Albert King - King, Does The King's Things Label: Stax - STS 2015 Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Stereo Country: US Released: 1969 Genre: Funk / Soul Style: Rhythm & Blues, Soul Vinyl Rip in 24/96 Rip by reeferdude Tracklist Side 1 A1 - Hound Dog A2 - That's All Right A3 - All Shook Up A4 - Jailhouse Rock A5 - Heartbreak Hotel Side 2 B1 - Don't Be Cruel B2 - One Night B3 - Blue Suede Shoes B4 - Love Me Tender Credits Albert King – Electric guitar and vocals Marvell Thomas – Piano and organ Donald “Duck” Dunn – Bass guitar and also Producer and Arranger, with Al Jackson James Alexander – Bass guitar Willie Hall – Drums King Does The King’s Things is the fifth studio album by Albert King. The songs in this album are versions of songs previously recorded by Elvis Presley. On the album sleeve there is a review by Albert Goldman, Music Critic of LIFE Magazine, who says, among other things “For the first time on record, the King of Blues is meeting the King of Rock.” and “…you’re gonna love every minute of this musical feast fit for kings.”. Guitarist Albert King was one of the most significant musical influences on the blues-rock artists of the 1960s. In an era blessed with a wealth of fine blues guitarists, King’s tone and individual style rose above the competition. His single-string solo style was unmatched, and he would bend the instrument’s strings, or use odd tunings to achieve a truly tortured sound. King was one of the first bluesmen to cross over into ’60s soul music, and his style would have an impact on young guitarslingers like Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Influenced By Texas Bluesmen King was born Albert Nelson in rural Indianola, Mississippi – B.B. King’s hometown – but moved with his family to Forrest City, Arkansas when he was eight years old. He taught himself guitar, building his first instrument from a cigar box. King initially sang with the family gospel group, but after hearing Texas bluesmen like T-Bone Walker and Blind Lemon Jefferson, his musical interest turned towards the blues. King quickly developed his unique sound, the left-handed musician playing his right-handed guitar upside down and backwards. He tried playing with a pick and, finding it unwieldy, picked with his fingers and thumb instead. King bought his first electric guitar for $125 from a pawnshop in Little Rock and, after practicing for a couple of years, he began sitting in with the Osceola, Arkansas outfit the Yancy Band. Later, he would play with the local In The Groove Boys while driving a bulldozer during the day. Moving To Chicago (Or Thereabouts) King moved to Gary, Indiana (near Chicago) in 1953. Joining a band that included guitarists Jimmy Reed and John Brim, King would play drums with the outfit. It was around this time that he changed his name to “King,” prompted by the success of B.B. King’s hit “Three O’Clock Blues.” The guitarist found a champion in Chess Records producer and songwriter Willie Dixon, who arranged for King to record several sides for Parrot Records. Parrot released a just one single on King, “Bad Luck Blues” b/w “Be On Your Merry Way,” and although it achieved respectful sales numbers, King made little or no money for his efforts. King returned to Osceola, and hooked up again with the In The Groove Boys. After a couple of years had passed, King relocated to East St. Louis, and he would hone his six-string skills to a fine edge playing the city’s blues and soul clubs. King recorded for the local Bobbin label in 1959, and scored his first R&B chart hit in 1961 with “Don’t Throw Your Love on Me So Strong,” which Bobbin licensed to King Records. Memphis & Stax Soul Bobbin would also license sides for release by Chess Records, and King would later find some regional success with the St. Louis label Coun-Tree Records. It was when King signed with the Memphis soul label Stax Records in 1966 that he would find major league success, though. Recording with the Stax house band, including keyboardist Booker T. Jones, bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn, drummer Al Jackson, Jr., and guitarist Steve Cropper, King would score hits with such soul-blues romps as “Born Under A Bad Sign,” “Laundromat Blues,” and “Crosscut Saw.” With guitarists like Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton borrowing elements of his unique style, King’s late-1960s work for Stax was tailor-made for white blues-rock fans. Promoter Bill Graham flew to East St. Louis to offer King the then-grand sum of $1,600 to perform at the legendary Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco. King was the first bluesman to play the Fillmore, topping a bill that included Hendrix and Janis Joplin. King would become a regular draw at the venue, and recorded his Live