Blue Monday: Freddie @ Hamburg & Bremen, '75

Continuing on with a theme that seems to have emerged through some of these more recent posts, we should give some notice to another official release--and the bootlegs from which it came. As we've seen, often-illicitly recorded live concerts have frequently ended up on store shelves, sold, licensed, and prettied-up. It isn't the least bit uncommon to find these sets released and re-released, most often on small, independent labels like King Biscuit and New Rose Blues or more established "re-issue" labels like Charly. Freddie King's Live in Germany is near-perfect example, unquestionably drawn from a pair of bootlegs that had been freely traded for years (technically speaking, they still are...) and finding recurrent life on the indy label circuit.

Live in Germany seems to have surfaced for the first time as an official release in Belgium of all places, on the obscure King Biscuit Records label, in September of 1993. It would pop up again in 2007 and 2008 as Live in Europe on the even-more obscure Music Avenue and Phantom Light & Sound labels. Call it what you will, these European releases present what is essentially a "best of" compilation for a pair of King concerts, the first in Hamburg on 10/19/75 and from the previous December (12/10/74) in Bremen.

Even with its source material alongside, Live in Germany stands as a potent document of King's live performances, bringing down that serious West Side thunder with frenetic drive and panache, giving us powerhouse readings of Big Legged Woman, Let the Good Times Roll and Have You Ever Loved a Woman, with the driving and intense stacks of Sweet Home Chicago>Ghetto Woman and Stormy Monday>Little Bluebird. A surprisingly soulful Ain't Nobody's Business just rounds the package out nicely. As live "official" releases go, this may not be Freddie's best, but it is up there and merits far more than passing notice.


Freddie King
Live in Germany
King Biscuit Records, 1993

1. Sweet Home Chicago>Ghetto Woman
2. Have You Ever Loved a Woman
3. The Moon is Rising
4. T'Ain't Nobody's Business
5. Big Legged Woman
6. Woman Across the River
7. Key to the Highway
8. Let the Good Times Roll
9. Stormy Monday>Little Bluebird

Link


Solid as Live in Germany is (I'd put it at 4 out of 5 stars), it almost has to be taken on its own merits to hold onto that esteem when compared to the shows from which it was drawn. There's a hefty stack of live Freddie King shows out there and both the Hamburg and Bremen bootlegs are up close to the top of the mark. They are both sprawling, blistering documents of what an energized performer Freddie was, most especially when he had the time and space to spread out and jam. The 9 tracks from Live in Germany are in fact cherry-picked (its Sweet Home Chicago>Ghetto Woman opener is actually Bremen's 11th track, for example...) and, one assumes, ordered for balance. I would argue that, on their own, either the Bremen or Hamburg shows would have made stronger, more representative releases, as well as affording us a plethora of under-covered tunes such as Something You Got, Rock Me Baby and 56th and Wichita, all of which appear in the Hamburg show.

But then, you haven't got to take my word for it. Let Freddie do the talking...


Freddie King
Bremen GE
December 10, 1974

1. Intro
2. That's Alright
3. Woman Across the River
4. Key to the Highway
5. Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone
6. Goin' Down
7. Instrumental
8. Outro
9. Let the Good Times Roll
10. Instrumental
11. Sweet Home Chicago>Ghetto Woman
12. Instrumental>Have You Ever Loved a Woman
13. Instrumental>Drum solo
14. Ain't Nobody's Business
15. Outro

Link


AND for those of you who just need to check out that Hamburg show, I posted it last June HERE


Peace, Mudcatz