Rory Gallagher and Stevie Ray Vaughan box-set announcements make the Newt holler “fuckin-AAA!”

photo by Bob Geldof. Yes, that Bob Geldof

By Steve Newton

It’s been a wonderful week for fans of blues-rockin’ Strat masters Rory Gallagher and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

First off came the announcement on Tuesday that on October 20 Sony Music/Legacy Recordings will release the 40th-anniversary expanded deluxe-edition of Gallagher’s Irish Tour ’74 album. That was the double-album recorded in late December ’73/early January of ’74 in Belfast, Dublin, and Cork that featured the Irish guitar legend ripping it up on originals like “Tattoo’d Lady” and “Walk on Hot Coals” and covers of J.B. Hutto (“Too Much Alcohol”) and Tony Joe White (“As the Crow Flies”).

The new box set will feature, for the first time ever, all three shows packaged in an 8-disc set that includes no less than 43 previously unreleased tracks and the feature-length documentary directed by Tony Palmer.

Did I mention how the news of this package made me holler “fuckin’-AAA”?

Then–as if a massive box set of Rory Gallagher live weren’t enough to get any red-blooded rock-guitar freak foamin’ at the month–on Wednesday came word that on October 28 Epic Records/Legacy Recordings will issue a whopping 12-disc package titled Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble: The Complete Epic Recordings Collection.

This riff-riddled collection isn’t quite as thrilling as the Gallagher set because it doesn’t include any previously unreleased selections, but it does feature–as well as the brunt of Vaughan’s live and studio albums–A Legend in the Making: Live at the El Mocambo, which was originally released for promotional purposes only in 1983.

So if you’re a Vaughan fanatic who wasn’t in the biz back then and didn’t score a free copy, there’s one good reason to splurge. Hey, I’m a Vaughan fanatic who was in the biz back in ’83. Where the fuck was my free copy!?

Anyway, I hate to end this celebratory blog on a sour note, but I’m hoping the hockey pucks down at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame score themselves these two sets and play them nonstop until they finally realize that without both Rory and Stevie in their hallowed hall it ain’t really rock and roll at all.