Albert King Album Reviews

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Born under a Bad Sign (1967)

Born Under a Bad Sign (1967)

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Born Under a Bad Sign / Crosscut Saw / Kansas City / Oh, Pretty Woman / Down Don’t Bother Me / The Hunter / I Almost Lost My Mind / Personal Manager / Laundromat Blues / As the Years Go Passing By / The Very Thought of You

Born under a Bad Sign Even though Albert King became a household name after this release, it seems to me that he remained something of a musician’s musician, a well-respected influence who never really reached the stature of a B.B. King or a John Lee Hooker. I could be wrong of course – don’t forget Belgium’s blues tradition is as notorious as Tunesia’s speed metal culture – but that’s my impression. Anyway, if there’s one argument why the guy should be even more revered, it’s this album, which was surprisingly released by Stax. Well, it’s not that it was an act of revolution to release a blues album, but at the time, they were decidedly more soul-oriented (Otis Redding, Johnnie Taylor, etc, remember?). Luckily Estelle Axton was convinced by the guy’s capacities and so they gave him a shot. Initially, he only recorded a few singles, later some extra songs, and that’s Born Under a Bad Sign. I guess blues has never been as album-oriented as rock in the late ‘60’s and ‘70’s. Still today, you’ll have a hard time finding original blues albums from the era, as the market is saturated with compilations, archival box sets and rarities, but not coherent studio albums. Now, the album may contain recordings spanning more than a year (between March 1966 and June 1967), but it does feel like a unit. Of course, the main reason for this is that all the songs were recorded with the same personnel: Booker T. & the MG’s, Stax’s house band and arguably the best session band that ever existed. Aided by the legendary Memphis Horns, they provide King with the best backing he could hope for. The result is 34-minutes of soul-blues heaven, with energetic R&B, stomping boogie, and suave ballads for every occasion. Despite the high-quality backing, the album wouldn’t have been such a classic if it weren’t for King’s playing. He was unique in more than several ways: firstly, he played on a Gibson Flying V, something I haven’t seen many legendary blues guitarists play on. Secondly, he played a right-handed guitar left-handed (so the strings remained where they were), something Jimi Hendrix also did (and of course several people will tell you he copped it from King). And indeed, it doesn’t have to take an expert to hear that his sound is different than that of most other guitarists. It’s less mellow, seems to have more bite, which is probably the result of a “reversed” strumming and picking. Contrary to what you might think, the title track wasn’t the breakthrough hit here. “Laundromat,” the album’s first single, did pretty well, even though it’s not even among the album’s best tracks. It is damn fine though, with expert playing by King and great support on piano. Second single “Oh, Pretty Woman” not only has a booming bass (just separate that left channel for a minute), but also a few classy solos. The two tracks the album starts off with are the cream of the crop, though. The title-track – only the fourth single or so they cut – belongs in the pantheon of blues greats, with a great atmosphere, Cropper’s legendary, repetitive rhythm guitar contribution and King’s fantastic performances (of course the line “If it weren’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have no luck at all” adds to the coolness). Almost as good are the exotic rumba-styled “Crosscut Saw,” with its expressive percussion and horn accents and the dirty “Personal Manager” that shows you how much Clapton and Michael Bloomfield – two name two obvious ones – must’ve listened to this guy. Not all the material is as stellar – compared to the fiery blues tunes, the ballads “I Almost Lost My Mind” and “The Very Thought of You” seem nearly stilted – but that’s compensated for by the incredible consistency of the rest of the material, as “The Hunter” is a great, thumping, Hooker-styled boogie, “Kansas City” a wonderfully strutting version of Leiber & Stoller’s classic and “As the Years Go Passing By” the kind of misery-ridden tale that other – lesser – artists would milk out hundreds of times. So, even if he was kind of cheating, King delivered something that was something of a rarity at the time: a wonderfully diverse, fully realized and coherently sounding album (there’s a lot of hiss in the left channel though) that still sounds as fresh today as it must’ve been 37 years ago. Get it!