Bloggin’ The Blues: Albert King’s Classic Born Under a Bad Sign
One of my first blues purchases was the Chess Records box set. That box set has one of the few sides Albert King recorded during his brief stint with the seminal label. That one song, “Counting On My Darling,” was good enough to make me want to hear more so I did research to determine where would be the best place to start. During my research phase, I got even more excited about King because I discovered he’d had a profound influence on one Stevie Ray Vaughan.
When my research was done, I settled on Born Under a Bad Sign. It is a strange little record in that it both is and isn’t an album. King didn’t go into the studio one day in 1966 with these songs and say, “We’re going to make an album and I want to call it Born Under a Bad Sign.”
The album is actually a collection of several sides he cut for the famous Stax music label. It is amazing the way these songs play like an album, even though they weren’t recorded to be an album. The cohesion and sequencing are masterful, as is the man himself.
I’ve enjoyed my blind crawl through the blues, but I’ve often thought to myself that I should put together a Blues Starter Pack for would-be blues explorers. If I ever do, you can guaran-damn-tee Born Under a Bad Sign will be on it.
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