Saturday 25 April 2020

Albert King born 25 April 1923


Albert Nelson (April 25, 1923 – December 21, 1992), known by his stage name Albert King, was an American blues guitarist and singer whose playing influenced many others He is one of the three performers (together with B.B. King and Freddie King) known as the "Kings of the Blues."

Albert King was born in Indianola, Mississippi, the same town where B.B. King grew up. However, on his Social Security application in 1942, his birthplace was entered as “Aboden, Miss.,” likely based on his pronunciation of Aberdeen. King, who gave his birth date as April 25, 1923, was raised primarily in Arkansas. As a child, he sang with his family’s gospel group at a church where his father played the guitar. When King was eight, his family moved to Forrest City, Arkansas and he would pick cotton on plantations in the area. Around that same time, King bought his first guitar, paying only $1.25. His first inspiration was T-Bone Walker.

King began working as a professional musician when he joined a group called In the Groove Boys in Osceola, Arkansas, in the late Forties. He then moved north and played drums with Jimmy Reed, both onstage and on several early Reed recordings. In the early Fifties, King moved to Gary, Indiana, and then, in 1953, to Chicago. It was in Chicago that King cut his first singles, “Lonesome in My Bedroom” and “Bad Luck Blues,” for Parrot Records.

The electric guitar quickly became King’s primary instrument; his preferred instrument being “Lucy” a Gibson Flying V that he played left-handed, holding it upside down and tuning it for a right-handed player. Standing 6′ 4″, and weighed 260 pounds, known as “The Velvet Bulldozer”, he was a major influence on blues & rock guitar players, some say without him, modern guitar music would 
not sound as it does, his style has influenced both black and white blues players from Otis Rush and Robert Cray to Gary Moore and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

In 1956, King returned to St. Louis and formed a new band. He resumed recording in 1959 and scored his first minor hit, “I’m a Lonely Man.” The song was written by Little Milton, who was an A&R man for Bobbin Records, the label that released the record. King recorded for several other small labels during this period, including King Records. In 1961, he scored his first major hit, “Don’t Throw Your Love on Me Too Strong,” which reached Number 14 on the R&B chart.


                            

King’s real breakthrough came in 1966, when he moved to Memphis and signed with Stax Records. Working with producer Al Jackson Jr. and backed by Booker T. and the M.G.’s, King recorded such classics as “Crosscut Saw” and “As the Years Go Passing By.” In 1967, Stax released Born Under a Bad Sign. 
The title track became King’s best-known song and has been covered by many artists, including Cream, even though they titled it “Strange Brew”. (Clapton’s solo is a note-for-note cover of King’s solo on his Stax Record hit “Crosscut Saw”). King played many shows at promoter Bill Graham’s Fillmore East and the Fillmore West venues. One show was recorded and released as the album Live Wire/Blues Power.

In 1969, King performed live with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, forming what was called an “87-piece blues band.” During the early Seventies, he recorded the album Lovejoy with a group of white rock singers and an Elvis Presley tribute album, Albert King Does the King’s Things. By 1970s, Albert King was releasing one album a year. His albums were steady sellers, consistently entering the US Billboard 200 and the US R&B Charts. King continued to tour throughout the Seventies, and in June 1970, he joined the Doors onstage at a show in Vancouver, Canada.

King’s sound underwent a major change in the Seventies, as he teamed up with the Bar-Kays and the Memphis Horns on the albums I’ll Play the Blues for You and I Wanna Get Funky. That partnership gave his music a much funkier sound than it had on his earlier recordings, and the former album’s title track became one of his signature songs. King also worked with Allen Toussaint and some of the Meters during this period.

During the Eighties, King received considerable praise from many young blues guitarists, most notably Stevie Ray Vaughan. The two appeared together on the Canadian television show In Session in December 1983, a performance that was issued on CD in 1993. One British writer described Vaughan as a “young Texan who apparently believes that Albert King is God and the Lord should be praised regularly.”

King announced his retirement in the mid 80.s,, but it was short-lived -- Albert continued to regularly play concerts and festivals throughout America and Europe for the rest of the decade. He continued to perform until his sudden death in 1992, when he suffered a fatal heart attack on December 21. His final concert had been in Los Angeles two days earlier. He was given a funeral procession with the Memphis Horns playing "When the Saints Go Marching In" and at his funeral, Joe Walsh played a slide-guitar rendition of “Amazing Grace” as a tribute to King. He was buried in Paradise Gardens Cemetery in Edmondson, Arkansas, near his childhood home.

(Edited mainly from rockandrollparadise.com)

14 comments:

boppinbob said...

For “Albert King - On My Merry Way – Singles As & Bs –
The Earliest Sessions of the Guitar 1954-1962” go here:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/3NttbuFj


1. BE ON YOUR MERRY WAY
2. BAD LUCK BLUES
3. OOH-EE BABY
4. WHY ARE YOU SO MEAN TO ME?
5. NEED YOU BY MY SIDE
6. THE TIME HAS COME
7. LET'S HAVE A NATURAL BALL!
8. BLUES AT SUNRISE
9. I WALKED ALL NIGHT LONG
10. I'VE MADE NIGHTS BY MYSELF
11. TRAVELLIN' TO CALIFORNIA
12. DYNA FLOW
13. DON'T THROW YOUR LOVE ON ME SO STRONG
14. THIS MORNING
15. I GET EVIL
16. WHAT CAN I DO TO CHANGE YOUR MIND?
UNISSUED PARROT SESSIONS
17. LITTLE BOY BLUE
18. HAND ME DOWN BLUES
19. MURDER
20. BAD LUCK
21. MERRY WAY
UNISSUED BOBBIN SESSIONS
22. SEARCHIN' FOR A WOMAN
23. CALIFORNIA
24. WILD WOMAN
25. WON'T BE HANGIN' AROUND
26. HOWLIN' FOR MY DARLING (Calling On My Darling)


