Please contact me with your opinions and reviews of any import or bootleg CDs youve heard or have and Ill add them to this list.
Each CD title is linked to the track listings and venue information at Bob Willmot's site.
Page 26sep02
G-Ray
- A really good quality boot.
- excellent quality
- a great album. Excellent sound, excellent show.
- get it! The quality is great.
- an enthusiastic YES!!! G*RAY is a bootleg CD version of the Live at the El Mocambo video. This show was also released (officially) on laser disc. As a result this CD is of very high quality and DEFINITELY worth the $20-$30 bucks thatd youd probably have to pay (thats standard for bootleg CDs). Personally, its probably my favorite
SRV disc (I love Hug You Kiss You).
Goin' To San Antone
- I received a copy of Goin' to San Antone. One of the songs I heard was Slim Harpo's Shake your hips. In the lists it's called Hip hip baby, but I suppose that's a different song. The ballad called Through the night on several imports, is the Guitar Junior (aka Lonnie Brooks) song: Broken hearted rollin' tears, released on Goldband 1068 in 1957. By the way, Oh yeah is Ray Sharpe's Oh, my baby's gone on Dot 15974 in 1958.
Going Down
Gone Fishin'
- Gone Fishin' is a well balanced audience recording with very good to excellent sound quality. Stevie's guitar is up front and his vocals are very clear.
- The 2 cd set is an excellent cd. The show is excellent and the sound is clear. It is an audience recording with some slight crowd noise, but the levels on the vocals and music are high enough that without the audience noise, you might mistake this for a soundboard recording. This is the only performance live of pipeline that I know of.
Good Vibes At The Spectrum
- Killer sound and a great performance. Because the sound is so
good, you hear all the little details very well. I love it. Very powerful show.
- Someone gave this CD a really good review, and I agree that the Spectrum tracks are
good. However, I think everyone should now that the songs on that CD, from the Reading Rock
Festival, are WAY fast. Definite speed problem there--sounds like a Chipmunk tribute to
SRV!
- As already recognised, the Reading material runs 8% to 10% fast. Also note that there is a glitch in Texas Flood that is not there on the 59 Fender Stratocaster. Another Midnight Beat error --what a shame.
Greatest Hits Live
Greatest Hits Live
Guitar Boogie
- My fav boot is Guitar Boogie 1978 Austin. Killer old SRV doing some of my favorite tunes like Freddie King's Tore Down.
- Hate to tell you this but most of that album (Guitar Boogie) is the Steamboat 1980 concert
commercially released. Different song order and recorded at a slower speed. Check it out
yourself. Stevie never played the same way twice. On these 2 cd's he does. It does contain 4
songs that are not on the steamboat CD though.
- I have Guitar Boogie and it was recorded in Austin in 1978 and the quailty is so-so. I can't remember the actual price I paid but it was no more than $15.00 But it does have Rockin' Daddy on it, it kicks major ass.
- I think that Guitar Boogie is the same as In The Beginning, only with extra bonus tracks. I got a tape of this recently, thinking it was something that I didn't already have, and discovered that this was a crappy recording of In the Beginning (commercial version) and Don't Mess With Texas (bootleg). If the tape is any indication of the sound quality of the Guitar Boogie disc, DEFINITELY do not buy Guitar Boogie, but do buy Don't Mess With Texas. The sound quality difference is night and day.
Hawk On Fire
- El Mocambo [July 1983] is available on two different CD's: G*Ray and The Hawk On Fire. Both are excellent quality. Hawk on Fire has 3 extra tracks that are not on the video: Little Wing, You'll Be Mine, Love House.
- excellent sound
- Has both a great show and great sound quality. Three Jimi tunes including a smokin' Little Wing. Over 79 min of music - this is a must have.
- Little Wing on Hawk On Fire isn't the version Stevie originally performed at El Mocambo. The version is from 10-20-83 Ripley's Music Hall! (Information about buying radio shows.) As far as I know, the only boot known that contains Stevie's Little Wing from El Mocambo is Accolades.
Hello Y'All
Important information about Colorado/New Mexico concerts and the supposed Auditorium Shores concert. Information about buying radio shows.
