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You probably saw this coming. Not only did Paul mention blues instrumentals in a Forum topic, but last Wednesday, December 28, was the 40th anniversary of Freddie King’s passing at age 42. Freddie King was a great singer, but we’ll save that for another day (his official bio, lovingly told by his daughter, is in the link in his name).
This album would have been all Freddie King needed to make to prove his instrumental genius for rhythm and melody, phrasing and songwriting once and for all (his frequent songwriting partner was pianist/producer Sonny Thompson). All of the elements that make a great instrumental are found on cut after cut of his 1961 Let’s Hide Away And Dance Away With Freddy King.
The following 3 paragraphs were lifted directly from “Freddie King and the Harsh ‘Business’ of the Blues” (by Ed Ward for NPR).
Texas claims Freddie King as its son. But although he was born on a farm near Gilmer in 1934, King’s real contribution came as one of the young musicians from Chicago’s West Side who challenged the Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf South Side musicians starting in the late ’50s. Guitarists like Otis Rush and Magic Sam played aggressive, virtuosic blues that attracted a younger crowd. Freddie King ran with them.
King was always an innovator, and on his very first record, made for the tiny El Bee label in 1956, he used Robert “Big Mojo” Elem on electric bass, an instrument Elem played in King’s band, but few others in town used.
Freddie King’s big break came in 1960, when King Records opened an office in Chicago. Sonny Thompson, a seasoned veteran of postwar rhythm and blues, was the talent scout, and after learning that Leonard Chess didn’t think Freddie King was worth signing, snapped him up and took him to the label’s home in Cincinnati to record. The very first session in August resulted in “Hide Away,” the song that has been linked with Freddie King’s name ever since. […]
HIDE AWAY
Long before Freddie King played “Hide Away” (or “Hideaway”) lots of other musicians played songs that contained a part of it. It was a tune “everyone” on the West Side of Chicago played their own versions of. Freddie King’s version, named after one of his favorite clubs (Mel’s Hideaway Lounge), entered the Top 10 in the rhythm and blues chart, and even got to No. 29 on the pop charts (numbers 1 through 9 on the playlist, including 3 covers, and below on The !!!! Beat, 1966).
There was one guy who had the whole thing down, that was Freddy King, before he changed the last “y” of his name to “ie” with the release of his first Atlantic/Cotillion album in 1969, Freddie King Is a Blues Master). From everything I’ve read, that was a moment of real satisfaction with his career.Next paragraph adapted from the Wikipedia article, which sounds a lot like something from the notes of Freddie King: King of the Blues (1995), an EMI double-CD overview of his Leon Russell-produced Shelter records (please click on link if you want the more detailed Wikipedia account):
Freddie King acknowledged that “Hide Away” has elements of several songs, but arranged in his own way. Starting with (Hound Dog) “Taylor’s Boogie,” he said he then “got a idea about these breaks and things in there” He credited Robert Jr. Lockwood with inspiring “the diminished chord I used on the break part” “and the thing I put in there like ‘The Walk.’ That came from one of Jimmy McCracklin’s songs, you know, I just pitched it all in like this. Made a commercial thing out of it. But—it sold.” Freddie King also added a section of “The Peter Gunn Theme” from a popular television series of the time. Bill Willis, who played bass at the recording session, recalled the cue King used for that section “He [King] would be playing—like when we did the ‘Peter Gunn’ thing in ‘Hide Away’—and just before he started it, he would take his hand and point it like a pistol at us. ‘Okay, we’re going into “Peter Gunn”.’” The section after “Peter Gunn” features a guitar figure similar to one in “Guitar Boogie Shuffle,” a 1959 instrumental hit (which was based on a 1948 recording by Arthur Smith).
The AllMusic bio says that Magic Sam and Freddie King worked together on creating “Hide Away,” which would explain Magic Sam using the tune for his “Do the Camel Walk” (also in 1961). This isn’t the only instrumental they share; check out the similarities between the main sections of Magic Sam’s “Looking Good” and Freddie King’s “Boogie Funk” (numbers 49 to 51 on the playlist).
“The Walk,” Jimmy McCracklin (1957)
“The Peter Gunn Theme,” Henry Mancini (1956)
“Guitar Boogie Shuffle,” Bert Weedon (1959)
“Guitar Boogie,” Arthur Smith and His Cracker-Jacks (1948)
Due to his success with instrumentals, there was a spate of Freddie King instrumental albums: Let’s Hide Away and Dance Away with Freddy King (1961, released simultaneously with a vocal album titled Freddy King Sings), Bossa Nova and the Blues (1963), Freddy King Goes Surfin’ (1963, same songs as Let’s Hide Away…with audience sounds), Freddy King Gives You a Bonanza of Instrumentals (1965). The titles make a couple sound kind of gimmicky (surfin’? bossa nova?), but the songs I’ve heard are all good ones—and had little to do with bossa nova, except “The Bossa Nova Watusi Twist” (number 40 on the playlist) which sounds better and different than the title would suggest. I haven’t ever seen a physical copy of any of those LPs, with the exception of Let’s Hide Away… In 1965, they must have sensed they were maxxing out; the next album proclaimed Freddie King Sings Again.
ALL THE OTHER SONGS ON THE PLAYLIST
There are multiple Freddie King originals followed by the cover versions on the playlist above.
“Hide Away” is represented by 6 originals and 3 covers (numbers 1 through 9).
“The Stumble” (numbers 10 through 16) features 2 originals and 5 covers.
Number 11 is from Freddie King’s excellent My Feeling for the Blues (1969). His cover of Ray Charles’ “What’d I Say” is the other instrumental from that album.
Numbers 17 to 22 include 2 originals and 4 covers, including Peter Green’s exceptional Blues Breaker cover of “San-Ho-Zay.”
Don’t miss “Funny Bone” (numbers 27 and 28, one of the riffs sounds like one of the main “Come On (Let the Good Times Roll)” riffs by Earl King [covered by Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan]).
For some reason there were a number of great covers of “The Sad Night Owl” (number 31 on playlist) by Spanish-speaking bands; I included two (32 and 33).
Number 37, “Butterscotch” was also released as “Onion Rings.”
Number 42 is Freddie King’s “Side-Tracked,” 43 is Sean Costello’s cover (his band also covers “San-Ho-Zay”).
The studio version of Freddie King’s “Driving Sideways” is at 45; 46 is from his 1966 appearance on The !!!! Beat. This was Mick Taylor’s Blues Breaker cover of a Freddie King tune (number 47). I don’t know if that tradition continued—if you know of subsequent guitarists in the band doing Freddie King covers, please let us know.
The playlist also contains the one instrumental from the Leon Russell-produced Texas Cannonball (1972), and one from the Eric Clapton-produced Burglar (1974), “Pulp Wood,” (numbers 52 and 53, respectively). Eric Clapton’s regular band plays on one tune on Burglar, “Sugar Sweet.”
Numbers 54 to 56 are his A boogie, “Boogie Funk,” which shows his affinity with Magic Sam and Sam’s “Looking Good” (from Sam’s tremendous West Side Soul, 1967). This version is live at the American Folk Blues Festival.
**************** LINKS ****************
The official Freddie King website
Don’t miss his exciting performances on The !!!! Beat, starting with Vol. 2, Show 6.
My Freddie King YouTube playlist
A list of 10 things Gibson thinks you should know about Freddie King
This is an instrumental with words, “Blue Bird.”
Watch this space for part 2 of “Muddy Waters and His Guitarists.”
Don D.
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