Anyone who followed the Poetry Wednesday tour will have seen the ‘Royalty tour’, we had BB King, King Crimson, The King and I, the ONE AND ONLY KING…..Elvis; but……………where was Freddy King, King of the blues??? I am taking it upon myself to add him in, right here.
FREDDY KING
by Johnny Harper
Freddy King
-- a blazing, masterful blues guitarist, a gorgeous, heartbreaking singer, and a huge influence on Eric Clapton, Jimmy and Stevie Ray Vaughn, and many other peformers -- made his original and greatest recordings for Cincinnati's King/ Federal labels between 1960 and 1966. This places him at the very end of the "golden age" of postwar, electric-guitar-band blues styles -- that is, of the period, from the late '40s to the late '60s, when this music was principally a popular black music form, played by black musicians for black audiences. Freddy's King/ Federal recordings (now reissued on a number of superb compilation CDs) and his live performances of the period (now, amazingly, documented for us on a breathtaking Vestapol videotape issue) were made when these were still the rules of the game -- when the blues was still a popular-folk music style springing from, expressing, heard and enjoyed within, the shared language, style, and experience of black America. That situation would soon change, as the bulk of the black audience turned away from the blues towards newer soul and pop R&B styles, and as a white, rock-based audience emerged to support the blues masters as international concert stars. But in the mid-1960s, Freddy King and his music still flourished in their natural environment.
Thanks for including this King, Loretta. His music is fabulous. I know what the critics would say about his sense of fashion though, but they'll be forgetting this video is from the early 1970's.
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there will never be anyone else quite like him. fantastic music, thank you!
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