Stevie Ray Vaughan — Cast of Thousands
For vinyl collectors, there is always that “Holy Grail” that, one day, maybe, if I get really lucky, I’ll own it, this is my story about my search, location and ownership of such a record!
Backstory — I got into SRV in about 2008 and since then have been hooked. Gradually, I started collecting more and more, once the regular releases were out of the way, I started collecting bootlegs and so on. In 2011 I got my first record player, naturally plenty of Stevie Ray Vaughan & DT releases began to follow.
If you want to see my entire collection, hit up the below.
https://au.pinterest.com/davidclarkeau/stevie-ray-vaughan-collection/
Or for only the musical stuff -
Fast forward to 2013, while browsing Discogs I stumble across a title I’ve read about in a few of the SRV books I own, Dallas — A New Hi.
This is the very first known recording of Stevie in the studio, who, at the time, is six-teen-years-old and playing for a band called “Cast of Thousands”, they play 2 tracks on this compilation of local Dallas bands.
See below for the notes of this release.
Rare 1971 original 10-song compilation LP of unknown Dallas bands. Includes tracks by The Mint, Image, Stone Sypher, Blue Persuasion, and Cast Of Thousands. Cast of Thousands was a six-piece band started by Steve Tobolowsky (later an actor), who asked Steve Ray Vaughan to join his band. They perform two tracks on this LP, with Stevie credited as “Steve Vaughan — Guitar”. Also included is a rare 24" x 18" poster insert which has photos of each of the bands. The Cast Of Thousands photo is at the top left and shows Stevie seated in the center playing his guitar. This is Stevie Ray Vaughan’s first appearance on record, when he was just 15 years old.
Stephen Tobolowsky (also a member of Cast of Thousands) himself re-tells this in a way no one else can, have a listen to the clip below. It also features “Red, White & Blue” at the end, see if you can pick when Stevie dials it up to 11. Dang!
Given the significance and rarity of this release, it goes on my wishlist. But honestly, the chances of finding one for sale are fairly slim.
I have an eBay alert setup, no hits for around 3 years, but then, about 6 weeks ago, one comes up with the poster as well! I watch and bid but am sniped by someone at the very last moment…
I decide after a few days that I really need to own this, so I hitup Discogs, find any members who have a copy (there were 2 at the time) and message the first owner.
To my suprise they are happy to part with their copy, sadly it does not include the poster that other copies are sold with, but to me, the most important part here is the music.
We agree on a price and off it ships. Long haul, from California US — Melbourne AUS I wait 2 weeks and it arrives, really well packaged and in great condition, check out the photos of my copy below -
The vinyl itself is in pretty good condition, few surface marks but overall VG+.
Have a listen to my copy below (change quality to HD for best results), it’s not the whole song, just Stevie’s searing Guitar work that completely changes the dynamic of the song @ 0:21 mark.
If you are interested in the second track that COT played, I’ve linked it below, some more great playing from Stevie.
Thank yous — Peter Needham for allowing me to purchase and own a copy of this historic record, thank you Peter!
Update — I was lucky enough to pick up a second copy of this Album and this one included the awesome poster you can see below, vinyl is warped but playable.
