This 1972 record of B.B. King\u2019s was high on my list to listen to when I broke out my father\u2019s LP collection.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because this album, despite being released during a particularly successful period in King\u2019s career, and reaching 21 on the US R&B charts, appears to be mostly out of print — with the exception of a CD available online coupling this album with another King album from 1973.\u00a0 Do not mistake its lack of an official rerelease for proof that this album is a dud.\u00a0 To the contrary, this disc pulls together a wide array of session musicians including Joe Walsh (he of James Gang and Eagles fame) and blues veteran Taj Mahal.\u00a0 While it features a couple of extensive blues guitar jams, there is some experimentation that brings out a blues\/funk sound in some of the songs, and King clearly has fun with the material.<\/p>\n
\u201cI Got Some Help I Don’t Need\u201d is a funny song that appears frequently in King\u2019s discography, but occurred first on L.A. Midnight<\/i>. \u00a0King compiles an awful lot of evidence that his woman has been cheating on him and \u201cbringing in some outside help.\u201d\u00a0 Yet despite a strange Cadillac in the driveway, empty bottles when he doesn\u2019t drink, a mailman who doesn\u2019t leave any mail and a host of other exhibits, he still doesn\u2019t seem to know for sure that she is actually making time with someone else.\u00a0 Just that he believes so.\u00a0 The guitar and vocals here are classic king and he is backed up by a tuba bass line makes it sound almost like a Cajun funeral march in the French quarter.\u00a0 As the first track, this funky jazz and blues mix sets the tone for the rest of the album. \u201c(I Believe) I’ve Been Blue Too Long\u201d is in many ways a cousin to \u201cI Got Some Help I Don’t Need\u201d in word (\u201cI believe to my soul\u201d) and in its slow plodding rhythm driven by a tuba. <\/p>\n
\u201cCan’t You Hear Me Talking To You?\u201d is another funny blues number that proves how well the blues genre supports odd lyrics.\u00a0 It is hard to find songs in any genre that effectively rhyme \u201chearing aid\u201d with \u201cchanges made \u201cand include lines like \u201ctake my wig off your head\u201d and \u201ccut off your welfare check.\u201d\u00a0 And, in today’s media climate of the Real Housewives<\/i> and Jersey Shore<\/i> the “I’m tired of you acting like chicks on TV” line still holds prescience. The familiar \u201cSweet Sixteen\u201d has King seriously feeling the blues and in this he pulls off the most emotional performance on the album.<\/p>\n
L.A. Midnight also contains three instrumental tracks that exhibit King\u2019s, Walsh\u2019s, and Jessie Ed Davis\u2019s solo guitar work.\u00a0 \u201cHelp The Poor\u201d is a catchy instrumental with a moving train chugging drum, and bass and guitar rhythm. \u201cMidnight\u201d is a slow guitar blues jam with three guitar solos and a piano solo. As with many jams placed on the vinyl medium, the jam clearly went longer than the record could hold, and it simply fades out in what seems to be the middle.\u00a0 It is not a loss, though, because the molasses pace of the song and loose improvisations on the solos were not really creating a memorable track anyway.\u00a0 \u201cLucille’s Granny,\u201d on the other hand, wraps up this funky blues album in style with a twin guitar and trumpet lead with a driving bass line that carries the song.<\/p>\n
Despite faltering some on \u201cMidnight,\u201d L.A. Midnight<\/i> is a solid, enjoyable effort.\u00a0 With a long career and a body of work that is highly familiar to many fans, this album gives a taste of classic King with a funk and jazz undertone that pleases.\u00a0 If the powers that be decide to do an official rerelease of this album, or if you run across it in vinyl and have the ability to enjoy it, it is a worthwhile listen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":30858,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[8285],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-42534","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-b-b-king","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42534"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42534"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}