rating: NR UPC: 074645863092 Manufacturer No: E2D58630

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4513 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2004-09-14
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD-Video, Live, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .35 pounds
• Running time: 160 minutes

Amazon.com
If you have even a passing interest in Stevie Ray Vaughan's peerless mastery of urban blues guitar, you must own Live at Montreux 1982 & 1985. Spaced almost exactly three years apart, these concerts (60 and 93 minutes, respectively) represent the Texan blues god at his fiery best, with Double Trouble (drummer Chris Layton and bassist Tommy Shannon) laying the solid foundation upon which SRV built a Fender-driven sound as fierce as it was perfectly refined. The '82 show was truly "success in disguise," because despite booing from a festival audience lulled by a day of acoustic blues, and the stunned dejection that SRV felt after persevering through a uncompromising set, this was the turning point in SRV's career, leading to post-show encounters with Jackson Browne and David Bowie, who proved instrumental in bringing Stevie's music to an appreciative global audience.

When Stevie, Chris, and Tommy returned to Switzerland three years later, with organist Reese Wynans adding rich new dimension to the Double Trouble sound, the Montreux crowd was primed for a rip-snorting set, and SRV's jubilant response is a joyous thing to witness. One of SRV's favorite bluesmen, Johnny Copeland, appears for a three-song triumph in a set that's uniformly superior and ecstatically energized. Basic three-camera coverage is all you need, although guitar students--for whom this DVD is a godsend--will surely wish for more emphasis on SRV's picking and fretwork. Recording quality is superb in the Montreux tradition, with 5.1-channel remixes that surpass the original masters. A splendid 23-minute documentary features retrospective interviews with Layton, Shannon, Browne, and John Mayer, and the accompanying booklet includes a heartfelt reminiscence from Bowie. Stevie Ray may be gone, but Live at Montreux ensures that his gold-standard legacy will endure. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Stevie Ray - Live
A legend in my time - rocks and thumps to a beat only he can drive home.. recommended . A great visual treat for Stevie fans....

Great show, not so great quality
This is a fantastic Stevie Ray Vaughan show which shows the true guitar skills of Stevie Ray. Any true fan will need to own this show simply to hear his masterfuil guitar shredding. The sound quality isn't great, but at a normal level of sound, it's fine. The only problem is the bass is a little off when you turn it up.

If you like SRV, you MUST get this DVD set!!
I'm a long time fan of SRV and Double Trouble. This DVD shows his big break at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1982. I recommend watching the 15 minute documentary on disk 1 before watching the show. It gives the background information on the show itself, the fact that David Bowie and Jackson Brown were in the audience that night, and tells about the jam session that Jackson Brown and his band had with SRV and his band that lasted all night long!! David and Jackson were blown away as you will be with the awesome raw talent and never endning chops that SRV demonstrated everytime he played. What will shock you the most, is the fact that some people in the crowd were actually BOOING SRV the entire show and when he left the stage in 1982. SRV was crushed by this, but his future track to stardom was set in motion that night because David Bowie and Jackson Brown knew pure talent when they saw it! Thank goodness they were there, otherwise we might have never known what we would miss in this legendary Blues guitarist. SRV comes back in 1985 to Montreux as the headliner as it only took a couple of years for him to be recognized as the guitar god he truly was. I put this DVD set at the very top of my list for MUST have!! You will too once you get it, the price is unreal on Amazon, places like Best Buy wanted 4 times the money for it, you can't go wrong for the content of this set, and the price at Amazon won't dent your pocket book, it's a WIN WIN no matter how you look at it! GET THIS DVD!!