Live Wire / Blues Power (Live At The Fillmore Auditorium / 1968 / Remastered 2024) Albert King

• 1 Watermelon Man (Live At The Fillmore Auditorium / 1968 / Remastered 2024) 04:04
• 2 Blues Power (Live At The Fillmore Auditorium / 1968 / Remastered 2024) 10:17
• 3 Night Stomp (Live At The Fillmore Auditorium / 1968 / Remastered 2024) 05:49
• 4 Blues At Sunrise (Live At The Fillmore Auditorium / 1968 / Remastered 2024) 08:44
• 5 Please Love Me (Live At The Fillmore Auditorium / 1968 / Remastered 2024) 03:58
• 6 Look Out (Live At The Fillmore Auditorium / 1968 / Remastered 2024) 05:23
• Total Runtime 38:15

Info for Live Wire / Blues Power (Live At The Fillmore Auditorium / 1968 / Remastered 2024)

If you want to understand what makes Albert King a much-loved guitar player and purveyor of the blues, then look no further than Live Wire/Blues Power his 1968 release. Recorded live at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco in June 1968 it is a record that is full of King’s searing guitar and his unique vocals.

King was a regular at the Fillmore, playing there probably more times than any other blues artist. He played three nights at the gig from June 25-27, with support from Loading Zone and Rain. Loading Zone was a local band who released their debut album in 1968, but they never rose above the role of a support band; Rain are lost to the mists of time.

The opening number is a cover of Herbie Hancock’s “Watermelon Man” that Albert turns into a funky fanfare for what is to follow. It’s followed by one of King’s defining numbers, the soaring Blues Power which features some of his finest searing guitar, accompanied by a trademark homily; Stax released it in edited form as a single. This is one of the four self-penned numbers on Live Wire/Blues Power and not to be confused with the song of the same name written by Eric Clapton and Leon Russell.

“Night Stomp” that follows is co-written by King, Raymond Jackson, and Al Jackson Jr. Al produced the album and was the drummer and a founding member of Booker T & The MGs. Raymond, no relation to Al, was also from Memphis and wrote many songs for Stax Records.

“Blues Before Sunrise,” another King original, is the epitome of a slow blues burner, full of fire and ice, one of those numbers to play people who may have some lingering doubt that the blues are for them. A cover of BB King’s “Please Love Me” follows, with its traditional, “dust my broom” riff. Throughout the band of Willie James Exon-Guitar, James Washington-Bass, Roosevelt Pointer-Bass, and Theotis Morgan-Drums support King in the perfect way, giving him the space to play.

The set closes with King’s “Look Out” with its fast “walking bass” line it shows why Albert King was so beloved by the San Francisco rock crowd who adored Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Steve Miller Band, and the Dead…all of them took influence from the blues.

There’s not a blues guitarist that has not copped King’s licks and fallen under his spell, in part because Live Wire/Blues Power became Albert’s first album to make the Billboard chart on November 16, 1968. (Richard Havers, udiscovermusic.com)

Featuring all-analog mastering by Grammy-nominated engineer Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab at Blue Heaven Studios

Albert King, electric guitar, vocals
Willie James Exon, guitar
James Washington, organ
Roosevelt Pointer, bass
Theotis Morgan, drums

Recorded 1968, live at The Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA
Produced by Al Jackson Jr.

Digitally remastered

Albert King

Bluesman Albert King was one of the premier electric guitar stylists of the post-World War II period. By playing left-handed and holding his guitar upside-down (with the strings set for a right-handed player), and by concentrating on tone and intensity more than flash, King fashioned over his long career, a sound that was both distinctive and highly influential. He was a master of the single-string solo and could bend strings to produce a particularly tormented blues sound that set his style apart from his contemporaries. A number of prominent artists,from Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix to Mike Bloomfield and Stevie Ray Vaughan, borrowed heavily from King's guitar style.

King was also the first major blues guitarist to cross over into modem soul;his mid- and late 1960s recordings for the Stax label, cut with the same great session musicians who played on the recordings of Otis Redding, Sam & Dave,Eddie Floyd, and others, appealed to his established black audience while broadening his appeal with rock fans. Along with B.B. King (no relation, though at times Albert suggested otherwise) and Muddy Waters, King helped nurture a white interest in blues when the music needed it most to survive.

King was born in Mississippi and taught himself how to play on a homemade guitar. Inspired by Blind Lemon Jefferson, King quit singing in a family gospel group and took up the blues. He worked around Osceola, Arkansas, with a group called the In the Groove Boys before migrating north and ending up in Gary,Indiana, in the early 1950s. For a while, King played drums behind bluesman Jimmy Reed. In 1953, King convinced Parrot label owner Al Benson to record him as a blues singer and guitarist. That year King cut "Bad Luck Blues" and "Be On Your Merry Way" for Parrot. Because King received little in the way of financial remuneration for the record, he left Parrot and eventually moved to St. Louis, where he recorded for the Bobbin and the King labels. In 1959 he had a minor hit on Bobbin with "I'm a Lonely Man." King's biggest release, "Don't Throw Your Love on Me So Strong," made it to number 14 on the R&B charts in 1961.

King didn't become a major blues figure until after he signed with Stax Records in 1966. Working with producer-drummer Al Jackson, Jr., guitarist Steve Cropper, keyboards ace Booker T. Jones, and bass player Donald "Duck"Dunn-aka Booker T. and the MG's, King created a blues sound that was laced with Memphis soul strains. Although the blues were dominant on songs such as"Laundromat Blues" and the classic "Born Under A Bad Sign", the tunes had Memphis soul underpinnings that gave King his crossover appeal. Not only was he the first blues artist to play the legendary San Francisco rock venue the Fillmore West, but he was also on the debut bill, sharing the stage opening night in1968 with Jimi Hendrix and John Mayall. King went on to become a regular at the Fillmore; his album Live Wire/Blues Power was recorded there in 1968.King was also one of the first bluesman to record with a symphony orchestra: in1969 he performed with the St. Louis Symphony, triumphantly bringing together the blues and classical music, if only for a fleeting moment.

During the 1970s King toured extensively, often playing to rock and soul crowds. He left Stax in 1974 to record for independent labels like Tomato and Fantasy. King was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame in 1983.He continued touring throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, playing festivals and concerts, often with B.B. King.

He died of a heart attack in 1992, just prior to starting a major European tour. (Source: Stax Records)

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