Here is the video for Hide Away. I released my arrangement and recording of Freddie King’s Hide Away last week, on July 1st and then worked on putting this video together. I wondered if “Mel’s Hide Away Lounge” which Freddie says he named the song after was still there, but apparently it disappeared long ago. I contacted the manger for Freddie’s brother, Benny Turner, to see if she knew about Mel’s Hide Away Lounge and she confirmed that it is indeed gone. But she told me that according to Benny, it was on Roosevelt Road (12th Street) near S. Halsted Street. By the way, in the process I found out that Benny has a book out titled, “Survivor: The Benny Turner Story“, which I bought and I am really enjoying reading about Benny’s life, along with stories about his big brother Freddie. Anyway, since the original Hide Away lounge is long gone I tried to find as many pictures of other Hide Aways that I could to include with my music. So here you go!
My cover of Key to the Highway is released and should now be available on many digital platforms including Amazon, Apple Music, Spotify and other places. And of course you can find all the information you need about it right on my website on the Music Store page which includes links to those major distributors.
I spent much of my COVID house arrest, and even before that, getting into the blues and especially Freddie King’s music including learning about the origins of the song Key to the Highway.
The history of the song’s origins are little bit murky. It is generally credited to Charles Segar and sometimes to Big Bill Broonzy or to both. From what I can tell, the song started out as standard 12 bar blues form with the Segar version, but when Broonzy recorded it along with Jazz Gillum it was reworked into the 8 bar form which I have used. The Segar recording is a piano driven tune at a medium tempo.
Like I said, the Charles Segar version was 12 bar form and featured the piano as the primary instrument. Then along came Jazz Gillum and Big Bill Broonzy who recorded their version featuring harmonica and acoustic guitar in 1940 in an 8 bar blues format.
The chord progression for the 8 bar format is as follows: I V7 IV IV I V7 I–IV I–V7
Broonzy followed that with his own solo version a year later on the Okey label in 1941.
After Broonzy passed away in 1958, Little Walter recorded his own cover of “Key to the Highway”. Little Walter’s version changed it to more of a Chicago blues feel with backing by a full band of course with a full compliment of blues harmonica.
But then along came the King…….Freddie King that is. And he reworked Key again to a harder driving more intense sound with his guitar as lead instrument along with his powerful vocals. Freddie’s cover of Key to the Highway appeared on his “Getting Ready” album released in 1971 by Shelter Records. There is also a video of Freddie playing Key to the Highway live at the 1972 Sugar Bowl half time show.
My version of Key to the Highway took Freddie King as inspiration along with a dose of Magic Sam thrown in there for good measure. My recording is in the key of B flat. And for the guitar work I chose an Ibanez Artcore semihollowbody with Super58 pickups playing with a “Carol Kaye” bass pick (plectrum for you Brits). Vocals were recorded through a simple Shure SM-58 mic.
I thought I’d share with you that I successfully built a Guitar ¼ inch Adapter Cable for Roland GK 13-Pin connections! This is a cable that allows you to connect a guitar or other instrument with a ¼ inch output (bass, ukulele, etc.) to the Roland GR-55 guitar synthesizer. If you are on a gig using the Roland GR-55 the usefulness of this is that if you don’t have another amplifier and effects, you can access the Roland COSM effects and amp models within the GR-55 and use the same sound reinforcement system that the GR is connected to.
Below is a copy of my wiring diagram that was adapted from a similar diagram posted on Vguitarforums.com by “Elantric”. As the diagram indicates, the normal guitar (or other instrument) signal is transmitted to the GR-55 via pin 7 in the 13 pin plug. A voltage divider has been added to reduce the GR-55’s +7 vdc to +5 vdc to feed pin 8 which signals the GR-55 that a GK pickup’s volume control is set to 10. I tested it and, yes, it works!