- The Superstar Concert Series radio show is the original source for all the boots [Westwood One Radio Networks, 2 CD, broadcast the weekend of April 24, 1993. The audio quality of the broadcast discs is excellent. Of the three CDs of this venue: Hello Ya'all [Home Records] is at the bottom of the list quality wise. Colorado & New Mexico [Aulica De Luxe, 2CD] and Cold Shot [Discurious, 2CD] both have excellent sound quality and are the only ones that are complete.
- Hello Y'All... recorded (a good recording by the way) in Colorado 1989. The tone about half way through Voodoo Chile S/R is wicked. He manages to perfectly duplicate Hendix's tone
Homage To The Blues
Hound Dog Man
- An excellent quality CD, one that you play on your decent hi-fi, HOWEVER the mix drifts on a number of the tracks and SRV's guitar is pushed into the background on some of the live tracks. This starts part way through the first track -- Ain't gone 'n' give up on love -- which also has a glitch at 4.37. Fortunately the longest tracks, Tin Pan Alley, and Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) which are excellent quality do not suffer from this mixing problem. Voodoo Chile also includes Power of Soul with SRV throwing in some of the lyrics.
The House is Rockin'
Important information about Colorado/New Mexico concerts and the supposed Auditorium Shores concert.
The House is Rockin' 2
Important information about Colorado/New Mexico concerts and the supposed Auditorium Shores concert.
In 1978 There Was...
In Concert and Jamming
In Italy
- The (sound) quality is very good.. The playing! What great concerts! Subtle, jazzy sometimes, excellent! Pure fun to listen to.
- The song Mary Had a Little Lamb, on In Italy is a huge version. Stevie plays around with this song, stretching limits every way. Very original phrasing.
- Worth it to buy it. It's even better than I expected!
Track-by-track comments: The Scuttle Buttin'/Say What intro is intense! It is the best version of these two songs I have yet heard; Lookin' out the Window and Look at Little Sister, which often don't translate well when played live, sound quite good here, and Stevie's guitar work at the end of Sister is sublime; Mary Had A Little Lamb is so different than any other version I have heard, that I was taken aback when I first heard it - Stevie has a great time, plays real slow, then suddenly real fast, but always with consumate grace and power: fantastic!; Pride and Joy is also different than most versions: Stevie has a great time and ends the tune with a superb solo; Texas Flood is a blistering masterpiece: enough said!; Superstition and Willie the Wimp are fairly standard here, which is to say, quite good; Couldn't Stand the Weather is a joy: everybody plays great and Stevie ends the tune with explosive power.
The sound is quite good and it is really too bad that more stuff from 1988-1990 hasn't been
transcribed to CDs. Pick it up if you see it!!!
- the best version of Couldn't Stand the Weather I have heard
In Memoriam
- complete King Biscuit Flower Hour, superb sound
- The King Biscuit Flower Hour [DIR Radio Network] was a syndicated radio show that
specialized in live performance broadcasts. The KBFH material notation on the boot list means
Excellent to superb quality multi-track recordings of some of Stevie's finest performances.
- TO DATE, the main problem with KBFH broadcast discs [and their boot CD copies] is that
they include only a few songs from each performance. To make matters worse, DIR reissued the
same show many times, all with the same track list. There are only two versions of SRV KBFH
shows.
Now the good news! The good folks at Swingin' Pig Records, in their infinite wisdom,
have released In Memoriam [TSP-CD-205-1,2,3, 3 CD set]. IM contains the complete,
unedited KBFH recordings, including the tracks that were not broadcast on
KBFH. To my ears, this set is without a doubt, some of Stevie's finest moments, both in
performance and audio quality.
- One problem with boot cd's is the people aren't always concerned with quality and some sound pretty homemade. Often they do not use actual master recordings, nor did they manufacturers follow standard post production practices, so that the recordings lack a full sound, are thin and generally compressed prior the the intial recording. Many sound like recordings made of a radio broadcast and then put onto cd, not master tapes used to make the broadcast. With the exception of FON II, First Concert in Europe and In Memorium and Nashville 78, and First Thunder I have yet to see a bootleg cd for which there was not a better sounding analog cassette recording available.
- sound quality unreal, great performances.
- I am sitting here listening to the 1st CD of In Memorium and I am amazed at The Man all over
again. This stuff is unbe@*#$inglievable!!! Excellent sound quality, man I love bein on this list!!
