'The House That Freddie Built': A blues King and Leon at the Armadillo 1972
Photographer Van Brooks took it all in on an early show during the 'Texas Cannonball' Tour
Although T-Bone Walker invented electric blues guitar, it was Freddie King who revved it up for the rock crowd with his stinging, right-hand attack. He absolutely owned the Armadillo- three nights in a row, sometimes with an early show added because of the demand. Leon Russell, who’d signed him to Shelter, and produced the Texas Cannonball album with the armadillo motif, wasn’t in the ads but he was on the stage. Freddie loved the Armadillo so much that he never increased his split of ticket sales, staying at the original 50%.
King was a native of Gilmer, Texas but moved to Chicago with his family at age 16. Muddy Waters liked the big boy from Texas and snuck him in through the side door of Club Zanzibar, where Muddy’s guitarist Jimmy Rogers showed Freddie how to use a plastic thumbpick and metal fingerpick to give an urban edge to his Texas blues.
King merged the most vibrant characteristics of Delta, Texas and Chicago styles and became the biggest guitar hero of the mid-60s British blues revivalists. John Mayall, Eric Clapton, Savoy Brown, Chicken Shack, Peter Green and the rest of the longhaired blues set loved this intense “Country Boy” and talked him up to the point that King’s 1966 tour of England was sold out every night. When Freddie hit a note, it couldn’t be hit with more feeling.
His first musical idol was Louis Jordan, whose solos on the alto sax King copied on guitar. King played a Les Paul goldtop in the ‘50s, including his 1956 debut on Chicago’s El-Bee label, and some recordings backing Howlin’ Wolf. But in the ‘60s he switched to the big, red, Gibson ES-345 that he’s best known for today.
During a 20-year recording career, King registered only one Top 40 hit, when “Hide Away” peaked at No. 29 on the Billboard singles chart in 1961. But he was a “Sen-Say-Shun” at hippie rock clubs all over the United States, from the Fillmore East to the Fillmore West.
King sold more beer at the Armadillo than anyone else, because beer just tastes colder when somebody’s playing the hell out of a big, red, electric guitar. He was the AC/DC of the East Texas blues. You’d go see Freddie to have your ass kicked. There was no one more fierce.
Here’s a song Freddie King played on that ‘72 tour. Ian Moore, who was probably a kid in the audience, plays the hell of this song, too.
Freddie King was one of my earliest influences for starting to play guitar - Tore Down, Hideaway, Have You Ever Loved a Woman, The Stumble! I just learned from looking at his discography that Clifford Scott was playing saxophone on his two 1961 debut albums. I played several gigs with Clifford on the recommendation of Ernie Durawa, who was also on the gigs. Though he's best known for his blues recording sessions Scott was a wonderfully smooth jazz player on standards, and he was also a sweetheart of a guy - very complimentary.
Also, while I'm dropping names, Ian Moore was a student of mine for a very short time in around 1987. He would have been four years old at the time of Freddie's 1972 concert.
Had a chance to go to a Freddie King meet and greet on the UT campus in 1974, but chose instead to study. Friends who went said it was Freddie with an acoustic guitar playing tunes and shootin’ the breeze in an empty classroom. Will always regret that decision. For the best look at Freddie in his prime, call up the videos from his 1966 appearances on a Dallas TV show called The Beat!!! The guy is just on fire doing multiple great tunes.