Albert King story - In Blue Dog News 8

Albert King. Albert King. One of the icons of the blues. What is there I can say that's not been said before. Probably nothing. In Blue Dog News 8 I´m going to tell the Albert King story and point to some great recordings from the seventies which deserves more attention. I´m also going to tip you of some "musthave" CDs. The tips are here. If you already are familiar with the King story and want to see which tracks I think are neglected you should probably click on this link. If you find my story boring I strongly recommend these links:

The Blue Flame Café have an Albert King biography
Cdbb lists several Albert King albums. But due to an extremely slow connection I haven´t been able to follow the links. Try it anyway.

My version of the Albert King story largely depends on the Leif Gäverth version in Jefferson 77. If you want to read an Albert King discography buy Jefferson 78. Please let me thank Mr Leif Gäverth just not for the Albert King story, but also for all the other great Jefferson articles and record reviews he have written through the years. Thank you Mr Gäverth! The other sources I used are from several Albert King album liner notes, other articles and other web sites.

Albert King

Albert King was born in April 1923 in Indianola, Mississippi. His father was a priest and he left the family when Albert King was five years old. He also left 13 children and Albert's mother. Albert's mother found another man, Will Nelson. Mr Nelson played a little guitar and must have been one of Albert Kings first influences. The family didn´t stay in Mississippi for long, they moved to Forest City, Arkansas.
In Forest City Albert King learned at the age of six to construct a "diddleybow", or maybe it should be called a "onestring guitar". When Albert became nine years old he made the classic cigarbox guitar. This kind of guitar is, if I understand it right, very difficult to make, so Albert probably got some help creating this guitar. Anyway, the young Albert King listened to Blind Lemon Jefferson, Memphis Minnie, Lonnie Johnson and later T-bone Walker. Albert's musical career started in the vocal group The Harmony Kings.
When Albert King grew up he left Forest City and worked in Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas as a "bluecollar worker". What other choices did a black man have then? At eighteen Albert bought his first guitar. an acoustic Guild. He wasn´t very aware of the instruments restrictions so he played it upside down, left-handed as he was. If you play the guitar the wrong way it´s hard to play chords so Albert tried to make the guitar sound like the human voice instead. And did he succeed! Albert King continued to work as a bulldozer driver, but in the evenings he played the blues for his work mates. In the late 1940´s Albert moved to Little Rock and there he bought his first electric guitar and amplifier.

Albert King didn´t stay long in Little Rock- He moved to Osceola. Arkansas, where he played with the Groove Boys, Junior Anderson, song, Eddie Snow, piano, song, Benny Moore, ts, LT Taylor. bs and Bob Starr drums. This band became quit famous in the Osceola region. Albert King even played the drums behind the legendary Robert Nighthawk at this time! Albert's musical career really developed now and he played with everyone he could play with. But the music scene in Arkansas was to small for a man of Albert Kings caliber. so he tried to establish himself in St. Louis and when that didn´t turn out well he moved to Gary, Indiana. A strange place for a bluesman, if I may say so. But the trip to Indiana turned out successful. Albert King met Jimmy Reed and John Brim. The three of them used to play together with Albert on drums. Albert King even played the drums on some of Jimmy Reeds vintage recordings

Jimmy Reed recorded for the VeeJay label in Chicago, so Albert King went to Chicago and, by the word of Muddy Waters, contacted Al Benson, the owner of Parrot Records. The Parrot deal turned out well and Albert's first recordings were made. On November 30 1953 Albert King went into a record studio for the first time and Parrot 798 was made. The songs were not very good, but I think you´re able to hear some traces of the typical Albert King sound already. These first two tracks are "(Be on your) Merry Way" and "Bad Luck". You can find them on the Albert King/Otis Rush Chess album. The single sold pretty well and Albert could continue playing around St. Louis/Gary. After six years hard work Albert King was ready to go back to a studio again. This time it was Bob Lyons Bobbin Records whom saw the talent which hid in Albert. The Bobbin deal gave birth to eight tracks. I haven´t heard these tracks in a long time, but they should be a must in every serious blues collection. In this period Albert recorded songs like "Let´s have a natural ball" and "I´ve made nights by myself". Son Seals, who used to play drums for Albert King, have made a fantastic version of the last song on his B.L.U.E.S cassette. For more information of Son Seals I recommend you though check out Blue Dog News 5. The Albert King sound was almost perfected now. For the guitar freaks out there I must tell that it´s during these recordings Albert first used a Gibson Flying V.

After the Bobbin sessions Albert first recorded for King Records, who had already had released some of the Bobbin tracks, and then in in 1964 for Countree Records. The Albert King sound with that special mix between blues and soul now was fully developed but Albert's career didn´t seem to fulfill the promises the Bobbin success had implied on. In 1966 everything fell in place for Albert. He signed a contract with the soul company Stax. The Stax period turned Albert King from a local celebrity to a blues superstar. Michael Bloomfield have summarized Albert's success with Stax in a Guitar Player interview in 1977:

"Between AL Jackson´s productions, the Booker T. and the MG´s rhythm section, the choice of material, the Memphis Horns, and Albert´s playing, he was the only bluesman I know of who had a completely comfortable synthesis with modern black music - R&B, so to speak - and sold copiously to a black audience as well as the white audience. He was the only singer who had clever, modern arrangements that would fit in with the black radio market and with the white market and in no way compromised his style."