Between the three “Kings”, Albert, BB and Freddie, it was Freddie who had the hardest driving, most intense sound.Much of his intensity came from the way he played:He picked with his fingers, using a plastic thumb pick along with a metal index-finger pick with a large amp cranked to the max.Although he was a good singer and had some big hits including vocals, especially, “Have You Ever Loved a Woman”, it was with his instrumentals that, I think, set him apart from the other Kings.His biggest instrumental, which most people have probably heard and recognize, is “Hideaway”.But there were many other instrumentals penned by Freddie including “The Stumble”, “Sen-Sa- Shun”, “San-Ho-Zay”, “Side Tracked”, and “In the Open”.
I will be talking about some of these tunes in more detail, especially, “Hideaway” and “San-Ho-Zay”.
According to his bio on the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, in the early days Freddie played a gold-top Les Paul through a Gibson GA-40 amplifier.
But later, and through the rest of his career he was seen playing a variety of Gibson semi-hollow body guitars such as the ES-335 and ES-345 through huge Fender Quad Reverb amps.
Another point that jumped out at me is that Freddie was influenced by the biggest names in the Chicago blues scene like Howlin’ Wolf, per his Rock & Roll Hall of Fame bio, “Waters, guitarists Eddie Taylor, Jimmy Rogers, and Robert Lockwood Jr., and harmonica virtuoso Little Walter were also tutoring the brawny youngster on the secrets of the sounds and the streets of the South Side.”We all take the creativity provided by those who have gone before us, embrace it, and on the other side make it something uniquely our own.
I thought I would share my attempt at emulating the synth bass sound in Michael Jackson’s Thriller using the Roland GR-55 guitar synthesizer and my Ibanez bass equipped with a Roland GK-3B bass pickup.
The Pickup
First of all, the pickup and controller installation on my bass is not ideal from a playability standpoint due to the shape and layout of my bass.I have tried mounting it in various locations and where I have it now seems to be the best compromise.One of the annoying things about the controller is that the volume knob is very loose and super easy to bump while playing which results in unintended consequences!To remedy that I pulled the knob off the shaft and added an O-ring around the shaft and put some foam into the inside knob cavity.That really tightened it up so accidental volume changes are not an issue anymore for me.The other problem is the S1/S2 switches are also easy to bump, but by being careful during playing I have been able to avoid them.However, I would like to find a more fool proof solution.If you have any ideas, let me know!
GR-55 Floorboard Settings
In the video below, the first image is the main page in the GR-55 Floorboard Editor (courtesy of Gumtown on Vguitarforums.com) and as it shows, for the Thriller patch I am using two PCM synth sounds, number 241 Synth Bass 2 and 18 Fretless Bass as well as an electric bass COSM model and some of my normal pickups blended in.I found that having the electric bass blended in added a little more definition which is needed for the staccato parts in Thriller.
The image for PCM Synth 1 shows the details for that tone.I believe that a Mini Moog was used in the Jackson recording.There is a PCM tone in the GR-55 called Big Mini that I thought could be a Moog like tone, but when I used it the sound just wasn’t right.So I auditioned more PCM tones and finally settled on 241.
The image for PCM Synth 2 shows the details for that tone which is for tone 218 Fretless Bass 1.This gave the sound it a little more edge.
The next image is for the electric bass COSM model, which in this case is number 4, Precision Bass.As you can see I have the volume and tone at 100 %.
And finally, the last screen is for the amp that I chose:A clean bass amp with middle gain.Next is a short sample of how the GR-55 Thriller Bass patch sounds.
I have been asked what my setup is for the Roland GK-3 divided pickup on my Fender Modern Player Marauder. Well, here they are! In an earlier post I documented my process for installing the Roland internal kit for the GK-3 pickup in my Roland Marauder guitar.
Per Roland’s product description:
This kit includes all parts for permanent installation of a GK-3 Divided Pickup into an electric guitar: a GK-3 Divided Pickup, circuit board, switches, power indicator LED, 13-pin connector, wiring and hardware. Professional installation is required.
Divided guitar pickup for use with Roland V-Guitar System, GR-20 Guitar Synthesizer, or BOSS GK Effect Pedals
3-position switching between divided pickup, natural bass pickup, or mix of both
Mounts on any electric or steel-stringed acoustic guitar
