Remembering Freddie King, born on this day in 1934

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Remembering Freddie King, born on this day in 1934 (1934-1976).

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The Texas Cannonball: An Exhaustive Study of Freddie King

Born on September 3, 1934, in the tiny town of Gilmer, Texas, Freddie King would grow to become a colossus of the blues. He was a triple threat: a guitarist of raw, visceral power, a vocalist of immense soul and grit, and a songwriter of impeccable instinct. Alongside B.B. King and Albert King, he formed the holy trinity of “King” blues guitarists, each a monarch of a distinct domain. While B.B. was the urbane king of elegance and vibrato, and Albert was the raw king of bending and tone, Freddie was the king of unadulterated power and relentless rhythm. Dubbed “The Texas Cannonball” for his formidable physical presence and explosive playing style, Freddie King was a crucial bridge between the electric blues of the 1950s and the blues-rock revolution of the 1960s. His influence is a direct line etched into the DNA of rock guitar.

Biography: From Texas Soil to Chicago Streets

Early Life (1934-1950)
Freddie Christian was born to Ella Mae King and J.T. Christian. He was raised by his mother and his uncle, who began teaching him the guitar at the age of six. His early influences were the bedrock of the blues: records by Lightnin’ Hopkins, Arthur “Blind” Blake” Crudup, and Louis Jordan blared from the family’s phonograph. However, the most profound early influence was the work of Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, whose broadcasts from Chicago’s WVON radio station captivated the young Freddie. He knew his destiny lay not in the cotton fields of Texas, but in the industrial north.

At the age of 16, with his mother’s reluctant blessing, Freddie King moved to Chicago. He initially worked in a steel mill but spent every night immersing himself in the city’s vibrant blues scene. He haunted clubs like the Zanzibar and the Twist, watching and learning from the masters: Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rogers, Eddie Taylor, and Robert Jr. Lockwood.

Apprenticeship and Rise (1950-1960)
Throughout the 1950s, Freddie honed his craft. He played in bands with Little Sonny Cooper, Earl Payton, and Hound Dog Taylor. He began recording as a sideman for Parrot Records, laying down rhythm guitar tracks for artists like Muddy Waters and Little Walter. This period was his university; he absorbed the complex rhythms of Jimmy Rogers, the searing slide of Elmore James, and the amplified harp of Little Walter, synthesizing them into his own emerging style.

By the latter half of the decade, he was a seasoned pro, leading his own band and becoming a popular draw on the West Side circuit. His sound was already distinct: louder, faster, and more aggressive than many of his contemporaries. He played a gold-top Gibson Les Paul through a Gibson GA-40 amplifier, a combination that would become iconic, generating his signature fat, mid-range-heavy tone.

The King Records Breakthrough (1960-1966)
Freddie’s big break came when producer and talent scout Sonny Thompson signed him to the Federal label, a subsidiary of King Records in Cincinnati. His first session in 1960 yielded an instant classic: “Have You Ever Loved A Woman,” a slow-burning 12-bar blues masterpiece of betrayal and anguish. But it was the B-side of that single that would change everything.

“That B-side was an instrumental called “Hide Away,” a blistering amalgamation of a riff by Hound Dog Taylor, a theme from a Magic Sam tune, and a melody from a James Brown record. It became a monster hit, reaching #5 on the Billboard R&B chart and #29 on the Pop chart. Almost overnight, “Hide Away” became the national anthem of blues instrumentals, a mandatory number for every bar band in America. This success launched a string of hit instrumentals that defined the era: “The Stumble,” “San-Ho-Zay,” “Side Tracked,” and “Just Pickin’.” These weren’t just blues songs; they were dance records, infused with a rock and roll energy that appealed to a wide, cross-racial audience.

This period established Freddie’s hit-making formula: a fierce, percussive attack using his fingers and a plastic thumbpick, creating a sound that was both sharp and deep. He was a star.

