Freddie KING - The!!!!Beat 1966 (Avi)

Freddie KING - The!!!!Beat 1966 (Avi)

Blues

This DVD collection presents all of Freddie King's appearances from this unique series and concludes with 3 tunes performed in Sweden in 1973.
A major influence to such greats as Eric Clapton and Jerry Garcia, blues guitarist King is featured ...    Full Descriptionhere playing on the show THE!!!!BEAT, a showcase for the strange collision of Southern blues and the mid 1960's "Mod" craze. Performing at the height of his talent, King displays his guitar genius with several amazingly rendered songs. In addition, a 1973 concert performance in Sweden is included.
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Freddie King probably, unjustifiably so, has the lowest profile of the blues guitar greats known as the 3 Kings (Albert, BB & Freddie). A young Freddie King was a very influential guitarist in the early 60's. Eric Clapton for instance has said he bought his famous "Bluesbreaker" Les Paul guitar after seeing Freddie on a record cover with a Les Paul. And EC later did versions of Freddie's Hideaway, Have You Ever Loved A Woman and I'm Tore Down.

Whilst I think Amazon reviewer Robert Plemmons nails it with his review dated 3 February 2007, I'll nevertheless have a bash at a review too.

These performances on The!!!!Beat TV show in 1966 catch a youngish Freddie King not far removed from his early 60's hey day. The DVD is in colour, which surprised me, being sourced from a 60's TV music show, but then, colour TV happened in the States years before elsewhere.

Freddie is in a suit with processed hair (or pompadour as Robert Plemmons probably more accurately describes it) and is of course chubby & sweating. Freddie really wails on his red Gibson 345 guitar - and remember this is still 1966 - doing fairly tight & tidy versions of many of his early hits, some of which were instrumental.

Full track listing from 1966 is below, and you'll see that Funny Bone, San-Ho-Zay and Hideaway are performed on The!!!!Beat twice:

Funny Bone
Have You Ever Loved A Woman
San-Ho-Zay
I'm Tore Down
Hideaway
I Love The Woman
Papa's Got A Brand New Bag
See See Baby
Sitting On The Boatdock
Shuffle
She Put The Whammy On Me
San-Ho-Zay
Funny Bone
Hideaway

There is also a later show from Sweden in 1973 tacked on, which is similar to the Freddie King Live in Europe DVD performances from Montreux & elsewhere. These later European performances are longer looser jams and Freddie appears to be a bit tired or disinterested and seems to be going through the motions before a reticent Scandinavian crowd.

Track listing from Sweden, 1973:

Have You Ever Loved A Woman
Blues Band Shuffle
Big Leg Woman

But in 1966 on The!!!!Beat, Freddie is young, energetic & enthusiastic. He's also backed by some attractive young go-go dancers. The!!!!Beat's irrepressible Texan MC appears to have genuine affection for Freddie & his playing. The MC announces that (a young) Clarence Gatemouth Brown is the leader of The!!!!Beat backing band !

I have the other Freddie DVD's, Live at the Sugarbowl in 1972, Live in Dallas in 1973, and Live in Europe, and Freddie fans and blues guitar fans must also buy those titles; but The!!!!Beat is the best of the lot and if you could have only one Freddie DVD, this is the one which catches him most accurately.
By  Peter E. Hefford.
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