Albert King
Encyclopedia
Albert King was an American
blues
guitarist
and singer, and a major influence in the world of blues guitar playing.
), Albert King stood (some reports say ) and weighed 250 pounds (113.4 kg) and was known as "The Velvet Bulldozer". He was born Albert Nelson on a cotton plantation in Indianola
, Mississippi
, also the birthplace of B.B. King. Although the two were not related, Albert occasionally referred to himself as "B.B. King's half brother". During his childhood he would sing at a family gospel group at a church where his father played the guitar. 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
. Moving north to Gary, Indiana
and later St. Louis, Missouri
, he 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 enough, Hawaiian music, the electric guitar became his signature instrument, his preference being the Gibson Flying V
which he named "Lucy". King earned his nickname "The Velvet Bulldozer" during this period as he drove one of them and also worked as a mechanic to make a living.
King moved to Chicago
in 1953 where he cut his first single for Parrot Records
, but it was only a minor regional success. He then went back to St. Louis in 1956 and formed a new band. It was during this period that he settled on using the Flying V as his primary guitar. He resumed recording in 1959 with his first minor hit "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. The song was included on his first album The Big Blues
, released in 1962. He then signed with jazz artist Leo Gooden's Coun-Tree label. King's reputation continued to grow in the Midwest, but a jealous Gooden then dropped him from the label. In 1966, he went to Memphis
and 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
). The success of the album made King nationally known for the first time and began to influence white musicians.
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
In 1969, King performed live with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. During the early '70s, he recorded an album Lovejoy with a group of white rock singers, an Elvis Presley tribute album, Albert King Does The King's Things, and a cameo on an Albert Brooks comedy album A Star is Bought.
According to Bill Graham
, "Albert was one of the artists I used many times for various reasons. He wasn't just a good guitar player; he had a wonderful stage presence, he was very congenial and warm, he was relaxed on stage, and he related to the public. Also he never became a shuck-and-jiver. One of the things that happened in the '60s--it's not a very nice thing to say, but it happens to be true--was that blues musicians began to realize that white America would accept anything they did on stage. And so many of them became jive. But Albert remained a guy who just went on stage and said 'Let's play.'"
On June 6, 1970, King joined The Doors
on stage at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver, Canada. He lent his distinctive guitar to blues cuts such as “Little Red Rooster,” “Money,” “Rock Me” and “Who Do You Love.”
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 tune
s "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.
By the late 1980s, King began to muse about retirement, not unreasonable given that he had health problems. He continued regular tours and appearances at blues festivals, using (since the '70s) a customized Greyhound tour bus with "I'll Play The Blues For You" painted on the side. Shortly before his death, he was planning yet another overseas tour. His final album, Red House, was recorded in 1992 and named for the Jimi Hendrix song that he covered on it. The album was largely ignored because of bad production quality (the background instrumentals drowning out King's guitar playing), and original copies of it are scarce.
King died on December 21, 1992 from a heart attack
in his Memphis, Tennessee
home. 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 buried in Edmondson, Arkansas
near his childhood home.
. Next, he built himself a cigar box guitar
, before buying a Guild
acoustic. The instrument he is usually associated with is a 1958 Gibson Flying V, "Lucy." He retired Lucy in 1974 and began using a Flying V built by Dan Erlewine, and after 1980 also one built by Radley Prokopow.
King was left-handed, but usually played right-handed guitars flipped over upside-down. He used a dropped minor tuning
, reportedly C♯-G♯-B-E-G♯-C♯ (but he never used the sixth string).
For amplification, King used a solid-state Acoustic
amplifier, with a speaker cabinet with 2 15" speakers and a horn ("which may or may not have been operative"). Later in his career he also used a MXR Phase 90
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
and singer, and a major influence in the world of blues guitar playing.
Career
One of the "Three Kings of the Blues Guitar" (along with B.B. King and Freddie KingFreddie King
Freddie King , thought to have been born as Frederick Christian, originally recording as Freddy King, and nicknamed "the Texas Cannonball", was an influential African-American blues guitarist and singer. He is often mentioned as one of "the Three Kings" of electric blues guitar, along with Albert...
), Albert King stood (some reports say ) and weighed 250 pounds (113.4 kg) and was known as "The Velvet Bulldozer". He was born Albert Nelson on a cotton plantation in Indianola
Indianola, Mississippi
Indianola is a city in Sunflower County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 12,066 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Sunflower County.-History:...
, Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
, also the birthplace of B.B. King. Although the two were not related, Albert occasionally referred to himself as "B.B. King's half brother". During his childhood he would sing at a family gospel group at a church where his father played the guitar. One of 13 children, King grew up picking cotton on plantations near Forrest City, Arkansas
Forrest City, Arkansas
Forrest City is a city in and the county seat of St. Francis County, Arkansas, United States. It was named for General Nathan Bedford Forrest, who used the location as a campsite for a construction crew completing a railroad between Memphis and Little Rock, shortly after the Civil War. The...
, 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
Osceola, Arkansas
-Notable natives & residents:* Bill Alexander, U.S. Representative from First Congressional District, 1969–1993* David Barrett, New York Jets cornerback* Maurice Carthon, former NFL and USFL player and NFL assistant coach...
. Moving north to Gary, Indiana
Gary, Indiana
Gary is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The city is in the southeastern portion of the Chicago metropolitan area and is 25 miles from downtown Chicago. The population is 80,294 at the 2010 census, making it the seventh-largest city in the state. It borders Lake Michigan and is known...
and later St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, he briefly played drums for Jimmy Reed
Jimmy Reed
Mathis James "Jimmy" Reed was an American blues musician and songwriter, notable for bringing his distinctive style of blues to mainstream audiences. Reed was a major player in the field of electric blues, as opposed to the more acoustic-based sound of many of his contemporaries...
's band and on several early Reed recordings. Influenced by blues musicians Blind Lemon Jefferson
Blind Lemon Jefferson
"Blind" Lemon Jefferson was an American blues singer and guitarist from Texas. He was one of the most popular blues singers of the 1920s, and has been titled "Father of the Texas Blues"....
and Lonnie Johnson
Lonnie Johnson
Alonzo "Lonnie" Johnson was an American blues and jazz singer/guitarist and songwriter who pioneered the role of jazz guitar and is recognized as the first to play single-string guitar solos...
, but also, interestingly enough, Hawaiian music, the electric guitar became his signature instrument, his preference being the Gibson Flying V
Gibson Flying V
-External links:*, , , , and , from the Gibson website*, a June 2001 article from Guitar Collector magazine*, a tribute site that lists all models and re-issues and most notable players**...
which he named "Lucy". King earned his nickname "The Velvet Bulldozer" during this period as he drove one of them and also worked as a mechanic to make a living.
King moved to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
in 1953 where he cut his first single for Parrot Records
Parrot Records (blues label)
Parrot Records was a Chicago-based label founded in 1952 by disc jockey Al Benson. It specialized in blues, jazz, doo-wop, and gospel. The company began operating in earnest in the summer of 1953, and lasted till the middle of 1956. Several Parrot recordings were later released by Chess...
, but it was only a minor regional success. He then went back to St. Louis in 1956 and formed a new band. It was during this period that he settled on using the Flying V as his primary guitar. He resumed recording in 1959 with his first minor hit "I'm a Lonely Man" written by Bobbin
Bobbin
A bobbin is a spindle or cylinder, with or without flanges, on which wire, yarn, thread or film is wound. Bobbins are typically found in sewing machines, cameras, and within electronic equipment....
Records A&R
A&R
Artists and repertoire is the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists. It also acts as a liaison between artists and the record label.- Finding talent :...
man and fellow guitar hero Little Milton
Little Milton
James Milton Campbell, Jr. , better known as Little Milton, was an American electric blues, rhythm and blues, and soul singer and guitarist, best known for his hit records "Grits Ain't Groceries" and "We're Gonna Make It."-Biography:Milton was born James Milton Campbell, Jr., in the Mississippi...
, 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.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
R&B chart. The song was included on his first album The Big Blues
The Big Blues
The Big Blues is a blues album by Albert King, released in 1962 by King Records. Featuring mostly songs composed by Albert King himself, this was his first album and the only one before he signed with Stax Records, where he would record most albums along his career.The album is a collection of...
