Blues Primer: Kings of the Blues

A Blues Primer

How Blue Can You Get:
A Hundred Years of Blues in America

Kings of the Blues

No matter how much he towered over the field, the blues didn't end with Muddy Waters. Among his contemporaries who electrified the blues in a distinctive and influential way, count Elmore James. James - yet another Mississippi native, who learned "Dust My Broom" from Robert Johnson in the 1930s - recorded a towering electric slide guitar version of the song in 1951, which became a huge hit. James also wrote the driving "Shake Your Money Maker" and the gloomy classic "The Sky is Crying," later recorded by Stevie Ray Vaughan, and had a strong influence on other blues guitarists including Jimi Hendrix and Duane Allman. Naturally, he became known as "King of the Slide Guitar."

He was not to be the first king, nor the last. Down in Memphis, an ambitious young disc jockey from Indianola, Miss., named Riley P. King was playing along with the blues records as he spun them, building his audience over the air. He became known as the Blues Boy, B.B. King. Perhaps no blues artist has had the penetration into mainstream music that King has enjoyed; his lyrical, jazz-influenced guitar and masterful stage manner has turned him into a superstar. While he has broadened his appeal over the years, and perhaps lost some of his juice along the way, on the classic 1964 album "Live at the Regal," you can hear him at the height of his powers. Tracks such as his signature tunes "Every Day I Have the Blues and "Sweet Little Angel" are included, but his show-stopper "How Blue Can You Get" brings the house down. Yet even his recent "Riding with the King" duets with Eric Clapton, no slouch in the blues department himself, shows flashes of B.B. King's enduring brilliance.

B.B. wasn't the only King from Mississippi to make it big; two others deserve mention. Freddy King was an exceptionally talented instrumentalist, and his "Hide Away" and "I'm Tore Down" remain memorable, the latter recorded by Clapton among others. But it's the big guy, Albert King, who commands the most respect. A self-taught left-handed guitarist who was strong enough to bend notes to the breaking point, King branded every song he played with a no-nonsense, take-no-prisoners intensity.

Albert King's most notable songs include "Born Under a Bad Sign," "Crosscut Saw" and especially "Personal Manager," whose guitar solo Eric Clapton stole (or paid homage to, note for note) for Cream's "Strange Brew." Albert King created the vocabulary that other guitarists have built their careers upon. In fact one of King's last recordings was a session that paired him with the up-and-coming Stevie Ray Vaughan, and it's almost impossible to tell the two men apart by lick alone.

On a personal note, I saw Albert and B.B. King share the stage at the Fillmore in San Francisco, one memorable night in the late 1960s. B.B. was riding the crest of his first wave of cross-market popularity, his Grammy for "The Thrill is Gone" just around the corner; Albert was the tolerated country cousin. When it came time for them to share the stage and trade licks for the encore, Albert King sent B.B. to the showers.

Birth of the Blues