Welcome back, dear readers. I’ve had an exciting week of discovering new music, enjoying live shows and getting tickets to future live shows. As Frank Zappa once said, “music is the best!” Since you’re here, I assume you agree.
Disc 1862 is…Born Under a Bad Sign
Artist: Albert King
Year of Release: 1967
What’s up with the Cover? A collection of five ‘bad signs’. From L or R we have poison, a black cat, Friday the 13th, the ace of spades and snake eyes.
I take issue with the inclusion of poison, which isn’t a bad sign so much as it is a warning that says “don’t drink this!” or, in different circumstances, “have your enemies drink this!”.
Also as a fan of a) cats and b) Dan Marino, I take issue with the inclusion of the cat and the number 13.
Nevertheless this makes for a pretty great record cover, regardless of how you feel about cats, numbers, poisoning of one’s rivals or even Wild Bill Hickok for that matter.
As for that last one, as the kids say – IYKYK.
How I Came To Know It: My friend Chris brought some songs from this record to a music appreciate night we attended as part of a set list featuring Donald “Duck” Dunn on guitar (who also plays on this record). I liked what I heard a lot and…here we are.
How It Stacks Up: This is my only Albert King record, so it can’t stack up. It is, however, released by Stax records, so it does ‘Stax’ up. Get it? Get it? Man, I crack myself up.
Ratings: 5 stars
If you listen to as much music as I do (i.e. a lot) you have heard plenty of people wank away on an electric guitar. And there are plenty of great players out there – Buck Dharma, Mark Knopfler, Brian May, etc. At the same time, as years go by it gets harder to impress me. Then along came Albert King. Consider me impressed.
When it comes to the blues, everyone fancies themselves a first-rate axeman, and you can get some unwelcome noodling and enough excessive blue notes to make even an enthusiast blue. It is every bad bar band you ever half-listened to because it happened to be on when you ducked in for a beer, or maybe just to pee.
Not so, Albert King. Every goddamn note King plays is purposeful, expressive and powerful. His guitar sounds like an apex predator, stalking these songs, slaying the chord progression and filling the empty space between attacks with purposeful growls.
And good God man, the tone! Notes boldly arcing through the night and into your body, making your spine twist in directions you didn’t know it could, and that feel so good. This being 1967, the majority of these songs hover between two and three minutes long, the effect being you are consistently left wanting more.
Like Jimi Hendrix, Albert King played a right-handed guitar upside down which is, for lefty players like me, extra cool. I play a left handed guitar built for lefties, but then I am not remotely as cool as Albert King.
As for the songs themselves, inspired stuff all around, and focused on all those usual bluesy topics. The title track being about how sometimes you just start out unlucky – although hard to feel sorry for Albert King in the moment, as that song is revelatory.
Alongside these we have the usual tunes bragging about the singer’s prowess in the bedroom. You can get this straight up (“Crosscut Saw”), a bit on the creepy stalker side (“The Hunter”) and my personal favourite, “Personal Manager” which is…er…service oriented. Best line:
“Yeah I want to be your milkman every mornin'
Your ice cream man when the day is through”
The Blues also often feature “cheat on me and regret it” tunes, and “Born Under a Bad Sign” has one of the greatest ever in “Laundromat Blues”. In this song, our protagonist has noticed that his lady is spending a lot of extended time at the laundromat ostensibly washing “a blouse or two” and likely hooking up with someone somewhere between the wash and spin cycles. Best line of this one:
“Yeah, you better hear my warnin'
I'm gettin' madder everyday
I don't want you to get so clean, baby
You just might wash your life away”
Because what’s an old blues album without a song featuring some threat of jealous domestic violence? I would advise the narrator to employ a marriage counsellor or divorce attorney instead, but I’m pretty sure this is one of those Biggy Smalls style “you don’t hear me, though” moments and he’s gonna do something that lands him the slammer.
Dark themes or romantic, Albert King’s smooth and sexy vocals are ever-present, as is some of the greatest guitar playing ever heard by human ears. If this isn’t the greatest blues record I’ve ever heard, it is certainly in the conversation.
Best tracks: All tracks, but if you only listen to one then the title track is “must hear before you die” level stuff. That said, if you only listen to one track on this record you are, sadly, an idiot.
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