I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in "Cheers & Jeers".
OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.
CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous Labor Day weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES — an exhibition entitled John Singer Sargent and Chicago's Gilded Age will be at the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois through September 30th.
John Singer Sargent’s workALTHOUGH EUROPEAN COUNTRIES have abhorred the idea of changing borders for ethic reasons, Serbia and Kosovo said they might negotiate border changes to move ethnically Albanian regions into Kosovo and ethnically Serbian ones into Serbia — which would help Serbia accept the independence of Kosovo (which used to be one of its provinces) and make it easier for both to join the EU, which has stipulated that both settle long-standing border disputes.
THURSDAY's CHILD is the late Martin the Police Cat— whose tenure as the Coney Island, NY precinct kitteh (serving as a therapy cat, and softening the hearts of even the toughest officers) ended when he was run-over by a car.
Martin the Police CatWHILE THIS FLAVOR is often used as a verbal slight, the production of vanilla is serious business: both in commodity markets and, in Madagascar, even murders over the theft of valuable plants.
TV NOTES — standing (L-to-R): hosts Steve Allen and Bud Collyer, Betsy Palmer, Bill Cullen, Bess Myerson and Henry Morgan. Seated (L-to-R): Tom Poston, Peggy Cass, Orson Bean (the only survivor in this photo, at age 90) and Kitty Carlisle. I didn’t guess Bud Collyer as well as Henry Morgan (I only recall seeing him wearing thick horn-rimmed glasses).
xTwo early TV game shows—“To Tell the Truth†and “I’ve Got a Secretâ€Â: pic.twitter.com/38Ko0zILVu
— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) August 19, 2018LEGAL NOTES — the Supreme Court of Costa Rica has declared that the country's same-sex marriage ban is unconstitutional, giving the legislature 18 months to change the current law: supported by President Carlos Alvarado, who came to power on a pro-LGBT platform.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Sid the Cat— an omnipresent kitteh known as the King of downtown St. John’s, Newfoundland … whom you can find at clothing stores, City Hall, restaurants and even ….… the Fat Cat Blues Bar.
Sid the Cat: St. John’s kingTHE WINDS of CHANGE — the president of Tunisia said he would introduce a bill to give women and men equal inheritance rights. Religious purists objected, as current laws (inspired by the Koran) restrict women to half of what men get.
HAIL and FAREWELL to the jazz pianist Randy Weston— who performed for the State Department during the Cold Wars days, and whose song Hi-Fly was made famous by a Lambert, Hendricks & Ross vocal version — who has died at the age of ninety-two.
BRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
OLDER-YOUNGER BROTHERS? — two men of the ring: retired boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard and Cuban mixed-martial arts fighter Alexis Vila Perdomo.
Sugar Ray Leonard (b. 1956) Alexis Vila Perdomo (1971- )...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… there are three seminal blues guitarists with the surname King …. Albert (whom I have previously profiled), B.B. King (who needs no profile) and also Freddie King— someone who died young, yet whose influence is still felt today. Known as the Texas Cannonball, it was his dozen years in Chicago that brought him to fame during the 1950’s and early 1960’s. Besides being one of the first bluesmen to utilize a multi-racial back-up band: no one sold more blues records during the period 1961-1963.
Born in 1934 in northeast Texas, he learned guitar at the age of six and moved with his family to Chicago at the age of fifteen. Drawn to the blues, he used to sneak (underage) into blues clubs, hearing Muddy Waters, Elmore James and other blues greats. Once he brought his guitar and was able to sit-in with Chester Burnett, famously known as Howlin’ Wolf— and when the club owner realized how young Freddie was, he was nonetheless thwarted from having Freddie escorted out due to the intervention of Wolf, saying “the kid is with me” — whom no club owner would challenge. Wolf thought Freddie played like “an old soul”.
As an eighteen year-old, he had a day job at a steel mill while forming his own Every-Hour Blues Boys band. He began to regularly sit-in with veteran musicians who recommended him to the venerable South Side record label Chess — yet they would not sign him, as his vocals sounded too similar to someone else who was then recording for Chess … B.B. King, someone he admired.
