Category: Freddie King

The song “Hide Away” is credited to Freddie King and Sonny Thompson. However, King stated that it came from a Hound Dog Taylor song “Taylor’s Boogie”.

Freddie King

Freddie King (born September 3, 1934, in Gilmer, died December 28, 1976, in Dallas) is an American blues musician.

Like many other bluesmen of his time, he began his career in Chicago. He played in the groups of Little Sonny Cooper and Hound Dog Taylor. Probably under the influence of Taylor, he developed his specific style of playing blues on an electric guitar.

King’s best-known songs are recorded in the early 1960s. “Hide Away” and “Have You Ever Loved a Woman?”. As well as the Burglar album released in 1974. “Hide Away”. This title derives from the name of the popular Chicago bar. The song was repeatedly recorded and performed, including by Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Jeff Healey.

The guitarist died of a heart attack in 1976 during a concert tour, which he played with Clapton, only three days after his last concert.

Playing style and technique of Freddie King

King was characterized by a specific style of playing the guitar, using a plastic thumb pick and a metal index fingerpick. He learned this technique from Jimmy Rogers.

King has had a great impact on the work of blues-rock musicians such as Stevie Ray Vaughan, Ronnie Earl, Peter Green and Kenny Wayne Shepherd.

In 1993, the then Governor of Texas announced September 3 as the day of Freddie King. Only such legends as Bob Wills and Buddy Holly experienced such an honor.

In 2003, Freddie King was placed by Rolling Stone magazine in the 25th place in the list of top 100 guitarists of all time throughout his career, King favored Fender amps and used a number of different models, including the Fender Super Reverb and the Fender Dual Showman. Arguably though, the amp with which King is best associated is the Fender Quad Reverb, which he used for much of his career.

Freddie King

King, born on September 3, 1934, in Gilmer, Texas, was an American blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is regarded as one of the “Three Kings of the Blues Guitar” and had a significant impact on electric blues music and many later blues guitarists. King’s mother and uncle taught him to play the guitar when he was just six years old, and he later moved to Chicago as a teenager, where he formed his first band, the Every Hour Blues Boys, with Jimmie Lee Robinson and Frank “Sonny” Scott.

Despite repeated rejections by Chess Records, King finally got his break with Federal Records, with the release of his single “Have You Ever Loved a Woman” and instrumental “Hide Away,” which climbed to number five on the Billboard magazine’s rhythm and blues chart in 1961, and later became a blues standard. King based his guitar style on a mix of Texas blues and Chicago blues influences. The album “Freddy King Sings” showcased his singing talents and featured the chart-topping hits “You’ve Got to Love Her with a Feeling” and “I’m Tore Down.”

King’s guitar playing style was intuitive, often creating guitar parts with vocal nuances. He achieved this by using the open-string sound associated with Texas blues and the raw, screaming tones of West Side, Chicago blues. The combination of the Texas and Chicago sounds gave his music a more contemporary feel than that of many Chicago bands still performing 1950s-style music, and he befriended the younger generation of blues musicians.

Guitars of the King

In his early career, King played a solid-body gold-top Gibson Les Paul with P-90 pickups, and he later played several slimline semi-hollow body Gibson electric guitars, including an ES-335, ES-345, and ES-355. He used a plastic thumb pick and a metal index-finger pick. His unique guitar playing style inspired many musicians, including Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Lonnie Mack. King’s influence on Clapton was particularly significant, with Clapton stating that King’s 1961 song “I Love the Woman” was “the first time I heard that electric lead-guitar style, with the bent notes…[it] started me on my path.”

King was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by ZZ Top in 2012 and into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1982. His instrumental “Hide Away” was included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s list of “500 Songs that Shaped Rock.” He was ranked 25th in Rolling Stone magazine’s 2003 edition of “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” and 15th in the 2011 edition.

In summary, Freddie King was a legendary blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter who played a vital role in shaping the electric blues music scene. His guitar playing style was a mix of Texas and Chicago blues influences, which gave his music a more contemporary feel. King inspired many musicians, including Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Lonnie Mack. His legacy continues to influence the world of blues music, and he will always be remembered as one of the greatest blues guitarists of all time.

Video source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGAqBaHYJ8Q

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