, released in 1962. He then signed with jazz artist Leo Gooden's Coun-Tree label. King's reputation continued to grow in the Midwest, but a jealous Gooden then dropped him from the label. In 1966, he went to Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
and signed with the Stax
Stax Records
Stax Records is an American record label, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee.Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the name Stax Records was adopted in 1961. The label was a major factor in the creation of the Southern soul and Memphis soul music styles, also releasing gospel, funk, jazz, and...
record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
. Produced by Al Jackson, Jr., King with Booker T. & the MGs recorded dozens of influential sides, such as "Crosscut Saw
Crosscut Saw (song)
"Crosscut Saw", or "Cross Cut Saw Blues" as it was first called, is a bawdy blues song "that must have belonged to the general repertoire of the Delta blues". The song was first released in 1941 by Mississippi bluesman Tommy McClennan and has since been interpreted by many blues artists...
" and "As The Years Go Passing By
As The Years Go Passing By
"As the Years Go Passing By" is a song credited to have been written by ”Deadric Malone″ . Other sources claim that the song was penned by Peppermint Harris for Fenton Robinson, who first recorded it in 1959...
", and in 1967 Stax released the album, Born Under a Bad Sign
Born Under a Bad Sign
-Album reissues:In 1998 Sundazed Records reissued the album with two additional bonus tracks, namely the rare mono single sides "Funk-Shun" and "Overall Junction", both written by Albert King...
. The title track of that album (written by Booker T. Jones
Booker T. Jones
Booker T. Jones is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, record producer and arranger, best known as the frontman of the band Booker T. and the MGs. He has also worked in the studios with many well-known artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, earning him a Grammy Award for lifetime...
and William Bell
William Bell (singer)
William Bell is an American soul singer and songwriter, and one of the architects of the Stax-Volt sound. As a performer, he is probably best known for 1961's "You Don't Miss Your Water" ; 1968's "Private Number" ; and 1976's "Tryin' To Love Two", Bell's only US top 40 hit, which also hit #1 on the...
) became King's best known song and has been covered by many artists (from Cream
Cream (band)
Cream were a 1960s British rock supergroup consisting of bassist/vocalist Jack Bruce, guitarist/vocalist Eric Clapton, and drummer Ginger Baker...
to Homer Simpson
Homer Simpson
Homer Jay Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons and the patriarch of the eponymous family. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared on television, along with the rest of his family, in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
). The success of the album made King nationally known for the first time and began to influence white musicians.
Another landmark album followed in Live Wire/Blues Power from one of many dates King played at promoter Bill Graham
Bill Graham
William Carvel "Bill" Graham, PC QC is a former Canadian politician, who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of National Defence, and Leader of the Opposition and interim Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.-Personal life:...
's Fillmore venues. It had a wide and long-term influence on Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
, Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
, Robbie Robertson
Robbie Robertson
Robbie Robertson, OC; is a Canadian singer-songwriter, and guitarist. He is best known for his membership as the guitarist and primary songwriter within The Band. He was ranked 59th in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time...
, and later Gary Moore
Gary Moore
Robert William Gary Moore , better known simply as Gary Moore, was a Northern Irish musician from Belfast, best recognised as a blues rock guitarist and singer....
and Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stephen Ray "Stevie Ray" Vaughan was an American electric blues guitarist and singer. He was the younger brother of Jimmie Vaughan and frontman for Double Trouble, a band that included bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton. Born in Dallas, Vaughan moved to Austin at the age of 17 and...
In 1969, King performed live with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. During the early '70s, he recorded an album Lovejoy with a group of white rock singers, an Elvis Presley tribute album, Albert King Does The King's Things, and a cameo on an Albert Brooks comedy album A Star is Bought.
According to Bill Graham
Bill Graham
William Carvel "Bill" Graham, PC QC is a former Canadian politician, who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of National Defence, and Leader of the Opposition and interim Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.-Personal life:...
, "Albert was one of the artists I used many times for various reasons. He wasn't just a good guitar player; he had a wonderful stage presence, he was very congenial and warm, he was relaxed on stage, and he related to the public. Also he never became a shuck-and-jiver. One of the things that happened in the '60s--it's not a very nice thing to say, but it happens to be true--was that blues musicians began to realize that white America would accept anything they did on stage. And so many of them became jive. But Albert remained a guy who just went on stage and said 'Let's play.'"
On June 6, 1970, King joined The Doors
The Doors
The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger...
on stage at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver, Canada. He lent his distinctive guitar to blues cuts such as “Little Red Rooster,” “Money,” “Rock Me” and “Who Do You Love.”
