Customer Reviews

King of the Blues

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'd pretty much just echo everybody else's praises for this collection, except to add that a HUGE ingredient critical to its success is the presence of Leon Russell. Probably the most distinctive piano player in all of rock 'n roll (his searing keyboard work in "Going Down" is every bit as integral to the song as King's playing & singing), and one of the great bandleaders of all time (witness "Mad Dogs and Englishmen"),he's the perfect sideman for someone of King's stature. Freddie could never coast or else Leon would get the spotlight. Great backup musicians & singers with some killer vocal arrangements too.
There's alot of experimentation (early 70's style) that doesn't always work, but that is always gutsy - remember that this is the blues, an idiom not exactly known for being on the cutting edge. This allows for some of Freddie's most aggressive fretwork - where Clapton stings, Freddie slices!!

Freddie King's Shelter Recordings released by Capital records in the mid 1990's. Some people don't like these recordings but I think they are fantastic as they portray that Mr.Freddie King was much more than a blues or blues rock guitarist. Freddie sang some great songs in this period of his life, especially Percy Mayfield's "Please Send Me Someone to Love". A must for any serious Blues Fiends of great Electric Blues although there is a great cover of his mentor,Jimmy Roger's "Walking by Myself" playing acoustic blues. Just a beautiful experience here folks!

Freddie King was part of the blues triumvirate named King (including BB King and Albert King)that helped to shape the blues and make into the power artform it became and still is today. His magnificent playing and powerful, heart-rending voice is still marvelled at today by modern blues performers.

Tore Down, Keys To The Highway, Going Down, Worried Life Blues, and many other songs on this collection attest to his artistry. This collection is extremely entertaining, and deserves to be heard.

Eric Clapton said he was influenced more by Freddie King than any other blues performer. This collection is a good representation of Freddie's great guitar playing and a good starting place if this is the first time you're listening to him. You'll absolutely love his rendition of "Ain't No Sunshine". It was a shame that he died so young. Regardless he was great and this set proves it.

Essential documentation of Freddie's return/"rediscovery", this set puts in one place everything he recorded in the studio from 1969 to 1973 while under contract to Shelter Records. So you get the original Getting Ready..., Texas Cannonball, and Woman Across the River albums complete in order with bonus tracks PLUS additional previously unreleased tracks (that are quite good).

Certainly the best way to get this material. Other reviewers cover the content (and provide boths sides of it). Uneven production aside there's a lot of inspired Freddie in here and that rises to the top.

Although this is not a retrospective of Freddie King's career (it only covers 1970 - 1973), I thoroughly enjoyed it. There is more of Freddie King's style in Eric Clapton than in any other guitarist I have ever heard, both in his music and his vocals. The majority of this 41 song, double disk collection consist of great covers by artists such as Elmore James, Willie Dixon, Leon Russell (who is all over this album), John Fogerty, Isaac Hayes, Muddy Waters, Bill Withers, Ray Charles, Percy Mayfield and Steve Winwood. His one top 40 hit, Hideaway, is here as well. King was a huge guy, standing 6' 7" and he died at the very young age of 42. And on a personal note, he was the very first blues artist I ever saw live, opening up for Grand Funk at the Boston Garden. It was one of those rare times where the opening act outshone the headliner. Any true Clapton fan should have this in their collection.

great collection of classic tunes from "going down" to "same old blues" to "five long years", what else can you say that wasnt said about freddie, eric clapton states that freddie king taught him how to play the blues with a feeling

This is one of the best blues cds you can buy. Freddie King was an absolute genius of the blues guitar. His big, bright, crisp electric tone is full of soul and is always on the mark, never fluffing a note. His acoustic was just as masterful, warm, full, and soaked with emotion. As powerful as his guitar was his distinctive voice. Eric Clapton was heavily influenced by Freddie and patterned his voice after him. They are so close in fact that people who have never heard King may think it is Clapton! Listen to King's version of "Tore Down", Clapton covers it nearly note for note on "From the Cradle". The material collected here is a treasure trove of blues standards and King classics. Highlights abound and include the Motown flavored soul of "Same Old Blues", funky instrumentals "Hide Away" and "Boogie F***", the moving slow blues of "Walking By Myself" and "That's Alright", and the hard driving "Going Down" and "Palace of the King". King pays ample tribute to blues royalty with covers of the standards "Dust My Broom", "The Sky Is Crying", "Five Long Years", and many others. This is a fantastic collection of 41 tracks by a true member of blues royalty, and is highly recommended.

Listening to Disc 1 reveals why there is so much Freddie King in Eric Clapton's "From the Cradle": King performed with a passion, which is as much a testatment to the genre's emotive force as it is to King himself. That passion also is what stood out in Clapton's all-blues effort of 1995, which sampled much of King's work and style. In "King of the Blues," a listener sees the a major source of that passion in Freddie King -- the energy in Elmore James' "Dust My Broom," the desperate vocals and searing guitar licks in King's powerful signature tune "Going Down" and those rippling single-note solos and fierce rhythmic guitar strokes in "Palace of the King." I found the most endearing tune, however, to be the foot-stomping, shuffle-beat variation of "Tore Down," every bit the equal of King's rock-driven version found elsewhere in his catalog. While Disc 2 has "Hide Away" (albeit a previously unreleased version) and "It Hurts Me Too," it is not as strong as Disc 1 (which has one or two expendable tracks as well). Much of Disc 2 samples his studio work in the few years before his death in December 1976 -- tunes he recorded while trying to revive his career, and tunes I don't think he had his heart into.

Freddie King shows why the blues is such a powerful genre of music with this extensive collection. The emotion he evokes with each note is truly remarkable. It is no wonder why the recent blues legends such as Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan cite Freddie King as one of their greatest influences.