Savoy Brown

Image via WikipediaBy Ben A Martin

To many blues guitar fans, Savoy Brown is a band that should be mentioned in the same breath with outfits like Cream, John Mayall and The Blues Breakers and The Yardbirds; true powerhouses of the 60' British Blues Invasion. These same people will tell you that Savoy Brown rode the final wave of that initial invasion to America's shores and enjoyed an enormous popularity before interest in the blues began to wane in the early 70's. And yet despite a revolving door lineup, Savoy Brown soldiers on.

Formed by Welsh guitarist Kim Simmonds at 19, The Savoy Brown Blues Band quickly established residence at the Battersea blues club, Kilroys, in 1966. At the time of their formation, Britain was in the midst of a love affair with American blues musicians and supported tours of bluesmen like Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters and Big Bill Broonzy and that love affair spawned a spate of blues bands like The Rolling Stones, John Mayall, Fleetwood Mac and others. Although Simmonds and the other members of Savoy Brown were too young to have learned their blues directly under these other bands, they certainly absorbed the sound and quickly became accomplished blues musicians.

The band came to attention of producer Mike Vernon (who had worked with Mayall, Fleetwood Mac, Chicken Shack and Ten Years After as well) who, after briefly working at DECCA Records, formed his own label, Blue Horizon and their off shoots, Purdah and Outasite Records. Vernon was impressed with Savoy Brown saying that 'they had a style that took no prisoners' and quickly signed them to his Purdah label and released their first single 'I Can't Quit You, Baby'. Shortly after its release, harmonica player, John O'Leary left the band and was replaced by guitarist, Martin Stone. It set a pattern that was to run through the career of Savoy Brown; it's near constant changing of musicians and line ups.

Through their deal with Purdah, Savoy Brown signed a long term deal with London DECCA and its subsidiary, Parrot Records and recorded their debut album Shake 'Em On Down (a collection of blues covers) in 1967 to a limited U.K. release. Despite getting some notice in the U.K. Savoy Brown broke up immediately following the release of their debut album but Simmonds, perhaps in a moment of foreshadowing, opted to retain the name Savoy Brown and immediately reformed the group with a new line up. This line up became the motor for SB's heyday. Simmonds added 'Lonesome' Dave Peverett, vocalist Chris Youlden (complete with bowler hat and monocle), drummer Roger Earle and bassist Rivers Jobe (although Jobe was eventually replaced by Tone Stevens.

The re-formed band released their second album Getting To The Point in 1968 in both England and the U.S. But getting the band together and getting the album out had their moments. "It was at the end of 1967. We'd had our equipment stolen, and Hughie Flint had his drums stolen and was still thinking of doing something different anyway, so that was kind of the last straw. Bob Brunning left at the same time and I think Kim wanted a change and so we auditioned and Roger Earl came to auditions and he got the gig. The first time he came with a bass player friend and they auditioned together. We weren't keen on the bass player, so we passed on that rhythm section, and the next day I said 'How about that drummer, I thought he was good.' So we called him again and he got the gig. We got a bass player called Rivers Jobe. He was very young, about 15 or so. And that was the lineup for the Getting To The Point album," recalled Peverett in an interview.

With the release of two additional albums in 1969, Blue Matter and A Step Further, and a ferocious touring schedule, Savoy Brown took hold in America. Curiously enough, they never achieved the same level of fan acceptance in their native England. In 1970, the band released two additional albums, Raw Sienna and Lookin' In which helped cement their growing cultish like fame in the United States. Raw Sienna is considered by many to be the bands high point. As critic Peter Kurtz has written "There's not a bad cut here, with enough variety to warrant frequent late-night listening". However vocalist Youlden left the band shortly after its release leaving a huge hole in the lineup that has yet to be filled adequately. Youlden, perhaps the most impressive and distinctive voices in British blues left for a solo career that never found legs.

Following the release of Lookin' In, the band lost three more members when Peverett, who had been asserting himself as more of a lead guitarist, Earl and Stevens left to form Foghat. Simmonds was beginning to get used to the idea of a constantly changing menu of musicians and again re-created the band with lineup after lineup.

But with losing Youlden and the others, Savoy Brown was never able to quite re-create the power house sound that that they had cultivated in their glory years. Although Simmonds gave it an all out effort by adding Paul Raymond, Andy Silvester and drummer Dave Bidwell, all former members of British blues band, Chicken Shack (another band with trouble retaining a steady line up). This line up held together for two more Savoy Brown albums, the solid efforts Street Corner Talking and Hellbound Train (1971 and 1972 respectively).

Savoy Brown continued on throughout the Seventies and beyond but with a myriad of ever changing lineups, it had become nothing more than a vehicle for the mad, frenetic guitar lesson work of Simmonds, the only remaining original member. The band continues to record and tour, now a favorite of blues and rock festivals all over the world.

Those early Savoy Brown albums are some of finest boogie-blues / electric blues albums available and to student players, practically blues guitar lessons. And even now, Kim Simmonds can be counted on to deliver some of the grittiest, down and dirty blues guitar around. In a strange, an unintentional way, Savoy Brown could have been considered a training ground for British blues and blues rock players of that era.

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Birth of the Blues - Albert King Part II

Cover of Born Under a Bad SignBy Ben A Martin

Again, King hit the road returning briefly to Osceola and then deciding to settle in Love Joy, Illinois (a suburb of St. Louis) where he formed another band. This time however, King was finally starting to gain a little national exposure. His work in the mid-60's came to the attention of Al Bell of Stax Records out of Memphis. Bell signed King and with legendary house sound of the Stax label backing him up, King was hitting on all cylinders. He struck hits on the R&B charts with singles like 'Blues At Sunrise', 'Let's Have A Natural Ball' and 'Travelin' To California'.

