Born Under A Bad Sign - Albert King (1967)

Albert King (not to be confused with Freddie King or BB King; no relation among any of them) is probably most famous for two things:

1) He was left-handed but played a right handed guitar without restringing it. Low strings on the bottom and high strings on top, which caused his note-bending style to sound very distinctive.

2) He made this record for Stax. It wasnt initially well received because it was kind of unconventional, but it’s grown over the years to be one of the most important blues records of the era.

Albert’s playing itself is dead simple. He played quick runs of just the few notes that were under his fingertips. But he kept coming up with original ways to present that limited material to keep it interesting, and being backed by Booker T & The MGs–the Stax house band and one of the funkier outfits you’ll hear–didn’t hurt anything.

There’s also the distinctive way his guitar clashed a bit with the band and stood out in front of it. Almost like a … like a …. crosscut saw.

Eric Clapton, in typical UK blues fashion, would pretty much lift the solo from Oh, Pretty Woman note-for-note in Cream’s Strange Brew. Maybe he thought he was throwing King a bone by subsequently recording Born Under A Bad Sign, except King didn’t have a publishing credit on that song so it didn’t do him any financial good.