Albert King - Pure Blues 1953-1961 (2012)

Tracklist

01. Little Boy Blue
02. Walking from Door to Door
03. Be On Your Merry Way
04. Hand Me Down Blues
05. Bad Luck Blues
06. Don't Throw Your Love On Me So Strong
07. Ooh-Eh Baby
08. The Time Has Come
09. Got to Be Some Changes Made
10. Need You By My Side
11. I've Made Nights By Myself
12. Blues At Sunrise
13. This Morning
14. Had You Told It Like It Was
15. I Get Evil
16. Travelin' to California
17. Old Blue Ribbon
18. What Can I Do to Change Your Mind?
19. Dyna Flow
20. This Funny Feeling
21. Let's Have a Natural Ball
22. I Walked All Night Long
23. Why Are You So Mean to Me?
24. I'll Do Anything You Say

When Rolling Stone reporter Jon Landau asked Albert King in 1968 who his guitar influences were, King replied, "Nobody. Everything I do is wrong." A pioneer of electric blues, King (who was left-handed) played a right-handed 1959 Gibson Flying V upside down, with the bass strings unconventionally facing the floor. He used an indecipherable secret tuning, hitting notes with his thumb. The six-foot-four, 300-pound King was able to bend notes farther and more powerfully than almost any other guitarist, and his records influenced a generation: Eric Clapton lifted the "Strange Brew" solo from King, and Duane Allman turned the melody of King's "As the Years Go Passing By" into the main riff of "Layla." Jimi Hendrix was star-struck when his hero opened for him at the Fillmore in 1967. "I taught [Hendrix] a lesson about the blues," said King. "I could have easily played his songs, but he couldn't play mine."

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