Back to the Velvet Bulldozer! You can't argue with Albert King and his mastery of microtonal string bends and his ability to achieve so much expression with so few notes.
Having covered The Albert King Lick right back at the start of this project (in the world that was, back before R numbers and PPE were everyday concepts...), this time I'm going to look a little deeper into both the man's playing and history, as his career path is not exactly what you'd expect from a “rock star”.
For a start, his name wasn't actually Albert King. Born Albert Nelson on April 25 1823 in Indianola, Mississipi, (the same city which gave birth to B.B. King) young Albert's early life is something of a mystery – largely because the adult Albert was adept at crafting a media-friendly backstory, claiming at various times to be B.B. King's half brother, and going as far as naming his guitar “Lucy” in emulation of B.B. King's legendary “Lucille”.
He began in the same way as many blues musicians, constructing a “diddley bow” guitar – for those of you unfamiliar, this is basically a bit of wire stretched over a plank of wood and wrapped around a bottle at one end, played with a slide. I built one myself back in 2012 and I recommend it as a great way to get in touch with the roots of guitar playing.
The next step was a cigar box guitar – essentially a more portable version of the diddley bow, this used a cigar box for the body, a piece of bush for the neck and a length of broom wire for the string. In time, Albert was able to upgrade to a real guitar, bought for $1.25. He cut his teeth playing with gospel groups – most notably the Harmony Kings – but became inspired by the work of Delta blues artists like Elmore James and Blind Lemon Jefferson and turned over entirely to playing the blues himself.
An important part of his style came from King being left handed, but playing the guitar flipped over – this may well have influenced his choice of the Flying V guitar in later years, due to its symmetrical body shape – and using an unusual open tuning, (or more likely series of open tunings) variously described as open Cm, C#m, open F, frequently without the lowest string being used. This is why The Albert King Lick never sounds 100% right when played on a conventional guitar! He also used very light strings (for the standards of the day) – 0.009” to 0.050” according to luthier Dan Erlewine – helping with the soaring string bends and microtonal control that characterise his playing style.
Albert's musical career included a few false starts in the mid 50's with small time record deals that failed to really go anywhere – interestingly, he was a regular attraction alongside Chuck Berry & Ike Turner – but his first hit, “Don't Throw Your Love On Me So Strong” came in 1961 (keep in mind, this would have placed him at 37-38 at this point) on the small Bobbin record label, but his real breakthrough came in 1966 when he moved to Memphis, signing to the Stax record label and developing the smooth, soulful, funky sound that he would become associated with. Most of these recordings feature the Stax house band Booker T & The MG's, including legendary session player Steve Cropper on rhythm guitar, but that's a story in its own right. During this period he would record most of his most famous songs - “Born Under A Bad Sign” (written by Booker T and William Bell), “I'll Play The Blues For You”, “Cold Sweat”, “The Hunter”, “Crosscut Saw” (notable for lyric “I'm a crosscut saw baby, drag me across your log” which is utterly impossible to pull off with a straight face) to name but a few.
Interestingly, as the 70s dawned, Albert was keen to embrace new musical trends to stay current and commercial – this is something we often overlook in our quest for “authenticity”, the fact that these guys knew damn well they relied on record sales to pay the rent, so the Kings, Buddy Guy, T Bone Walker etc were always happy to adapt their styles to the trends of the time. Chasing commercial success at the cost of “artistic integrity” is not a conversation you need to have when you've come from picking cotton to pay the rent, and Albert himself did that as well as working construction (including driving a bulldozer, a possible origin of his nickname) and many other menial jobs to support himself while building a musical career.
The Stax years were really where his career peaked, and after the label went bust in 1975 he moved first to Utopia records and recorded three albums, none of which were particularly successful but did include a duet with Rory Gallagher (who is well overdue his own article) on 1977's “As The Years Go Passing By”. In 1978 he moved to Tomato Records and recorded a mix of old and new material, but the late 70's were a disappointing period commercially. A short-lived retirement followed but in 1984 he recorded “I'm In A Phone Booth Baby” which was nominated for a Grammy, riding the early 80s blues revival that artists like Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan were pushing. He continued to tour regularly, remaining a major force in blues,but ironically (sadly) he never achieved the level of commercial success that those artists who held him up as an influence did. He died of heart attack on December 21 1992, in the midst of planning a tour with B.B King and Bobbly “Blue” Bland.
Undeniably he is an architect of the blues, having influenced so many players with his unique and instantly identifiable playing style, but for someone who has become a touchstone of what it means to be a blues guitarist it's interesting and not a little sad to see how precarious his career was at different points. It's also a stark contrast to realise that his breakthrough years came with Stax at 42-43 (something that would be impossible in the youth obsessed pop industry) whilst another of the Three Kings, Freddie, was dead at 42! Although we often lump the Three Kings of blues together, their careers and stories are radically different.
So there's the potted history, on to the licks!
I've taken three licks which I think characterise his style.
In this first example, taken from “Blues Power”, you can see how he approaches the root note G from the 5th below, following the Dm-shape Gm arpeggio – this is a very signature blues move, having the effect of “serving up” the root note to the listener. This is followed by a soaring held bend on the C bent up to D (4th til 5th of the scale) before a quick burst of 16th notes running down the Gm arpeggio and facilitating a position shift to Gm pentatonic shape 1.
This second example is taken from his signature song “Born Under A Bad Sign”, in C#m, starting with a quick stinging move from the E to the C# - b3 to root – followed by a swift run down the C#m minor pentatonic including a neat little slide on the G string from the 11th to 13th frets and back – F# to G# (4th to 5th) and back again, puling off to the b3 and finishing on the b7. Notice that like the first lick, this has a long held first note followed by a burst of energy.
The third and final example is in the style of the instrumental “Cold Sweat” in Dm and illustrates a signature string bending technique, bending the 4th (G, on the 15th fret E string) up a tone to the 5th, then bringing the bend ever so slightly flat, repicking it and bringing it down. In true Albert King style, he milks this idea over the course of two bars – although frequently he would play almost an entire 12 bar chorus just remorselessly milking one lick – before finishing with a pull off and a double struck root note, played with a solid chunk of vibrato to really make it sting.
Thanks for reading, and next month we'll be shifting styles and centuries as we tackle the Canoness of Shred herself, the YouTube sensation Sophie Lloyd! See you then, stay safe and happy practicing.
