Search - Freddy King :: Let's Hide Away & Dance

This Is Where His Reputation Begins - And Pretty Much Stays

BluesDuke | Las Vegas, Nevada | 07/07/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Of the three Kings of the blues, Freddie King (or Freddy King, as he was billed during his early period recording for King/Federal) had the most apparent pop sensibilities - at least, he did until B.B. King hipped up to letting pop embellishments enhance his blues (not for nothing was "The Thrill Is Gone" the biggest single hit of his career) and Albert King hooked up with Stax and let the deep soul side his blues had previously just hinted come full force. Like his Yexas predecessor Clarence (Gatemouth) Brown (who also had the jazz sensibilities long enough noted in B.B. King's music), the third King so consciously sought the hooks and the grips of pop that it shouldn't be a surprise that he found reasonable enough commercial success from almost the word go.But Freddie King also gave proof to the idea that, often as not, the most enduring art springs from the most elemental commercial impetus. Looking for the hooks he certainly was, but in the process he uncorked a round of recordings which had a profound influence on the coming blues revival - young guitarists in England and the United States were breaking their fingers copying his licks as arduously as those of any of the other blues guitarmeisters. (Dave Marsh, for one, has written of "Hide Away," his signature instrumental, "If you can imagine one song inspiring Cream's "Wheels of Fire," which is exactly what it did, "Hide Away" will grab you as very rock and roll, indeed," though he had mostly in mind the live cuts on that album; Eric Clapton, who cut a searing version of the song in his days with John Mayall, has long admitted that Freddie King had at least as much influence upon him as did Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters.) Working with a very stripped quartet (the keyboard is almost an implicit rather than explicit player in several places), the future Texas Cannonball cut loose with round after round of slice-off-the-trunk guitar playing, striking for both its simplicity and its fiery lyricism riding a groove which suggests Texas bluesmen had no compunction about hipping up to the punchier R and B beat. But he was equally at home with material which sounded as though it could have turned up at a surf party on the sneak ("Swooshy" and "San-Ho-Zay" being the two most obvious and engaging examples; indeed, this album would actually see a mid-1960s repackaging AS an album just perfect for a surf party).Damn near everything which attached to Freddie King's name when discussing his subsequent influence was produced for this album, including "The Stumble," which got a steroid shot into the permanent blues pantheon when future Fleetwood Mac founder Peter Green squeezed out a lickety-split version on Mayall's "A Hard Road" album; "Hide Away," "San-Ho-Zay," "Sen-Sa-Shun," "Wash Out," and "Butterscotch," among others. It's as to-the-gut as Texas blues gets even now, and it's also one of the classic dance albums of the early 1960s. In due course, King would give his vocal cords a workout and a good one, but if you're looking to know where the man's reputation begins and pretty much stays, this is the album (along with its followup, "Freddy King Gives You A Bonanza of Instrumentals") which answers on both counts."

Classic CD

COMPUTERJAZZMAN | Cliffside Park, New Jersey United States | 08/19/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"this is the early 1960's King Records Freddie King Instrumental music that made him famous, the inspiration for Eric Clapton, (I saw them play together at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City in 1976), his pre-Shelter Records days, and this si one great CD of instrumental (for the most part) up-beat blues stuff. A lot has been written about B.B. King, Albert King, and Freddie King, and who was better and that kind of stuff but I love all of them, there is no one "better" than the other."

Love The Blues

R R Richards | Michigan | 06/09/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Great CD, if you love instumental blues, It don't get no better than this. One bit of advice, don't buy from MOVIEMARS, they left me hanging for almost a month, then told me they could not find it,then a few days later had it up for sail again, its there now and at the lowest price. Spend a little more and get it from a different seller. I bought from someone else and had it in less than a week."