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 think I have been stuck at home too long and am getting cynical, and feel a need to vent, or at least ask some questions about a few things I call Coronavirus Incongruities.
First, this virus is definitely a real and nasty bug and has caused a huge amount of suffering.Hardest hit in particular have been the very old, those in nursing homes and those with serious preexisting health conditions.
But……..When the COVID outbreak began to get serious in March the forecasts at that time predicted over 2 million deaths in the US alone and the hyperventilating of the news media frightened many people into thinking that we would be experiencing a modern day version of the Bubonic Plague with people literally dropping dead in the streets.It is now obvious that these modelsfrom the Imperial College in the UK were wildly inaccurate. Neil Ferguson, the British academic that created this model, also recently resigned his position in disgrace per the National Review for violating his own rules:
With all of his influence, it’s not surprising British media are making a great deal about Ferguson being forced to resign from the government’s virus advisory board yesterday after revelations he had violated lockdown rules he had championed in order to conduct an affair with a married woman.
Because of these inaccurate models government public health authorities recommended draconian measures to combat the virus.But, as a lay observer watching these events unfold, I have seen a lot of things that seem incongruous, which is a fancy way of saying that they do not make sense to me….they don’t add up.Do they make sense to you?
For example:
Thousands of people “congregate” at Lowes, Home Depot and supermarkets
But they say it’s not safe to “congregate” at Church or the Synagogue??
People aren’t getting infected at Costco, Lowes, Home Depot, Kroger, Safeway and other big stores deemed “essential”
But they say the virus will spread if we open little businesses that have been deemed “nonessential”, like your barber, nail salon, florist, French bakery, etc.
Millions of private industry workers are out of work and on unemployment
But government bureaucrats keep getting paid??
They say they need more testing
But if I test negative today I could be positive tomorrow.What’s the point??
Convicted felons are released from prison to protect them from the virus
But hardworking Americans like Shelley Luther get put in prision because are trying feed their families??
McDonald’s stopped selling ice cream cones and cookies “because of COVID”
But they still sell burgers and egg McMuffins.They have to touch both, and we eat both, so what’s the difference?!
They want us to “maintain separation” in stores
Yet supermarkets such as Safeway are funneling all entering and exiting customers through one doorway. How can that be “social distancing”?
They told us in March to “shelter in place” to “flatten the curve” and prevent the swamping of hospitals with patients.
The hospitals were not overrun with patients. Many field hospitals and US Navy hospital ships were barely if at all utilized. Now they say we must keep shut down to prevent a rebound of infections. They keep moving the goal posts.
They call it “social” distancing
But since we can’t socialize, isn’t it really “antisocial” distancing?!
Do any of these coronavirus incongruities make any sense to you?
Connect to automatically have the song that helped me through the Coronavirus Blues added to your library on the release date! If you connect now, you’ll gain access to the promotional video today.
As a new Freddie King fan I have begun acquiring some of his music. To date, I have bookends of his career: Let’s Hide Away and Dance Away with Freddy King which was released the year I was born, 1961 and Burglar released in 1974 two years before Freddie’s death and the beginning of my teenage years. I also enjoy the compilation album, Freddie King, Ultimate Collection.
Let’s Hide Away and Dance Away with Freddy King The album Let’s Hide Away and Dance Away with Freddy King is an all instrumental album and includes his breakout hit, “Hide Away”. Many of these tunes are pretty catchy, and “San-Ho-Zay” is another on the album that I especially like.
Track listing:
Hide Away – 2:43
Butterscotch – 3:04
Sen-Sa-Shun – 2:54
Side Tracked – 3:07
The Stumble – 3:14
Wash Out – 2:38
San-Ho-Zay – 2:40
Just Pickin’ – 2:33
Heads Up – 2:33
In the Open – 3:11
Out Front – 2:40
Swooshy – 2:19
Musicians:
Fred Jordan – guitar, rhythm guitar
Freddie King – guitar, vocals
Phillip Paul – drums
Gene Reid – saxophone
Clifford Scott – saxophone
Sonny Thompson – piano
Willis Williams – bass guitar
Burglar When Burglar was recorded, Freddie had left Shelter Records and signed with RSO Records based in the UK due to persuasion from his lifelong fan, Eric Clapton. As the credits in the liner notes indicate this was a massive production which included some of the most prominent musicians of the time beginning with Slowhand himself plus JJ Cale, Issac Hayes and George Terry. The sound of Burglar could be described as Blues meets Funk.
Track listing:
Pack It Up – 4:10
My Credit Didn’t Go Through – 4:09
I Got the Same Old Blues – 3:27
Only Getting Second Best – 3:47
Texas Flyer – 3:48
Pulp Wood – 3:13
She’s a Burglar – 3:51
Sugar Sweet – 3:50
I Had a Dream – 5:02
Come On (Let the Good Times Roll) – 3:32
Credits:*
Artist / Credit
P. Arnold Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Patrick Arnold Vocals (Background)
Brian Auger Guest Artist, Organ
Bud Beadle Sax (Baritone)
Misty Browning Vocals, Vocals (Background)
J. Cale Composer
Ron Carthy Main Personnel, Trumpet
Gonzalez Chandler Composer
Eric Clapton Guest Artist, Guitar, Main Personnel
Roy Davies Clavinet, Composer, Keyboards, Main Personnel, Organ, Piano, Piano (Electric)
Robert Davis Composer
Bob Defrin Art Direction
Roger Dopson Liner Notes
Tom Dowd Producer
Mick Eve Saxophone
Mick Eves Sax (Tenor)
Steve Ferrone Cabassa, Composer, Drums, Main Personnel
The Gonzales Horn Section Arranger, Horn, Horn Arrangements
Steve Gregory Horn Arrangements, Sax (Soprano), Sax (Tenor)
Barry Hammond Engineer
DeLisle Harper Bass, Composer, Percussion
Isaac Hayes Composer
Richie Hayward Composer
Gary “Gazza” Johnson Composer
Earl King Composer
Freddie King Composer, Guitar, Main Personnel, Primary Artist, Vocals
Steve Klein Engineer, Remix Assistant
Slick Lawson Photography
Mel London Composer
Chris Mercer Horn Arrangements, Sax (Tenor)
Jamie Oldaker Drums
Peter Palombi Cover Illustration, Illustrations
Greg Perry Composer
David Porter Composer
Carl Radle Bass
Jerry Ragovoy Composer
Dick Sims Keyboards, Organ
Bobby Tench Composer, Guitar
George Terry Guitar
Mike Vernon Audio Production, Composer, Drums, Percussion, Producer, Remastering, Remixing
Donnie Vie Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Pete Wingfield Clavinet, Composer, Keyboards, Piano, Piano (Electric)
*(reposted from the album summary on Allmusic.com)
Excuse me, but, what the hell kind of country are we living in now? Have we become the USSR? Communism — where the state (aka YouTube) determines what you can or cannot say?
United States Constitution, Bill of Rights:
Amendment I Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Just learned that YouTube removed the interview of Drs. Dan Erickson & Artin Massihi that was included in my last post titled, “Must See: Dr Dan Erickson & Dr Artin Massihi – We’re Speaking Up – Full Video“! These guys are not subversives! They are medical doctors discussing DATA and YouTube deleted them? WTF! To everybody out there: Watch this video. Download it. Distribute it. Send it to the White House. Let the DOJ know what YouTube has done. As Edmund Burke said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