In the 1970s, King was teamed with members of The Bar-Kays and The Movement
The Isaac Hayes Movement (album)
The Isaac Hayes Movement was the third studio album released by Isaac Hayes. Released in 1970, it was the follow-up to "Hot Buttered Soul", Hayes' landmark 1969 album. Marvell Thomas had come up with "The Isaac Hayes Movement" as a name for Hayes' backup ensemble. He modeled the name after the Jimi...
(Isaac Hayes
Isaac Hayes
Isaac Lee Hayes, Jr. was an American songwriter, musician, singer and actor. Hayes was one of the creative influences behind the southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both as an in-house songwriter and as a record producer, teaming with his partner David Porter during the...
's backing group), including bassist James Alexander
James Alexander (musician)
James Alexander is an American soul and R&B musician. He is a longtime member of the band The Bar-Kays, for which he plays bass guitar. He also is the father of noted hip-hop and R&B producer Phalon "Jazze Pha" Alexander, whom he named after his best friend and late Bar-Kays bandmate Phalon Jones...
and drummer Willie Hall
Willie Hall (drummer)
Willie "Too Big" Hall was born August 8, 1950, in Memphis, Tennessee. He began his career as a drummer in 1965, while still in high school. He played with the Bar-Kays band and Isaac Hayes's band The Movement...
adding strong funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
elements to his music. Adding strings and multiple rhythm guitarists, producers Allen Jones
Allen Jones (record producer)
Allen Jones was an American record producer.Jones produced several albums for Albert King, and became the producer and manager for The Bar-Kays. He produced all of their records including their last records for Mercury Records. He formed their production company, and produced other acts such as...
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 tune
Signature song
A signature song is the one song that a popular and well-established singer or band is most closely identified with or best known for, even if they have had success with a variety of songs...
s "I'll Play the Blues For You" in 1972.
King influenced others such as Mick Taylor
Mick Taylor
Michael Kevin "Mick" Taylor is an English musician, best known as a former member of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and The Rolling Stones...
, Derek Trucks
Derek Trucks
Derek Trucks is a Grammy Award-winning, American guitarist, songwriter, and record producer. He founded The Derek Trucks Band and worked as a session musician when he was still in his early teens. Throughout those teenage years, he toured with The Allman Brothers Band primarily as a slide...
, Warren Haynes
Warren Haynes
Warren Haynes is an American rock and blues guitarist, vocalist and songwriter. Haynes is best known for his work as long time guitarist with The Allman Brothers Band and as founding member of the jam band Gov't Mule. Early in his career he was a guitarist for David Allan Coe and The Dickey...
, Mike Bloomfield
Mike Bloomfield
Michael Bernard "Mike" Bloomfield was an American musician, guitarist, and composer, born in Chicago, Illinois, who became one of the first popular music superstars of the 1960s to earn his reputation almost entirely on his instrumental prowess, since he rarely sang before 1969–70...
and Joe Walsh
Joe Walsh
Joseph Fidler "Joe" Walsh is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, and actor. He has been a member of three commercially successful bands, the James Gang, Barnstorm, and the Eagles, and has experienced notable success as a solo artist and prolific session musician, especially with B.B...
(the James Gang
James Gang
The James Gang was a rock band formed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1966. Though the band was not a huge commercial success, except in the Northeast Ohio area, the fame garnered by guitarist Joe Walsh has since made the group more notable.- History :...
guitarist spoke at King's funeral). He also had an impact on contemporaries Albert Collins
Albert Collins
Albert Collins was an American electric blues guitarist and singer whose recording career began in the 1960s in Houston and whose fame eventually took him to stages across the US, Europe, Japan and Australia...
and Otis Rush
Otis Rush
Otis Rush is a blues musician, singer and guitarist. His distinctive guitar style features a slow burning sound and long bent notes...
. Clapton has said that his work on the 1967 Cream
Cream (band)
Cream were a 1960s British rock supergroup consisting of bassist/vocalist Jack Bruce, guitarist/vocalist Eric Clapton, and drummer Ginger Baker...
hit
Hit record
A hit record is a sound recording, usually in the form of a single or album, that sells a large number of copies or otherwise becomes broadly popular or well-known, through airplay, club play, inclusion in a film or stage play soundtrack, causing it to have "hit" one of the popular chart listings...
"Strange Brew
Strange Brew
The Adventures of Bob & Doug McKenzie: Strange Brew is a 1983 Canadian comedy film starring the popular SCTV characters Bob and Doug McKenzie, played by Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis, who also served as co-directors. Max von Sydow co-stars....