The Later Years and Cross-Genre Legacy (1966-1976)
As the British Invasion took hold, many American bluesmen found their careers waning. Ironically, it was the British artists who had worshipped him—Eric Clapton, Peter Green, and Mick Taylor—who helped reignite Freddie King’s career. They cited him as a primary influence and covered his songs, introducing him to a new, young, white rock audience.

Signings to Atlantic’s Cotillion label and, most importantly, to Leon Russell’s Shelter Records in the early 1970s catapulted him to superstar status on the rock circuit. He was now playing packed theaters and festivals like Fillmore West alongside the biggest acts of the day. Albums from this period, such as Getting Ready… (1971) and the legendary Texas Cannonball (1972), are masterclasses in blues-rock power. They featured his roaring guitar and soul-shouting vocals backed by top-tier rock session musicians.

This relentless touring schedule, however, took a toll on his health. Freddie King, a large man who lived life to the fullest, struggled with stomach ulcers and a heart condition. On December 28, 1976, at the age of 42, Freddie King died of heart failure brought on by acute pancreatitis and bleeding ulcers. The Cannonball’s flame was extinguished far too soon, but its light had already ignited a thousand others.

Music Style and Improvisational Licks

Freddie King’s style is immediately recognizable. It’s a potent fusion of Texas swagger and Chicago electricity.

Technique and Tone:

• Attack: He played with a ferocious right-hand attack, using a plastic thumbpick and his bare fingers. This allowed him to alternate between playing blistering single-note lines and crushing, percussive rhythm chords without missing a beat. His rhythm playing was as important as his lead—it was a driving, infectious force.
• Tone: His signature tone came from a Gibson Les Paul or ES-345 guitar plugged into a vintage tube amplifier (first a Gibson GA-40, later a Fender Twin Reverb or, famously, a 200-watt Acoustic Amplifier head with two 4×12 cabinets). He often set the amp to a clean setting and achieved his overdrive and distortion purely by attacking the strings with immense force.
• Vibrato and Bending: His vibrato was wide and aggressive, more akin to a vocal shout than a gentle warble. His string bending was legendary. He could bend notes a full step and a half with impeccable intonation, wringing every ounce of emotion from a phrase.

Signature Licks and Improvisational Vocabulary:
Freddie’s solos were constructed from a vocabulary of powerful, memorable licks. They were economical—he said more with three notes than many players could with thirty.

1. The “Hide Away” Lick: The cornerstone of his style. It’s a rapid-fire triplet figure played on the high E and B strings, combining hammer-ons, pull-offs, and a signature double-stop bend. It’s a lick of pure, unadulterated joy. E |---------------------------------15b17r15-----------------| B |-----------------13b15r13-15h16----------16p15-----------| G |---14b16---------------------------------------16p14-----| (Simplified tablature representation)
2. The Major-to-Minor Third: A defining characteristic of his phrasing. He would often play the major third of a chord (e.g., a D note over a Bb chord) and then immediately bend it down to the minor third (Db), creating a deeply soulful, crying effect. This is all over “Have You Ever Loved A Woman.”
3. The “Freddie King” Turnaround: His turnarounds were lessons in tension and release. He frequently used rapid trills and chromatic descents into the root note to powerfully conclude a 12-bar phrase.
4. Call and Response: He was a master of this fundamental blues device. He would play a vocal-like phrase (the call) and answer it with a rhythmic chordal stab or a contrasting melodic idea (the response). This is evident in almost all of his playing, making his solos feel like conversations.

Cooperation with Other Artists

While often a lone force leading his own band, Freddie’s career was marked by key collaborations:

• The Early Sidemen: His time as a sideman for Muddy Waters and Little Walter was his formative collaboration, shaping his rhythm playing profoundly.
• Sonny Thompson: His producer and pianist at Federal Records. Thompson’s arrangements and piano work were the perfect complement to Freddie’s guitar, providing a sophisticated bed for his raw power.
• Leon Russell: The architect of his 1970s comeback. Russell signed him to Shelter Records, produced his biggest albums of the era (Getting Ready…, Texas Cannonball), and provided world-class songwriting and studio backing, framing Freddie’s blues in a contemporary rock context.
• Eric Clapton: Though not a formal collaborator on record during Freddie’s lifetime, Clapton was his most famous disciple. He covered “Hide Away” with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and later recorded “Have You Ever Loved A Woman” on Derek and the Dominos’ Layla album. Their mutual respect was immense, and Clapton’s promotion of Freddie’s music was invaluable.

