499 - Albert King - Born Under a Bad Sign

[csberry]

The album benefits a lot from being a collection of mostly already-released singles. The album is consistently interesting. While Albert King delivers good rockin' blues, the Stax band of Booker T and the MGs give the songs a good bit of swing that makes it easier for listeners to bob their heads or dance than merely tap their feet or doing guitar faces during the guitar riffs. The album definitely one I'd recommend to folks that want to dabble a bit into blues. Nothing on this album is too down tempo or spare to scare away pop listeners. I think anyone that enjoys early rock n roll (Chuck Berry-era "early") should include this album in their collection as this album sits in the shared slice of the Blues/Rock Venn diagram.

Just don't confuse "Oh, Pretty Woman" with the version you know. And, maybe it is just me, but the horns on "The Very Thought of You" reminds me a lot of Pink Floyd's "Us and Them."

Songs I Knew I Liked: While "Personal Manager" and "Born Under a Bad Sign" sounded familiar, I'm not entirely certain if I was really familiar with them previously.

Songs I didn't know but now like/Songs I can go the rest of my life without hearing again: I really enjoyed the whole album and was very pleased to like all of the tracks on an album that rated 499. "I Almost Lost My Mind" probably is my least favorite song on the album, but I would love to hear Tom Jones do a cover of it. Something about how Albert sings the song makes me think that Tom Jones can deliver that song with the bombast that the backing band occasionally reaches for when breaking from the downtempo typical blues structure (how many blues songs feature flute, anyway).

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[(Anonymous)]

Us and them - The very thought of you: It's not just you. I thought about it and decided to google it just to see if it wasn't only me...