Even the normally acidic NY Times music critic, Albert Goldman, praised King in a review by writing about his style as "a fusion of the ancient Mississippi 'bottleneck' style and the sighing, swooning, 'psychedelic' sound of the Hawaiian steel guitar. King's blue note is so 'nasty', so cruelly inciting, that after a quarter hour under its spell, one itches for a bottle to break and a face to cut."

Most critics agree that what most likely propelled King into the national spotlight was his collaboration with fellow Stax label mates, Booker T. and the M.G.'s. With Booker T. backing him, King cut the 'must have' blues album Born Under A Bad Sign in 1967. The album contained two singles that are most often associated with Albert King (and blues standards for any self-respecting blues guitarist) the title track 'Born Under A Bad Sign' and 'Crosscut Saw'.

King came to the attention of a variety of blues guitar and blues-rock luminaries in the mid to late 60s to the point where Michael Bloomfield persuaded noted promoter Bill Graham to book him for the initial show at the Filmore East in Manhattan. On March 8, 1968, Albert King shared the stage with Tim Buckley and Big Brother and The Holding Company. King's brand of smooth R&B and down and raw amped Delta style blues made him an audience favorite, giving them blues guitar lessons as they had never seen them. King played both the Filmore's East and West several times in his career even once sharing the bill with Jimi Hendrix and John Mayall.

In an interview, King discussed having known Hendrix in his early days. "I knew him personally from when he was a boy in Nashville, Tennessee; he was Jimmy James Jr. He came to St. Louis during the time that Ike Turner was real hot. He sat in with Ike, and they made fun of him. I talked to him; he said he was leaving for California. I didn't see him again until years later when I was hired to play the Filmore, and he had that big hit 'Foxy Lady'."

Throughout the remainder of the 60s and into the 70s, King peppered the blues and R&B charts with several albums, although none made it to number one, they all fared well.

When the blues began to fall out of favor in the mid-70s and with Stax records closing, King continued to perform his brand of blues guitar at small clubs and festivals. By the start of the 80s, King began to climb back up into prominence in the blues / blues rock community when he was given constant praise and acknowledgment from the young blues super-power, Stevie Ray Vaughn. Vaughn never failed to cite King as a primary guitar lesson influence on him and his guitar playing. A critic in England summed up Vaughn's admiration of King rather succinctly when he wrote of Vaughn as "a young Texan who apparently believes that Albert King is God and the Lord should be praised regularly".

When asked about the quip, King responded to a reporter in San Francisco, "He's a good player. He's trying too hard to play like me, but he'll never get it all. How's he gonna do it when I don't know how I'm doing it?" It was a truism when it came to Albert King; so much of what he did on stage was pure improvisation and it was this sense of freedom in his playing that made Albert King a favorite of live blues audiences. There was always something a little different each time he would perform a song.

In 1983 King signed with Fantasy Records and released San Francisco, '83, his first new disc in five years. Fantasy released a few new discs by King while he was under their label including reissuing (using the defunct Stax logo) the impressive Jammed Together which featured King, Steve Cropper and Pops Staple of the Staple Singers.

King continued to tour throughout the Eighties, catching plenty of work both home and over-seas and had gave no impression whatsoever of slowing down. However on December 21st, 1992, on the verge of launching a major tour of Europe, Albert King died of a massive heart attack in Memphis, Tennessee.

One of the things that made King such an influential blues guitarist was his mastery of the single string lead and his powerful tone. It has been said that no one could make a guitar sound like a human voice quite like King. He has said that he developed his own style of playing because he learned to play a right handed guitar upside down and without re-stringing it for a left-handed player. "I couldn't make the changes and the chords the same as a right-handed man could. I play a few chords, but not many. I always concentrated on my singing guitar sound - more of a sustained note'. King also utilized a variety of different and unique tunings (according to Steve Cropper, King tuned to an E-minor with a C on the low E string). Another thing that helped created his distinct sound and playing style was that rather than bend the notes 'up', King bent the notes 'down' and he bent them hard.

Blues legend Johnny Winter once said of King, 'I could hear that he played the guitar different than other guitarists, but I couldn't figure it out until I saw him in person. Then I realized that he played backwards. He was a huge, immense man, and his hands would just dwarf his Flying-V guitar. He played with his thumb, and he played horizontally - across the fingerboard, as opposed to vertically. If he had to go seven frets, he'd bend the guitar seven frets!'

Another aspect of Kings style was that he played without a pick. King said of his choice to play with just his fingers, 'I never could hold a pick in my hand. I started out playing with one, but I'd really be getting into it, and after a while the pick would just sail across the house. I said the hell with this. So I just play with meat of my thumb.'

When King passed away, an era of the blues came to a close. He had influenced so many rock and blues-rock guitarists, from Stevie Ray Vaughn, Eric Clapton and Johnny Winter and beyond that it would be enough to say that he was a primary mover of the blues. But when you consider too that Albert King was one of the only blues players to sell as steadily to black audiences in the sixties and seventies as he did to white audiences that he can be seen a true keeper of the blues during a time when a majority of black audiences had begun to turn their back on the genre.

Rock critic and journalist Dave Marsh, when writing about 'Born Under A Bad Sign', said that '... so classic it sounds like it must have been unearthed rather than written, the result is virtually timeless."

In a way, I think he could have been writing about King himself.

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