Chord Progressions and Music Harmony

Freddie King’s work is rooted in the standard language of the blues, but his application was uniquely powerful.

Standard Blues Foundation:
The vast majority of his work is built on the 12-bar blues progression (I-IV-V). For example, in the key of Bb (a favorite of his):

• Bb (I) for 4 bars – “I have found you, found a good woman…”
• Eb (IV) for 2 bars – “But your best friend…”
• Bb (I) for 2 bars – “Tries to be your man.”
• F (V) for 1 bar – “Have you ever loved…”
• Eb (IV) for 1 bar – “…a woman?”
• Bb (I) for 1 bar – “…and your best friend…”
• F (V) for 1 bar (turnaround) – “…tries to take her away from you?”

Harmonic Nuance:
What set him apart was the rhythmic violence and syncopation he applied to these changes. His rhythm guitar wasn’t just accompaniment; it was a lead instrument.

• The “Freddie Shuffle”: A specific, driving rhythm pattern he used over the I chord, often involving muted strings and accented off-beats. It’s a cornerstone of tunes like “The Stumble” and “San-Ho-Zay.”
• Minor iv Chord: He would often incorporate the minor iv chord (Ebm in the key of Bb) for a dramatic, melancholic effect, a move borrowed from jazz and soul music that adds deep emotional weight.
• Tritone Substitutions: In his later, more arranged work with Leon Russell, more complex jazz-influenced substitutions and passing chords were used to add color and sophistication to the basic blues framework.

Influences and Legacy

Influences on Freddie King:

• Guitarists: Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rogers, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Robert Jr. Lockwood, Eddie Taylor, and Howlin’ Wolf’s guitarists (Hubert Sumlin and Willie Johnson).
• Instrumentalists: The saxophone lines of Junior Walker and the organ work of Jimmy McGriff were a huge influence on his single-note melodic conception. He often said he tried to make his guitar sound like a saxophone.

Freddie King’s Legacy:
Freddie King’s legacy is arguably as vast as any bluesman’s. He is the direct link between Chicago blues and British blues-rock.

• British Blues Boom: Eric Clapton, Peter Green (Fleetwood Mac), Mick Taylor (The Rolling Stones), and Jeff Beck all copied his licks note-for-note. The sound of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton is essentially the sound of a Gibson Les Paul through a Marshall amp trying to emulate Freddie King.
• Southern Rock: Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top built his entire early style on Freddie’s Texas-infused boogie. The Allman Brothers Band covered “Have You Ever Loved A Woman” and drew heavily on his double-lead guitar approach.
• Modern Blues: Stevie Ray Vaughan’s powerful rhythm playing and aggressive tone are unthinkable without Freddie King’s blueprint. Doyle Bramhall II, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and countless others carry his torch.
• The Instrumental: He perfected the blues instrumental as a commercial and artistic form. Before “Hide Away,” instrumentals were novelties; after it, they were a legitimate vehicle for guitar heroism.

Works: Most Known Compositions and Performances

Iconic Songs:

1. “Hide Away” (1960): His signature instrumental. The title refers to Mel’s Hide Away Lounge, a famous Chicago blues club.
2. “Have You Ever Loved A Woman” (1960): A slow blues masterpiece, one of the most covered and emotionally potent blues ballads ever written.
3. “The Stumble” (1961): An uptempo instrumental with a deceptively tricky, stuttering riff that has become a blues standard.
4. “San-Ho-Zay” (1961): Another ferocious instrumental hit, named after a mispronunciation of the brand name “Sanox,” which made his guitar strings.
5. “I’m Tore Down” (1961): A driving, upbeat shuffle covered famously by Eric Clapton on his From the Cradle album.
6. “Going Down” (1971): From his Shelter era, this Don Nix-penned song became one of his most famous late-career anthems, a hard-rocking blues jam featured on Getting Ready….