- This is a 3 CD box of three different shows (2 in '83 and 1 in '84). I just got it and I am amazed.
- The shows are all club shows and the sound quality is exellent. SRV plays with that guitarslinger
tone and feel that characterized so much of his early work. CD 1 has a KILLER Little Wing/Third Stone From The Sun that I had read references to and it does not disappoint If you can find In Memorium I strongly recommend it.
- I heartily agree with whoever posted about how good this set is - both in sound and performance
- 3 disc set of KBFH radio b-casts (various dates) Not much to add here that hasn't been said before. Radio broadcasts that were transferred *properly* onto CD. Two shows from Montreal in '84 and one from Philly in '83. Great quality sound - 'nuff said!!
- Killer sound and a great performance. Because the sound is so
good, you hear all the little details very well. I love it. Very powerful show.
- Three of the best CDs (boot or commercial) of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble in
existence anywhere. BTW, did I mention that it is 175 minutes of the most incredible intoxicating
music!!?? 'Nuff said...except that it is a must have.
- I wish commercial releases sounded as good. The bass is so well defined it almost seems
3-dimensional. In fact the whole mix seems 3D. This set obviously came straight from the master.
Whoever recorded it knew what they were doing. I wonder if was a digital recording? Once again
the bootleggers surpass the labels. No wonder they want to shut them down. In a way I think
Sony did us a favor when they passed on these tapes. They would have chopped the shows up and
probably EQed the sound. Thanks Sony! Long live Swingin' Pig!
- sound quality unreal, great performances
- With the exception of this and a few other CDs, I have yet to see a bootleg cd for which
there was not a better sounding analog cassette recording available.
- This beautifully packaged 3 cd set has the King Bisquit flower hour shows from 83 and 84, BUT they are more complete than the radio broadcasts. The Montreal 84 show is COMPLETE. The other show may be (as Stevie often played 2 shows per night at that venue, as short show is a definite possibility).The best thing (besides Stevie and the band's playing) is that the discs were recorded using the master tapes (sbd) NOT a tape of an FM broadcast. So, there is not FM compression and the frequency range of these discs is unparalleled. You can hear the bass and drums like you have NEVER heard them before on a Sony release. Great stuff.
In Steppin'
Important information about Colorado/New Mexico concerts and the supposed Auditorium Shores concert.
In The Big Easy
In The Open
- According to Craig Keyzer's collector's list, Robert Cray performed with the early version of Double Trouble at Fat Friday, Gilroy, CA., 20aug79. I don't know if the material above is from that same show or not, so I'd like for somebody who has the Fat Friday show on tape to do a comparison with this title and see if they might be the same. The material above is super clean so it may be from the radio broadcast of the Fat Friday show from that time.
It's Still Called The Blues
- ...the first tune is just Buddy and the band, he brings SRV out on the second tune. Rarely have I heard sound quality this good on a boot CD, great performance, killer duets with Buddy Guy... Nice change from the usual setlists found on most SRV boots...worth the outrageous price they
charge for the so-called imports.
- a great record with a very good sound and a lot of wild and freaky guitar
work.
- Way above average and that it is a must have if you are both an SRV and
Buddy Guy fan...one of the top five to get. Sound quality is very good. Sound quality, tracklist etc.
- Same as Birthday Jam NEITHER of these are audience recordings. BOTH are from the board and have excellent sound quality. ISCTB is about one point better
in the audio quality department. The last 3 tracks on BJ are not part of the birthday jam, they are SRV from a different venue and date. a doubt, these live Birthday Jam recordings capture some of Buddy's and Stevie's best moments.
- an excellent recording with some great songs.
- My humble opinion on this is that this is way above average and that it is a must have if you
are both an SRV and Buddy Guy fan...one of the top five to get.
- Just listened to this thing for the first time and was blown AWAY!!! 'Champagne and Reefer' is absolutely awesome.
- That's one of my favorites, too. Great, great show!
- It was Buddy's birthday, and he said he had a lot of friends he could ask to come and celebrate his birthday with him onstage, and Stevie showed up, and he was really happy about that. He was praising Stevie on this too. I think this is a great recording, and their dueling guitars are super good, with great interchange in their talking and playing. (My copy has very good sound quality, too).
vince@srvrocks.com