Wire/Blues Power album there in 1968. A Hall Of Fame Career King would leave Stax in 1974 as the label was disintegrating, and he would subsequently record for indie labels like Tomato and Fantasy Records. King became the first blues artist to cross over into the classical realm when he performed with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in 1969, and he would record a jam session with Stax’s Cropper and gospel great Pop Staples, titled Jammed Together, in 1971. Returning to a harder-edged blues sound after signing with Tomato Records during the mid-1970s, King toured extensively throughout the decade and into well the ’80s. His “retirement” during the 1980s would be short-lived, King returning to the road and performing festivals and concerts around the world, frequently with fellow blues guitarist B.B. King. King passed the figurative blues guitar torch on to Stevie Ray Vaughan when the two performed together during a Canadian TV taping in 1983, the session later released in 1999 as In Session. King was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1983, and died from a heart attack in 1992. Recommended Albums: Any of King’s Stax albums hold up well today, but the CD release of 1967’s King of the Blues Guitar includes all of King’s early Stax singles, as well as all of that year’s Born Under A Bad Sign album. Live Wire/Blues Power, from 1968, captures King’s fire and fury onstage at the Fillmore. Fans shouldn’t be confused by the 1972 Stax release I’ll Play The Blues For You and the 1977 Tomato Records album of the same name – the latter is a live album that features only four songs from King, the remainder from fellow blues great John Lee Hooker. Something all fans of music should enjoy. Elvis’s hits with some blues grooves and tight horns to freshen them up. Albert simply smokes on this album, from end to end. Duck Dunn on the fat strings is about as funky as it gets. Love Me Tender is excellent, but just about anyone not named Miley Cyrus could sing that and it would sound good. Fun record for sure. About The Record Label Stax Records is an American record label, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the label changed its name to Stax Records in 1961. It was a major factor in the creation of the Southern soul and Memphis soul music styles, also releasing gospel, funk, jazz, and blues recordings. While Stax is renowned for its output of African-American music, the label was founded by two business siblings, Jim Stewart and his sister Estelle Axton (STewart/AXton = Stax). It featured several popular ethnically-integrated bands, including the label’s house band, Booker T. & the M.G.’s, and a racially integrated team of staff and artists unheard of in that time of racial strife and tension in Memphis and the South. Following the death of Stax’s biggest star, Otis Redding, in 1967, and the severance of the label’s distribution deal with Atlantic Records in 1968, Stax continued primarily under the supervision of a new co-owner, Al Bell. Over the next five years, Bell expanded the label’s operations significantly, in order to compete with Stax’s main rival, Motown Records in Detroit. During the mid-1970s, a number of factors, including a problematic distribution deal with CBS Records, caused the label to slide into insolvency, resulting in its forced closure in late 1975. In 1977, Fantasy Records acquired the post-1968 Stax catalog, as well as selected pre-1968 recordings. Beginning in 1978, Stax (now owned by Fantasy) began signing new acts and issuing new material, as well as re-issuing previously recorded Stax material. However, by the early 1980s no new material was being issued on the label, and for the next two decades, Stax was strictly a re-issue label. After Concord Records acquired Fantasy in 2004, the Stax label was reactivated, and is today used to issue both the 1968–1975 catalog material and new recordings by current R&B/soul performers. Atlantic Records continues to hold the rights to the vast majority of the 1959–1968 Stax material. Nitty Gritty 2.0 RCM Milty Zerostat Gun Thorens TD-166 MKII RB250 Tone Arm with Cardas Incognito Wire Audio Technica AT-09C Audio Alchemy Vac-In-The-Box Preamp w/ Upgraded PS2 Power Supply ASUS Xonar DS ADC Recorded with Goldwav @ 32/192 Float All Declicking done manually with ATH-M50s/LE headphones via Light Harmonic GeekOut 450 DAC/Amp in Izotope RX Adv 3 Converted to Flac with DB Poweramp – Compression level 5 Properly Tagged with MP3 Tag 2.70 Replay Gain Set with Foobar foobar2000 1.3.8 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1 log date: 2015-09-02 19:32:19 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Analyzed: Albert King / King, Does The King’s Things -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DR ...
mrs-b-b