Freddie King later said that rejection was a blessing-in-disguise, as it not only forced him to develop his own voice, but also drew him to the West Side of Chicago, whose blues clubs favored a less big-band sound than the traditional South Side clubs. He had a two-pronged attack on guitar: with a plastic finger pick on his thumb and a metal pick on his index finger.
He performed as a sideman on some other musician’s singles, before releasing his first single in 1957 (at the age of twenty-three) called Country Boy with vocalist Margaret Whitfield. He escaped being drafted into the armed services due to having no arch support (i.e., flat feet).
In 1959, he was befriended by Sonny Thompson— not only a noted Windy City blues pianist and songwriter, but also an A&R scout for Federal Records (a subsidiary label for Syd Nathan’s King Records label) based in Cincinnati, who signed Freddie King.
And in the next few years, he achieved his greatest success in the charts. In 1960, he released cover versions both of the Billy Myles song “Have You Ever Loved a Woman”, and the soulful “You’ve Got to Love Her With a Feeling” — the second disk even made the bottom ranks of the pop charts.
His signature tune came in the following year. Named after Mel’s Hideaway Lounge (a popular West Side club in Chicago), Hide Away reached #5 in the R&B charts and (amazingly) #29 in the pop charts in 1961. It has become a staple of blues/rock guitarists ever since, most notably Eric Clapton (first with John Mayall and ever since as a solo artist).
At Syd Nathan’s urging, Freddie King wrote (often with Sonny Thompson) thirty instrumental tunes over the next several years — such as San-Ho-Zay — which were often uptempo. He did also sing, which frequently focused on slower tunes such as Lonesome Whistle Blues, See See Baby and I’m Tore Down— which has also been performed by a number of guitarists (most notably Eric Clapton).
Freddie King decided to relocate his family back to his native Texas in 1963, believing it was a better place to raise his seven children (as well as for pursuits such as fishing). And while his days on the singles charts would (after the British Invasion) be over, he began to focus on album work.
In 1968, the saxophonist King Curtis recruited him to Atlantic Records where he recorded two albums and became newly-discovered by blues-rock musicians. He began touring relentlessly (often with 300 shows/year) with one appearance at the 1969 Texas Pop Festival with Led Zeppelin that brought his music to an even wider audience. He left for Leon Russell’s Shelter Records in 1970, where he released three critically acclaimed albums, and two more for Robert Stigwood’s RSO label in the mid-70’s.
Alas, the grinding tours began to wear on him — along with a very poor diet and excessive drinking — and he began to develop ulcers. Freddie King died in late December, 1976 of pancreatitis, bleeding ulcers and heart disease … at only age forty-two.
Yet more than forty years later, his legacy remains strong. In 1993, Governor Ann Richards proclaimed his birthday (September 3rd) as Freddie King Day in Texas. In 1992 he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Rolling Stone ranked him as #15 in its 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time list.
But it is the number of famous guitarists influenced by him that is his greatest legacy. Besides Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Peter Green: add Rolling Stone Mick Taylor, Dave Edmunds, Jimmy Page, Derek Trucks, Carlos Santana … and also his fellow Texan, Stevie Ray Vaughn. Only a pity that he is not on Earth to celebrate his 84th birth anniversary next week.
Freddie King in the 1950’s ... ….. and then in the 1970’sTwo songs from the early 1960’s (both co-written with Sonny Thompson) exemplify the music of Freddie King: and both of which were covered in the mid-60’s by John Mayall with future Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter Green.
For a song with vocals ... Someday After Awhile (You’ll Be Sorry) from 1964.
I've got to ride that lonesome train My heart is heavy with aches and pain Every day, my clouds are gray It takes you to roll all those clouds away I may be blue, but I don't mind Because I know way down the line
I said someday, someday baby After a while, you'll be sorry
x xYouTube VideoAnd my favorite of his instrumentals (plus, my favorite overall) was The Stumble— also a popular cover, including the Yardbirds, Jeff Beck, Dave Edmunds, Steve Hackett and others.
x xYouTube Video