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Albert King (April 25, 1923 – December 21, 1992) was an American blues guitarist and singer. One of the "Three Kings of the Blues Guitar" (along with B.B. King and Freddie King), Albert King stood 6' 4" (192 cm) (some reports say 6' 7") and weighed 250 lbs (118 kg) and was known as "The Velvet Bulldozer". He was born Albert Nelson on a cotton plantation in Indianola, Mississippi. During his childhood he would sing at a family gospel group at a church. One of 13 children, King grew up picking cotton on plantations near Forrest City, Arkansas, where the family moved when he was eight. He began his professional work as a musician with a group called In The Groove Boys in Osceola, Arkansas. He also briefly played drums for Jimmy Reed's band and on several early Reed recordings. Influenced by blues musicians Blind Lemon Jefferson and Lonnie Johnson, but also interestingly Hawaiian music, the electric guitar became his signature instrument, his preference being the Gibson Flying V, which he named "Lucy". King was a left-handed "upside-down/backwards" guitarist. He was left-handed, but usually played right-handed guitars flipped over upside-down so the low E string was on the bottom. In later years he played a custom-made guitar that was basically left-handed, but had the strings reversed (as he was used to playing). He also used very unorthodox tunings (i.e., tuning as low as C to allow him to make sweeping string bends). Some believe that he was using open E minor tuning (C-B-E-G-B-E) or open F tuning (C-F-C-F-A-D). A "less is more" type blues player, he was known for his expressive "bending" of notes, a technique characteristic of blues guitarists. He
recorded his first disc in 1953 for Parrot
Records in Chicago,
but
it made no impact. His first minor hit came in
1959 with "I'm a Lonely Man"
written by Bobbin Records A&R man and fellow guitar hero Little
Milton, responsible for King's signing with the label. However, it
was not until his 1961 release "Don't Throw Your Love on Me So Strong"
that he had a major hit, reaching number fourteen on
the U.S. Billboard R&B chart. In 1966 he
signed with the Stax record
label. Produced by Al
Jackson,
Jr., King with Booker T.
& the MGs recorded
dozens
of influential sides, such as "Crosscut Saw" and "As
The
Years Go Passing By", and in 1967 Stax released the album, Born
Under
a Bad Sign. The title track of that
album (written by Booker
T.
Jones and William
Bell) became King's best known song and has been covered by many
artists (from Cream to Homer
Simpson). Another
landmark album followed in Live
Wire/Blues
Power from
one of many dates King played at promoter Bill
Graham's Fillmore venues. It had a wide and
long-term influence on Jimi
Hendrix, Eric
Clapton, Robbie
Robertson, and later Gary
Moore and Stevie
Ray Vaughan ("Criminal
World", on David Bowie's 1983 release "Let's Dance", features a guitar
solo copied note-for-note from his hero Albert King by young session
musician Stevie Ray Vaughan). In the
1970s, King was teamed with members of The
Bar-Kays and The
Movement (Isaac
Hayes's backing group), including bassist James
Alexander and
drummer Willie
Hall adding strong funk elements to his music.
Adding strings and multiple rhythm guitarists, producers Allen
Jones and Henry Bush created a wall of sound that contrasted the
sparse, punchy records King made with Booker T. & the MGs. Among
these was another of King's signature
tunes for King with
"I'll Play the Blues For You" in 1972. King
influenced others such as Mick
Taylor, Derek
Trucks, Warren
Haynes, Mike
Bloomfield and Joe
Walsh (the James
Gang guitarist spoke at King's funeral). He also had an impact on
contemporaries Albert
Collins and Otis
Rush. Clapton has said that his work on the 1967 Cream hit "Strange Brew" and
throughout the album Disraeli
Gears was
inspired by King. As he hit
his mid-sixties King began to muse about retirement, not unreasonable
given that he had health problems. Nevertheless, when near to
death, he was planning yet another overseas tour. King died
on December 21, 1992 from a heart
attack in Memphis, Tennessee. |