The Stax period gave birth to songs as "Laundromat Blues", Albert´s biggest hit, "Born under a bad sign", "Personal Manager", "Cold Feet", "Blues Power", "Angel of Mercy" and "I´ll play the blues for you". Bloomfield said above Albert never compromised his style. I think the fact Albert just was Albert no matter whom he played for is an explanation of his big success with both black and white markets. Albert King, and especially the 1968 live set "Live Wire/Blues Power", must be one of the strongest bluesinfluences on the 60´s/70´s rock music. In the late sixties the rock music scene in USA exploded. In California Bill Graham started to book acts with all the important and big rockstars at the time, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Steppenwolf etc. Graham soon found out that the great rockstars almost worshipped genuine bluesmusicians and that they wanted bluesacts to start the shows. BB. King, Freddie King and especially Albert King became a part of the Fillmore family. This period between 1966-1974 must be the absolute top period in Albert King´s musical life, He recorded his best work and he sold more than ever. In 1968 Albert recorded a Elvis Presley tribute album, " King does the Kings Thing", well, it´s just as exciting as it sounds like..., 1969 Albert returned to the studio and did "Years gone by". Here you´ll find one of Albert´s best songs, "Drowning on dry land pt 1 & pt2". Get this song!
Oh well, I´m not going to mention all the albums Albert did, but "I´ll play the blues for you" from 1972 and "I wanna get funky" from 1973 are both a must in a serious Albert King collection. I should mention, if you don´t want to buy them all, that there are several very good compilations with Albert King´s stax material.

After 1975 Albert King´s career starts to halt. Stax looses its fight with economy and the musisc scene changes. The bluesmen falls in a gap between rock and soul and must try to adapt to the changing market. Albert tried the soulpath with varied success. King´s new record label is the RCA distributed Utopia. In 1976 the album "Truckload of loving" came. It´s too produced and the backup choir doesn´t make it better. The same year the next album was released, "King Albert". This album was produced by the soulveteran Don Davis and the soul and funk influences have taken charge. I must admit I don´t think the album is that bad. Sometimes it´s rather funny! But the funk should have been funkier and the blues should have been bluesier. Also in 1976 (!) the next album, on Tomato, was recorded, titled "Albert". I haven´t heard this album, but I´ve read it´s the best of Albert´s post-stax´70´s material. In 1978 the fourth album in two years hit the recorddisks, "New Orleans heat". I think the album is a bore, but other reviewers says just the opposite. I guess you have to find out yourself. Any way, the album is recorded in New Orleans with very able people. It´s produced by Cosimo V. Matassa and recorded in Allen R. Toussaint´s Sea-saint recording studio.

Albert didn´t return to the recording studio in the next five years, but he continued to tour constantly. Albert King live is an experience to remember. He was so big and he played his guitar so hard. Shucks! But Albert is also known for his bad temper on stage. He complained on the sound and his musicians. His tour bands, at least in 80´s, seldom had the time to rehearse properly and the wages were low. In 1983 King made a new album "San Francisco -83". The seventies era was over and Albert returned to straight blues. The straight blues approach is also true on Albert´s next album "I´m in a phone booth, baby" (Yes, it´s the Robert Cray song). Albert even plays "Dust my broom"! It´s a solid blues album, but a bit tame I think. The tremendous force is not there anymore.

Albert now got to know Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Vaughan was very inspired of King. You just have to listen to Stevie Ray´s solo on David Bowie´s "Let´s Dance". It´s a perfect Albert King solo! Albert only made one more album after 1984, "Red House" on Essential Record, in 1991. Some of the songs on the album is better than some of the others... There are a couple of real nice slowblues, but it´s hardly Kings best recordings. In 1990 Fantasy released unreleased material from the Fillmore gigs. Check them out.
Albert did make a kind of comeback in the last trembling years of the 1980´s when Gary Moore got himself into the blues. There is a cool video with Gary and Albert playing "Oh, Pretty woman", where Albert waves his hat when Gary plays his solo... Gary Moore´s tribute came in the last minute. On December 21, 1992, Albert King died at 69 years of age.

Must Have CD´s

"Ultimate Collection" Rhino (RHCD 71268)	If you want to have just one CD, buy this double CD. Covers the period 1953-1984
Blues for you -The best of (Stax CDSXD 120)	A 77 min. collection with the best known Stax songs
Years gone by (Stax CDXCD 045)	The LP plus ten more tracks. You could probably combine this with the CD above.
Live Wire/Blues Power (Stax SCD 4128)	The classic Albert King live album, and the album who turned a whole generation of white rock listeners to Blues-l fanatics...
Blues at Sunset (Stax SCD 8581)	A combination of two of Albert Kings´classic liveacts, the Wattstax- and the Montreux concert. Listen to the first notes on "Got to be some changes made". This is how the old testament God would have sounded if he played guitar!

Five songs which deserves to be listened at:

Albert King have recorded a lot. Some of the songs have turned into blues standards and classics. But there are some equally good songs which are not listened at as much. I want to change that! The songs are:

Cold Sweat
I wanna get funky
Walking the back streets crying
Answer to the Laundromat Blues
Can´t you see what you´re doing to me

Tommy Jansson