Albert King doesn't require much of an introduction, he was one of the 'Three Kings of the Blues' and arguably next to B.B. he was perhaps the most popular of the many genuine blues guitarists to have been adopted by the rock world during the mid-1960s. Albert began playing in the late '40s and made his first recordings in 1953 and it is these early sessions that are the focus of this outstanding collection from Jasmine. Includes tracks 'Blues At Sunrise' his fine version of Tampa Red's 'Little Boy Blue' and his hit song 'Don't Throw Your Love On Me So Strong' plus many other superb tracks. Albert King influenced many artists including Mick Taylor, Eric Clapton, Mike Bloomfield and Stevie Ray Vaughan. This then is Albert King's first tentative steps towards global popularity compiled in chronological order.(Jasmine notes)

Thanks to acmmijas blog for original post.

shagasha said...

Thanks for the Albert King postings. The graphical representations of the contributors were very helpful.

Crab Devil said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Joop said...

Hello Bob,

A big thanks from your old Multiply pal.

Joop greets

Roffe said...

Hello Bob,

What an amount of albums you provide here. That will take some time to go through this. But it will be very enjoyable to see which ones I miss.
Thanks //Roffe

Dennis said...

Thank you Bob and Friends

An embarrassment of riches indeed.

Eltoro said...

Hello Bob,
Because the firt link is not valid anymore, would you please re-upload “Albert King - On My Merry Way – Singles As & Bs –
The Earliest Sessions of the Guitar 1954-1962” ?
Thank you very much.
Vince

boppinbob said...

Hello Eltoro, Here's Albert

https://www.upload.ee/files/14111658/Albert_King_54_62.rar.html

Eltoro said...

Hello Bob,
Thank you very much for the link.
Cheers
V

Eltoro said...

Thanks again Bob, it's great, all first sides of Albert King are awesome.
This is murder... :-)

Erson Mol said...

all links are dead :(

boppinbob said...

hello Emerson Moi, I am looking for the "On My Merry Way" Cd.
In the meantime here’s a revised selected discography.

A big thank you to all the up-loaders listed below for active links. Please note, I do not have any of the albums below, but at the time of this comment they are all active. Once gone they are gone!

Bluesever @ The Blues That Jazz**
Chris @ yousayblues blog.***
Muro @ murodoclassicrock4.blog (PASSWORD: muro) ****


1967 - BORN UNDER A BAD SIGN:**
https://yadi.sk/d/fK5TzK7p8WM2Z

1969 - YEARS GONE BY:**
https://yadi.sk/d/pgnac6P6nrhDCg

1970 - BLUES FOR ELVIS - KING DOES THE KING'S THINGS:**
https://yadi.sk/d/HV6WgrqW8WYBP

1971 - LOVEJOY:**
https://yadi.sk/d/cEbgc3I48WOcB

1973 - BLUES AT SUNRISE (Live at Montreaux):**
https://yadi.sk/d/yPWtslWD8WJd1

1974 - FUNKY LONDON:**
https://yadi.sk/d/504rha4E8W1OR

1977 - KING ALBERT:**
https://yadi.sk/d/YkclySqZ8VlC3

1978 – CHICAGO: **
https://yadi.sk/d/kc14UVA28WRxR

1979 - NEW ORLEANS HEAT:**
https://yadi.sk/d/X5fc0K2G8W3Y3
1981- BLUES ALLEY (live):****
https://uloz.to/file/rZyifdo8C235/ak81-zip

1983- SAN FRANCISCO ’83:****
https://uloz.to/file/w2igbI2OTJpx/ak83-zip

1989 - MILANO BLUES FESTIVAL:**
https://yadi.sk/d/X-J7YsZk8WX21

1993 – THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION (2CDs):***
https://1fichier.com/?euzcf7vv05
https://1fichier.com/?d6e9u58tdm (please note there’s a 10 minute wait for CD2)

boppinbob said...

NEW LINK for “Albert King - On My Merry Way – Singles As & Bs –
The Earliest Sessions of the Guitar 1954-1962” go here:

https://www.imagenetz.de/dvi37

Eltoro said...

Hi boppinbob,
Thanks for the link.
I don't know yet how to upload but if you are interested, I always can send what I have in CD by WeTransfer (like "Years Gone By" with bonus tracks, for example) :

https://www.discogs.com/release/10452995-Albert-King-Hard-Bargain
https://www.discogs.com/release/16249147-Albert-King-Live-Wire-Blues-Power
https://www.discogs.com/master/1445904-Albert-King-La-Force-Tranquille-Du-Blues
https://www.discogs.com/release/1949808-Albert-King-Talkin-Blues
https://www.discogs.com/release/4940929-Albert-King-Years-Gone-By
https://www.discogs.com/release/6827239-Albert-King-Lets-Have-A-Natural-Ball
https://www.discogs.com/release/6992472-Albert-King-Otis-Rush-Door-To-Door
https://www.discogs.com/release/5414893-Various-Vintage-Blues

I only need an address email