Essential Albums:

• Freddy King Sings (1961) – Showcased his vocal prowess.
• Let’s Hide Away and Dance Away with Freddy King (1961) – The definitive collection of his early instrumentals.
• Getting Ready… (1971) – His blues-rock magnum opus. Featuring “Going Down” and a powerful, modern sound.
• Texas Cannonball (1972) – The peak of his 1970s power. The title says it all.
• Burglar (1974) – A strong later album for RSO Records, produced by Mike Vernon.

Filmography

While not a prolific actor, Freddie King’s powerful screen presence is captured in a few vital performances:

• The American Folk Blues Festival (1965-1966): He was a featured performer in these historic films that brought American blues giants to European audiences. His performances are electrifying.
• The London Rock and Roll Show (1973): Footage exists of his commanding performance at this massive festival.
• Soul To Soul (1971): While not the main focus, his performance is part of the documentary about the famous concert in Ghana.
• Various TV appearances on shows like The !!!! Beat and other music programs of the 1960s and 70s capture him in his prime.

Discography (Selected)

Studio Albums (Original Release)

• Freddy King Sings (1961) [Federal]
• Let’s Hide Away and Dance Away with Freddy King (1961) [Federal]
• Two Boys and a Girl (1963) [Federal] (with Lulu Reed & Sonny Thompson)
• Bossa Nova and Blues (1963) [Federal]
• Freddie King Goes Surfing (1963) [Federal]
• Bonanza of Instrumentals (1965) [King]
• Freddie King Sings Again (1965) [King]
• 25 Songs (1969) [Polydor] (2-LP compilation)
• Freddie King Is a Blues Master (1969) [Cotillion]
• My Feeling for the Blues (1970) [Cotillion]
• Getting Ready… (1971) [Shelter]
• The Texas Cannonball (1972) [Shelter]
• Woman Across the River (1973) [Shelter]
• Burglar (1974) [RSO]
• Larger Than Life (1975) [RSO]

Essential Live and Compilation Albums

• Live at the Electric Ballroom, 1974 (1996) [King]
• King of the Blues (1995) [Box Set, Shelter]
• The Best of Freddie King: The Shelter Records Years (1993) [Shelter]
• The Complete King Federal Singles (2018) [Box Set, Real Gone Music] – The ultimate collection of his seminal early work.

Freddie King was a force of nature. He took the blues from the smoky juke joints of Chicago and, with sheer power and melodic genius, launched it onto the pop charts and into the ears of a generation of future rock gods. His music was not cerebral or complex; it was visceral, immediate, and utterly compelling. It was the sound of joy, pain, and relentless rhythm, delivered with a ferocity that has never been matched. Though his life was cut short, the seismic impact of his work continues to reverberate through every bar band that kicks off “Hide Away,” every guitarist who bends a string to its emotional breaking point, and every fan who feels the raw, unstoppable power of the Texas Cannonball.

Going Down – Freddie King

Search your favorite sheet music in the category of Jazz, Blues, Soul, & Gospel.

Freddie King – The !!! Beat (1966)

From The!!!Beat, 1966.

Track List:

1 Funny Bone 2 Have You Ever Loved A Woman 3 San-Ho-Zay 4 I’m Tore Down 5 Hide Away 6 I Love The Woman 7 Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag 8 See See Baby 9 Sitting On The Boatdock 10 Shuffle 11 She Put The Whammy On Me 12 San-Ho-Zay 13 Funny Bone 14 Hide Away From Sweden, 1973 15 Have You Ever Loved A Woman 16 Blues Band Shuffle 17 Big Leg Woman

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