Play It Cool

From my experience, there are two levels of blues appreciation. The first level is an understanding of the structures and tropes of the genre. Since the blues is a very traditional and structurally consistent form of music, it behooves any listener to familiarize himself with the "baseline" - that is, to know the genre in its most elemental form. The second level is an appreciation of artists and how they manipulate that traditional structure to make it their own. It is this second level that separates blues listeners - most can agree on the genre's merits on a basic level, but there is often disagreement as to who interprets the form most passionately and/or intelligently. Everyone, it seems, has his or her own blues guy - an artist whose take on the genre resonates most with the individual listener. For some, a Lightnin' Hopkins or Robert Johnson fulfills the need for a pure and unadulterated take on the form. Some prefer the high-energy cuts of a Bo Diddley or Chuck Berry. For others, a Little Walter or Memphis Slim answers the call for an instrument other than guitar as a lead voice. Still for many more, an Eric Clapton or Jimi Hendrix puts the genre in a more palatable and easily accessible rock form. My blues guy is Freddie King.

I initially discovered Freddie King's work as I searched a pile of my father's old records for jazz. Up until this point (I was 11 or 12 at the time), I had a very limited sense of the blues. I was, of course, familiar with the likes of Hendrix and Clapton, but had never taken the time to delve into anything that had not been filtered through a heavy filter of psychedelic rock. That changed when I was confronted by Freddie King is a Blues Master (1969), King's first Cotillion LP, staring me in the face. Literally. The album cover is a photo of the artist, Gibson ES-335 in hand, looking straight ahead while broadly smiling at the camera. Deciding to expand my record search to include blues as well as jazz, I picked up the album and threw it on the turntable.

You can't say "no" to a guy like this.

Perhaps what immediately drew me to King were his arrangements. This was not a blues-rock album, but it was nonetheless very accessible to my rock-accustomed ears - at the root of the record was the interplay between electric bass, electric guitar, piano, organ, drums, and occasional horns. Furthermore, unlike much of the earlier blues that I had heard, the LP was impeccably recorded. In retrospect, though, I think what kept me coming back to Freddie King is a Blues Master was the sheer amount of tone on the record. Every element had its own unique color - from the tinkling piano to the mournful organ to King's tremendously soulful vocal and biting guitar. When I began seriously playing the guitar several years later, it would be Freddie King's tone that inspired me to get a semi-hollow guitar of my own.

Today's track is the first song on the LP, "Play It Cool." It is my favorite blues track of all time - this song is what made me take a broader interest in the genre as a whole. Listen to King's fantastic solo at the 1:55 mark, which is stunning for both its poignancy and its economy. His phrasing is casual and uncomplicated, yet he extracts tremendous emotion from every note. This is all, of course, in addition to the fantastic lyric and vocal performance. When you're a 12 year-old boy, you tend to identify with lines like:

Now women look good these days
They can look sexy in so many ways
They can wear those dresses up above their knees and that'll make a man
Take his life away

In addition to the track, I am also posting a video of King playing unplugged at a prison in 1976, the year he died. The video quality (it looks like a VHS transfer) is somewhat spotty at times, but it was badass enough that I had to post it anyway. Love the shots of him playing to the inmates in solitary...

To have been an inmate...

Play It Cool