" and throughout the album Disraeli Gears
Disraeli Gears
Disraeli Gears is the second album by British supergroup Cream. It was released in November 1967 and went on to reach #5 on the UK Albums Chart. It was also their American breakthrough, becoming a massive seller there in 1968, reaching #4 on the American charts...
was inspired by King.
By the late 1980s, King began to muse about retirement, not unreasonable given that he had health problems. He continued regular tours and appearances at blues festivals, using (since the '70s) a customized Greyhound tour bus with "I'll Play The Blues For You" painted on the side. Shortly before his death, he was planning yet another overseas tour. His final album, Red House, was recorded in 1992 and named for the Jimi Hendrix song that he covered on it. The album was largely ignored because of bad production quality (the background instrumentals drowning out King's guitar playing), and original copies of it are scarce.
King died on December 21, 1992 from a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
in his Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
home. His final concert had been in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
two days earlier. He was given a funeral procession with the Memphis Horns playing "When The Saints Go Marching In
When the Saints Go Marching In
"When the Saints Go Marching In", often referred to as "The Saints", is an American gospel hymn that has taken on certain aspects of folk music. The precise origins of the song are not known. Though it originated as a spiritual, today people are more likely to hear it played by a jazz band...
" and buried in Edmondson, Arkansas
Edmondson, Arkansas
Edmondson is a town in Crittenden County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 513 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Edmondson is located at ....
near his childhood home.
Instruments
King's first instrument was a diddley bowDiddley bow
The diddley bow is a string instrument of African origin made popular in America, probably developed from instruments found on the Ghana coast of west Africa. The diddley bow is rarely heard outside the rural south...
. Next, he built himself a cigar box guitar
Cigar box guitar
The cigar box guitar is a primitive chordophone that uses an empty cigar box for a resonator. "Guitar" refers to the traditional instrument and to a string bass. The earliest predecessors had one or two strings compared with the three or more used in today's models...
, before buying a Guild
Guild Guitar Company
The Guild Guitar Company is a USA-based guitar manufacturer founded in 1952 by Alfred Dronge, a guitarist and music-store owner, and George Mann, a former executive with the Epiphone Guitar Company...
acoustic. The instrument he is usually associated with is a 1958 Gibson Flying V, "Lucy." He retired Lucy in 1974 and began using a Flying V built by Dan Erlewine, and after 1980 also one built by Radley Prokopow.
King was left-handed, but usually played right-handed guitars flipped over upside-down. He used a dropped minor tuning
Minor scale
A minor scale in Western music theory includes any scale that contains, in its tonic triad, at least three essential scale degrees: 1) the tonic , 2) a minor-third, or an interval of a minor third above the tonic, and 3) a perfect-fifth, or an interval of a perfect fifth above the tonic, altogether...
, reportedly C♯-G♯-B-E-G♯-C♯ (but he never used the sixth string).
For amplification, King used a solid-state Acoustic
Acoustic Control Corporation
Acoustic Control Corporation was a manufacturer of instrument amplifiers, founded by Steve Marks and based in Van Nuys, California. Its original location was a shack on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, California....
amplifier, with a speaker cabinet with 2 15" speakers and a horn ("which may or may not have been operative"). Later in his career he also used a MXR Phase 90
MXR Phase 90
The MXR Phase 90 is a phaser effects pedal originally designed in the 1970s by MXR.-History:The Phase 90 was released in 1972. It was the first pedal sold by MXR and helped launch the company. The original came in a simple orange enclosure with MXR's "script" logo. In 1977 MXR changed its logo to...
.
DVD and videos
- 1995 Maintenance Shop Blues (VHS), Yazoo
- 2001 Godfather Of The Blues: His Last European Tour DVD, P-Vine Records
- 2004 Live In Sweden, Image Entertainment
Sources
- Bowman, RobRob Bowman (music writer)Rob Bowman is a contemporaneous Canadian professor of ethnomusicology and a music writer. He currently lives in Toronto with both his children....
(1997) Soulsville, U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records, Schirmer Books. ISBN 0-8256-7227-9 - Discography at Lycos Music
External links
- Albert King, Greg Johnson, BluesNotes, September 1999
- Albert King at Rolling StoneRolling StoneRolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...