Albert King was born Albert Nelson, on April 25, 1923,
in Indianola, Mississippi. This was the same location known
as the birthplace of his namesake Riley (B.B.) King, and
though the two were not related, Albert would sometimes
claim that B.B. was his half-brother. One of 13 children,
King grew up learning the life of picking cotton on the
plantations near Osceola, Arkansas, where the family moved
to in 1931. His first introduction to music would be singing
in church and listening to his father, Will Nelson, play
guitar. Another early influence came from the family's records
where a young Albert would spend hours attempting to copy
the sounds of Blind Lemon Jefferson and Lonnie Johnson on
his homemade cigar box guitars and diddley-bows. King obtained
his first real guitar in 1942. He was fascinated by the
playing of the Blues musicians that frequented nearby West
Memphis, Arkansas, most notably the works of Robert Nighthawk
and Elmore James, and Albert decided that playing this style
of music would be his desired calling.
King was a large man, standing 6-foot-4-inches and weighing
well over 250 pounds. A natural left-hander, King taught
himself to play the guitar upside-down while keeping the
strings strung for a right-handed player and playing with
his thumb as opposed to a pick. He was a moody man and known
to carry a .45 in the band of his pants. He also disliked
performing live with musicians he felt were his superiors,
wanting the sole command of the stage just for himself.
During his early performing career, King worked in construction
driving a bulldozer to make ends meet and made several moves
to cities seeking his fortune as a musician. In the late
1940s, he first tried St. Louis and then moved to Gary,
Indiana, where he had the opportunity to play alongside
well-known guitarists Jimmy Reed and John Brim. Next, he
spent a short period living in Chicago, where he cut his
first recordings on the Parrot label. Released in 1953,
the single "Bad Luck Blues" b/w "Be On Your
Merry Way" found moderate regional success, but King
saw little return in his pocket and he decided to move back
to St. Louis in 1956.
St. Louis had a thriving Blues scene during Albert's stay
in the city. Recording for the Bobbin and King labels, he
competed with the popularity of Ike Turner and Little Milton
Campbell. It was also here in St. Louis that Albert took
to using a Gibson Flying V model guitar which would become
his lifelong trademark instrument and he would name "Lucy".
In 1961, Albert released the single "Don't Throw Your
Love On Me So Strong" finding national recognition
as the number climbed to #14 on the R&B charts. After
that, he appeared on the Coun-Tree label, owned by Jazz
singer Leo Gooden, and his reputation continued to grow
throughout Missouri and Chicago. But, Gooden was jealous
of the attention that King was receiving, and dropped him
from the label.
King moved closer to home in 1966, arriving in Memphis and
signing with the upstart Soul label, Stax. While recording
for Stax, he was backed by the label's house band, Booker
T & The MGs. A handful of successful singles emerged
almost immediately for King, beginning with "Laundromat
Blues" in 1966; and followed by an updated cover of
Tommy McClennan's "Crosscut Saw" and "Born
Under A Bad Sign", both released in 1967. A collection
of these singles were compiled onto an LP in 1967, and it
proved to be one of the most pivotal recordings in Blues
history. Titled, "Born Under A Bad Sign", it brought
attention to the 43-year-old King, taking him from the dark,
smokey juke joints and clubs of the Mid-South to the larger
Rock 'n' Roll venues around the world. A strong recording,
the album also included numbers such as "As The Years
Go Passing By" and "The Hunter", which would
prove to be staples for Blues and Rock guitarists for years
to come (Eric Clapton has admitted that the riff for "Layla"
was a direct lift from "As The Years Go Passing By").
Perhaps more importantly, the album caught the attention
of the white Rock 'n' Roll audiences and pointed them directly
down the path of the Blues.
On February 1, 1968, Albert King shared a bill that included
John Mayall and Jimi Hendrix for opening night at a new
venue in San Francisco called The Fillmore Auditorium. This
popular music hall would become a second home for King,
and later that same year he returned to record a live album
"Live Wire / Blues Power" became one of the best-selling
Live Blue! recordings ever and helped establish King's career
further. Two other albums were released in the early 1990s
that were taped during these same performances ("Wednesday
Night In San Francisco: Recorded Live At The Fillmore Auditorium"
and "Thursday Night In San Francisco..." Though
weaker than the original both serve as true testaments to
the talents of Albert King's guitar.
King continued to record with Stax, until the demise of
the label in the mid-1970s. The output of this period included
some strange mixtures for a Blues musician. In 1969, Albert
became the first Blues performer to perform with a symphony
orchestra in a concert that teamed him with the St. Louis
Symphony. He recorded the album "Lovejoy "at Muscle
Shoals with white Southern rockers and even released a tribute
album to Elvis Presley, "Blues For Elvis: Albert King
Does The King's Things". There was even an appearance
on a comedy LP by Albert Brooks, "A Star Is Bought".
After Stax folded, King would record for a number of labels
that would include Tomato, Utopia and Fantasy, until he
decided to retire in the mid-1980s. Though Albert King had
given up on recording, he still managed to find time to
perform. He made cameo appearances on albums by up-coming
Bluesmen like Chris Cain ("Cuttin' Loose") and
Gary Moore ("Still Got The Blues"). He also made
frequent stops at Blues festivals around the world, continuing
to influence new generations of guitarists including Stevie
Ray Vaughan and Robert Cray.
King played his final concert in Los Angeles on December
19, 1992. He died two days later at home in Memphis after
suffering a sudden heart attack. After his funeral, a procession
was led down Beale Street in a true New Orleans-style Jazz
tradition, as the hearse bearing King's body was led by
the Memphis Horns playing "When The Saints Go Marching
In". King was laid to rest across the Mississippi River
in the Paradise Gardens Cemetery in Edmondson, Arkansas,
not far from where he spent his childhood.
